Albert Lean Victor McNeese has lived his whole life in a structured environment.

As a former tooling engineer, he said he used to be required to design and plan out his work and then strictly adhere to those plans until he completed each project.

“I got tired of working with everything that was designed and planned out,” McNeese said. “It’s more fun to just wing it from day to day now.”

It’s with this philosophy that he has embarked on what he considers to be a “lifetime project,” one that changes daily and that isn’t planned out ahead of time.

About a year ago, McNeese began building a 6 1/2-foot-by-9-foot model railroad community.

Though professionals recommend a master plan when building something such as this — which can be extremely detailed and complex when it’s completed — he said he would rather build his town one day at a time.

“Everything that’s on here has been torn up two to five times because I wasn’t happy with it,” said McNeese, who describes himself as a perfectionist.

A self-taught railroad model craftsman, McNeese got into this hobby and the hobby of building other types of models about five years ago when he and his wife, Jan, moved to Albert Lea after Jan had a stroke. He said the medical care was more accessible in Albert Lea and he had grown up there as child.

“I had to have something to keep me busy because I’m mostly housebound,” he said.

McNeese started building model planes because that was his favorite thing to build as a child and then shifted toward model boats.

Those models came with kits that had to be put together and painted.

Then he decided to take on model railroading.

He initially looked at pictures from the 1950s and 1960s of the railroad on Main Street in Albert Lea to help him figure out how he wanted to design his town.

Currently, he has less than a dozen homes, churches or other buildings in the town, two lakes and a rocky mountain.

In one of the lakes there’s a island, similar to Katherine Island in Albert Lea, where there’s a bridge that leads it. Near that area, there were several fishermen — including three that he identified as he and his sons — and some older-style cars in a nearby parking lot.

McNeese said he’s been looking for people interested in model railroading but hasn’t had much luck. He has also had a hard time finding supplies locally.

Regardless, he’s learned how to make many of the supplies on his own — which actually look like he bought them at a store — and he’s had to buy other parts out of town.

He said he hopes to find others interested in his hobby as well so they can exchange ideas and possibly form a club and get kids interested in it.