Ted Sutton of Carson City doesn't wear a silk top hat or red cutaway coat, but he's the ringmaster of his own circus just the same.
The Sutton Circus was set up Saturday next to an intricate wooden suspension bridge crossing a quarter-inch-deep river, all on a 6-foot length of plywood displayed inside the Carson Mall.
Sutton is a member of the Yankee Robinson Ring, a club of hobbyists from Western Nevada and Northern California who build model railroads featuring circus trains and equipment. Their modular displays were among several model railroads at the annual railroad show in the mall sponsored by the Carson City Railroad Association.
Sutton held up inch-tall circus wagons he built out of wafer-thin basswood. Between tiny black bars a half-dozen monkeys swung through the wagon. The primates and the bars had all been painted on clear plastic by his wife, Shirley.
The tent covering the three-ring circus, with cutouts so performers on tiny spinning turntables could be seen, was also a Sutton creation. All the tiny people had been painted by Shirley and daughter Della.
The intricate wooden bridge was built by Sutton after he took a photograph of the real bridge back east years ago.
"See, when a train passes over the bridge, it sags a little, just like the real one," Sutton said as he showed off the handiwork on his HO scale layout.
There really was a Sutton Circus from 1861 to 1864, Sutton discovered when he researched early circuses, but he said he does not think he is related to the family that owned it.
At another setup featuring even smaller N-scale trains, Robert Sandin of Reno had rigged a speck-sized flashing red light on a tiny patrol car. As many as three of the miniature trains passed by each other at once on the landscaped module.
Sandin said the Carson Mall show is the last model train show still running annually in the area. Others have been squeezed out of larger malls because they don't generate revenue like vendor-based craft shows.
"We hope we're helping the businesses here by bringing in more people to the mall," Sandin said.
What: Model Railroad Show
When: 11 a.m.-4 p.m. today
Where: Inside Carson Mall, 1313 S. Carson St.
Cost: Free admission