Darrell Reinwald is a model train buff and a dreamer, and in his case, the two are connected.

For 20 years, Reinwald has been trying to get someone to fund his idea for a model train and toy museum, but so far, money hasn't followed interest in the idea.

"I keep hoping to win the lottery, because I've got big plans for someday," he said laughing.

Reinwald, 66, of St. Peters, got his first train set for Christmas in 1957, but he said his love of trains started years earlier.

"My family lived in Orchard Farm, and the railroad ran right through the property," he said.

Reinwald, who worked in the lumber business before retiring, said designing different scenes for the trains to roll past gave him a creative outlet.

His theme for the museum is Trains Across America.

Reinwald said he'd have a different 4-by-8-foot section for each of the 50 states. Idaho's would feature potatoes and Hawaii's a pineapple factory. Missouri's would include the Gateway Arch. Reinwald figures he's already collected enough stuff to fill a 5,000-square-foot museum.

Since 1992, he's been pushing his plans all over St. Charles County. It was about then that he saw an animated train display in Colfax, Iowa, and he thought others would enjoy something like it.

That same year, Reinwald set up a Christmas display in a St. Charles shopping plaza. He partnered with another train enthusiast, but the venture didn't even break even. People didn't want to pay to see trains when they could see them for free elsewhere, he said.

The next year and for six years after that, he had a more successful idea: Reinwald set up a free holiday display in the basement of his home and opened it to the public.

He changed the display every year to keep people coming back, and his wife, Pat, served homemade cookies and coffee to the crowds who filed through.

"Darrell and I don't have children, so I had fun," she said.

By 1999, the Reinwalds were drawing almost 1,000 people, though, and they had to come up with a more manageable idea.

Reinwald decided to take his train show on the road in an 8-by-21-foot cargo trailer. He developed interchangeable sections, so he could set up the trailer for celebrations as diverse as Halloween and Easter.

For the past decade, his displays have been featured around St. Charles County at events like Festival of the Little Hills and Christmas Traditions on Main Street. He wouldn't say exactly what he makes, but the venture gives him enough to take care of his property taxes, he said.

Reinwald has set up displays in Kansas City, too, and in La Plata, Mo. — a historic railroad town.

This holiday season, though, his work got a more permanent location — in the atrium at St. Peters City Hall. The tri-level winter scene features 200 figurines, 30 houses, 12 push-button controls and three trains. Reinwald spent three months to come up with the design, and it seems to have gotten him a new fan.

"He's brought so much happiness to city hall," said St. Peters Mayor Len Pagano. "People aren't just coming here to pay a bill anymore."

Pagano said he likes the idea of trains in St. Peters, in fact, Reinwald's idea for a museum would be a great addition to the city, especially because Reinwald is a resident.

Pagano said he'd even like to have a train people could ride — like the one at the St. Louis Zoo — at the new Lakeside 370 park. Money remains an obstacle, though, so at this point, it's just talk.

"I sure would like to figure out a way to get it here," he said. "If this was the '90s, it would have been done yesterday."

Reinwald said it would be nice to leave his train collection — which he estimates to be worth $150,000 — to someplace where it would be treasured.

But time seems to be running out for people who enjoy his hobby.

"The kids these days are all wrapped up in this computer stuff, so trains have kind of petered out," he said.