An obsession began when his father got him a Lionel Railroad set, and he watched it zoom around the Christmas tree.

“It’s become a passion,” said Paul Chleboun, president of the Iowa State Railroad Club.

This is how most people begin a lifelong obsession with trains and the railroad system, said Chad Crawford, vice president of the group.

On Friday and Saturday, these “rail fans” spent 24 hours watching the trains go by at Fourth Street and Elm Avenue. This is an annual event, said Chleboun, senior in marketing,.

The Railroad Club was originally founded in 2001 and has a membership of nine, three of whom are alumni, Chleboun said.

“[It’s a] way for us fans of the rail to get together and talk,” Crawford said.

The club mostly counts cars that run on the Union Pacific Railroad line. Some members are interested in photography and take pictures of the trains as they rumble by.

Others will continue working on a large-scale layout. A layout is a large train set, which often takes up the space of a small dorm-size room, said Lee Koehler, sophomore in mechanical engineering.

Koehler said the group will lay the tracks down on a table they have already built for the module. The module will eventually be a typical Iowa scene, with grain elevators and fertilizer tanks, he said.

They hope to have their module completed by ClubFest next fall, Koehler said. The module will be brought to various other recruiting events as well.

Right now the club is having trouble finding a permanent home for their layout. The layout is currently housed in the club adviser’s garage, Chleboun said. The club is talking to the Government of the Student Body to find a room, but the process is taking time, he said.

If the club had a permanent space, it would not have to put up and take down the module wherever they go, Koehler said. It also would allow for storage.

The club also takes many tours around the Midwest to view trains and train facilities, Chleboun said.

Crawford said having the club in a major railroad city is definitely a positive thing.

“Us people that like trains can always go to tracks. I don’t know if something like this would start up [in another city],” he said.

The Railroad Club also has some interest in Ames’ history as a railroad town.

Chleboun said Ames is on many railroad maps, even now. “We are trying to get involved in that,” he said.

Koehler said the railroad came first in Ames. Iowa State did not appear until 30 years after the city had been annexed.

“Ames is built around the railroad,” he said.