December is a busy month at the Hinkle house in Metter, Ga. You might say the living room feels like Grand Central Station. And that wouldn’t be far from the truth. Model train aficionados Gordon and Billie Hinkle open their house each Christmas from early December through the end of January and invite everyone to stop by to see and enjoy their elaborate train city. It’s their way of saying Merry Christmas—and sharing a Hinkle family tradition with their new community.

Gordon and Billie Hinkle moved to Metter in 1998 from Pittsburgh. Billie’s mother lived in a neighboring county, and they were eager to escape Pennsylvania winters now that Gordon had retired from his career as a Lutheran minister. But when they settled into their dream home—a brick house surrounded by pines—they discovered there was no Lutheran church nearby.

After visiting various churches, they felt drawn by the community they experienced at Glenmary’s Holy Family Catholic Church. Former pastor Father Chet Artysiewicz talked with Savannah Bishop Kevin Boland and received permission for Gordon and Billie to receive the Eucharist at Holy Family while remaining Lutherans. But before long they decided to formally enter the Catholic Church and the faith community they had grown to love.

Now, by sharing their over-60-year family train tradition with Metter, they are extending that same Holy Family hospitality and welcome to the larger Metter community.

The Hinkle train tradition began in 1934 in the small Pennsylvania town of Patton. That was the year Gordon’s father purchased the Lionel standard-gauge train that would be displayed beneath the family Christmas tree every Christmas thereafter.

Over the years many engines, cars and accessories were added. The original 1930s standard-gauge train, while still able to run, has been relegated to a display shelf. All of the trains currently in use are “0” gauge (1/4-inch scale).

The first year the Hinkles displayed their trains in Metter was 1999, and the display was only 16 x 8 feet. But Billie was determined to expand. “Gordon,” she said after that first year, “it just ain’t big enough.” Now it’s 24 x 10 feet, encompassing town and rural scenes, and takes up a major portion of their living room.

And it’s a good thing their living room is large. It has to accommodate the stream of guests—from school groups to individual families—who stop by to marvel at the wonder of this world of trains.

Last year well over 300 people stopped in. The Hinkles publish their phone number widely so people can call first to make sure they are home—and to give Billie time to put on the coffee.

Current Holy Family pastor Father Vic Subb says the Hinkles and their train display are making a difference in the way Catholics—a very small minority in this rural Georgia community—are perceived. Something very simple like this just helps “to counter the misconception of Catholics as somehow strange,” he says. “This train display puts a Catholic couple—and Holy Family Church—right in the middle of what’s happening in the community at Christmas.”

Father Vic’s words about putting the Catholic Church “right in the middle” of the community of Metter applies to the train display as well. A model of Holy Family Church, built by Mercy Sister Paul Marie Westlake, the parish’s pastoral associate, sits right in the middle of the Hinkles’ train city. This year, Sister Paul Marie is adding a model of the parish center.

That’s only one of the new things in the 2001 display. Since all of the couple’s trains and accessories cannot be displayed at one time, each year brings new track configurations, trains and accessories not seen the year before.

Assembly starts in October for a Dec. 1 opening. Gordon designs the track plan and attaches all the intricate nuts and bolts for his t-rail track. Billie’s duties include the scenery, model houses and construction sites. Her farm scene includes a cotton field containing cotton collected during the local picking season.

The Hinkles’ love for their church family, community friends and neighbors leads them to share their train community with everyone. For two months each year they dedicate themselves to sharing their family tradition and the magic of their train city—and to the ministry of hospitality.       

“We love building the set and having people, especially children, come to see it,” Gordon said.

The local newspaper (The Metter Advertiser) and Channel 11 TV (Savannah), always feature stories on the Hinkles’ train display during the Christmas holidays, inviting visitors to stop by for a firsthand demonstration by Gordon, the conductor, assisted by Billie. The only requirement is to call first: 912-685-6439. Gordon and Billie will welcome you with open arms and open hearts—in the true Glenmary mission spirit.

Jerri Goodman, feature writer for The Metter Advertiser, and Ann Craig, Holy Family parishioner, contributed to this story.