Last weekend, a longtime model steam locomotive hobbyist invited family and friends to his Chuckatuck property to experience the magic of his scale trains for the final time.

Don Orr, 75, started out by building model airplanes. He began looking for a new hobby after almost severing his finger in a propeller.

“I picked up a British model magazine that specialized in homebuilt steam locomotives,” the retired financial manager for the U.S. Naval Air Forces said.

“I decided that’s what I wanted to do.”

That was about 35 years ago. After 15 to 20 years, the hobby developed into a business — one he has now sold to another retired gentleman.

“Because of age and health,” Orr said, asked why he was getting out. “Wanda (his wife) and I have decided it’s time to downsize.”

Orr moved to Suffolk about 40 years ago. The figure-8 track around his 5-½ acres is more than 3,600 feet long and was 15 years in the making, he said.

It includes several bridges, with a couple more than 100 feet long. An 11-foot-high trestle across a natural gully enables the figure-8, with the track looping back underneath

“Working weekends, and not real hard, it took about two years to build the trestle,” said Bob Grandle, 68, Orr’s best friend, who has helped him through the years.

“It’s built like a real trestle, as well.”

To acquire his skills, Orr first learned the basics of operating a machine tool by attending vocational training school.

His business, LocoParts, has shipped valves and other parts manufactured in his garage all around the world.

“It’s a small niche hobby, as far as model railroading goes,” Orr said.

Regular customers number in the hundreds, he estimates.

Embracing the Internet revolutionized the business. “The website improved my business several hundred percent,” Orr said. “Even though I carried a big ad in the national magazine, Internet sales were far and above.”

Orr has one locomotive left. He said he had half a dozen at the peak of his hobby. He plans to completely divest, including removing the track.

Grandle said the steam locomotives, capable of traveling considerably faster, are generally restricted to about 12 mph.

The machines run at 350 to 400 degrees, he said, producing about 100 to 120 pounds of steam pressure.

They’re inspected by the commonwealth of Virginia every two years.

Passengers — children, as well as adults — sit on inverted T-shaped cars, with padded seating running up the center.

Orr held his open day for invited family and friends twice a year. “We had something no one else had, so it was our way of giving back to our church and our friends,” he said.

“The creativity of it” drew Orr to his model steam locomotives. About 75 to 100 people attended the Nov. 1 gathering, Grandle estimated.

“Everyone rode on them,” Orr said. “No matter who they were, when you get on the train, you’re automatically a 5-year-old.”