Five-year-old Bijan Harandi stood beside the tracks as the train rounded the bend, when suddenly something went wrong -- train cars careened off the track, barely missing Harandi as they flew off a cliff and crashed onto the ground below, smashing into pieces.

Luckily, the train was only a few inches tall.

"That was an exciting accident," the boy's father, Omid Harandi (graduate-genetics), said as members of the Penn State Model Railroad Club quickly cleaned up the remnants of the miniature wreckage.

The Penn State Model Railroad Club held its open house yesterday -- and Saturday afternoon -- in the basement of East Halls' Pinchot Hall.

Club President Paolo Roffo said the display in Pinchot has been a work in progress since the club moved into the building in 2001.

"I like tinkering with engines and cars," he said, explaining his fascination with the trains.

John Bohren, the group's public relations officer, said the club holds the open house at the end of every semester to share its display with the community and recruit new members.

"It's fun because we get to invite everyone down to see what we do," Bohren said.

Small children used stepstools to view the display, which was built several feet above the floor.

Omid Harandi said he came to the open house mostly because of his son.

"He loves trains. I thought this would be a good opportunity for him," he said.

Spanning the length of a basement room in Pinchot, the model railroad featured several trains running through miniature towns, villages and industrial areas.

Kristian Hamilton and other members of the club used remote control devices to individually operate each model train.

The controls allowed them to regulate each train's speed and play various sound effects, such as horn and brake noises.

Members also radioed status information about their trains to Bohren, who kept track of which trains were running using a white board.

"I'm entering the tunnel on the outside main line," Hamilton said as his train disappeared into a tunnel.

In one area, a replica of a Hershey factory had painted chocolate overflowing through its windows.

In another, a town was populated by a tiny woman frozen in time, perpetually scratching her head, and other similarly immobile figures.

"The figures are really fun because you can make different characters," Bohren said.

"We used to have a spy who was looking really shady."

Club member Dave Guthrie said another aspect of the display also features a figure painted up as Waldo from the famous children's books.

Club members make a game of hiding the red-and-white striped man in various locations, he said.

Bohren said while some of the pieces on display are owned by the club, members also bring their own trains to run on the tracks.

"For shows, members bring all of their own model train equipment that they would like to," he said.

"We have railroads from pretty much every conceivable area of the country."