Modeling a miniature Cutler Hall

Franklyn Kraus’ model railroad version of Cutler Hall.

Franklyn Kraus loves watching his model train chug through Buffalo Flats, the tabletop town he’s created in his Rye, N.Y., home. To him, the miniature locomotive is on more than just a scenic trip — it’s winding through the valleys of his life.

The 50 buildings Kraus, BSCO ’50, has created in his model train set represent special times in his life, including his years at Ohio University. One of his most recent additions is a model of Cutler Hall, Ohio University’s structural centerpiece and the oldest higher education building west of the Alleghenies and north of the Ohio River.

“The history of my life is in this railroad,” Kraus says. “They are buildings I’ve visited, homes I’ve lived in, places I’ve worked. I thought Cutler Hall was the best representative of OU.”

Built in 1819 on the Athens campus, Cutler has served as a residence hall, classroom building, library and museum and now houses the offices of the president and senior administrative officers. In 1966, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Kraus has been working on his train layout for more than four years now, fashioning buildings from model kits and pieces of plastic he shapes himself. He describes Buffalo Flats as an early western railroad town full of homes, a courthouse, shopping areas, a lodge and even a saloon called the Bobcat Bar.

He spent nearly a month working on Cutler Hall.

“I had to make the windows myself,” he says, “and that took some extra time.”

— Katie Fitzgerald