Robert Tirk of Parker Township has been collecting model trains for more than 44 years. He and his wife started with two or three houses and one train set. Today, it takes about a month to set up the village and seven tracks for more than 30 cars.

PARKER TWP — Christmas sounds like a choo-choo train in the Tirk household.

Robert Tirk, 67, has been collecting model trains for more than 44 years. Every year, he and his wife, Sue, turn their living room into a model train emporium. Tirk gets seven engines running at a time through five layers of little villages that Sue designs. The 8-foot by 20-foot display is their keystone holiday tradition.

“It's a tradition that I used to do when I was a kid,” Tirk said. “I was 6 or 7 years old, and I was helping my dad do these. I'm overboard now. I've got more than my dad ever had.”

The couple puts together the display over a month's time, little by little. Both sides of the family come for Christmas and marvel at the show. They leave it up for about 15 days after Christmas, then pack it all away until next December.

Tirk swears he fits it all in a closet.

“I just have to pack it just right,” he said.Tirk's oldest trains are from 1952 and 1956. He is particularly proud of five Lionel trains.He has collected here and there over the years through gifts and purchases. Some were family hand-me-downs.Tirk thinks the hobby is starting to slow as he and Sue enter their “golden years.”The couple said they would love to see people get back into model trains. They collect and set up their pieces without belonging to a club or group.Christmas train displays are such a tradition for the Tirks, they say it has become a record of personal history.“Everything I look at here, we remember exactly where it came from,” Tirk said. “Grandmother gave us that; grandfather gave us this. It's a family tradition.”

Robert Tirk of Parker Twp. has been collecting model trains for the past 44 years. He and his wife started with two or three houses and one train set. Today, it takes about a month to setup the village, seven tracks for the more than 30 cars. They own two Lionel sets from the early 1950s.

Robert Tirk of Parker Twp. has been collecting model trains for the past 44 years.

A vintage model train engine.

Robert Tirk said it takes about a month to setup the village and seven tracks for the more than 30 cars he and his wife run every year. A couple of weeks after Christmas, they pack it up again for next year.