Wooden trains moving fast for Missouri toy maker

LOUISIANA, Mo. -- If you are looking to save a trip to the North Pole this Christmas, a drive to Louisiana may suffice.

In 10 years, Whittle Shortline Railroad has made a name that could eventually rival the toy headquarters to the north.

Owner Mike Whitworth has a fast-growing business that is all about child's play. The wooden toy train maker had $250,000 in sales two years ago and $700,000 last year.

Whitworth is expecting between $700,000 and $1.1 million in sales by the end of the 2006 holiday season. He's currently sitting on more than $700,000 worth of handmade toys awaiting orders from retailers, or to be sold on his Web site, where the company makes 35 percent to 40 percent of its annual sales.

"We make toys that I like to play with," said Whitworth, when asked about the philosophy behind the business.

The quality of Whittle Shortline's products has caught the eye of Amtrak, CSX, Union Pacific and even New York City's Metropolitan Transit Authority. The railroads called the company to arrange production of wooden toy models of their locomotives and cars.

The only stipulation Whittle Shortline makes with each company is that it, too, can sell every train it makes on its Web site or in retail stores.

The business has come a long way since starting as Whitworth's hobby in 1996.

The retired aeronautical and mechanical engineer opened a store in the old Frisco Hotel in Valley Park in 1999. In 2005, he moved the company's manufacturing operations from the store to a three-story warehouse along the Mississippi River.

The rate of orders and interest indicates the business could further expand. But Whitworth said he will delay that to maintain quality.

Despite the realistic appearance, Whitworth said the trains are not built to scale, putting more emphasis on how they function as toys. Some would be off as much as 11 feet if built to actual size. Instead, the company's designers concentrate on being aesthetically accurate, using officially licensed logos and exact color hues. The pieces are cut by machine and spray painted by staffers.

Even while producing 700 to 3,000 toy trains daily or about 135,000 per year across 168 types, details are painstakingly carved in and sanded out by staffers who are trained for several months. Quality control inspectors then examine each train under bright lights.

"Our reputation has been built fast," Whitworth said. "The railroads tend to be very specific about their image, so if we made bad cars they would pull back."