CAREYWOOD, Idaho -- Jesse Bennett likes to build things. He took the timber on his property and built his home. Once that was complete he dedicated his energies to a life long hobby of building model trains.

Bennett - friends call him Jess - has been building trains since 1958. It's a hobby likely sparked during the Great Depression when as a young man, he headed west with three dollars to his name.

Thousands of hours of hard work and intricate detail helped create his labor of love.

“I’ve had to make a part maybe two or three times to get it exactly right but never was frustrated with it,” Jess said.

From the railroad track to the freight trains, the locomotives to the buildings, everything handmade piece by piece, transforming his 20 by 50 foot attic into something spectacular.

“This is probably one of the finest railroads, model railroads, you'll ever see,” Jess’ friend Ronald Tilton said.

Now at 96-years-old and with years of logging and cattle farming behind him, Jess still loves trains. He's spent countless hours adding too and improving this sprawling masterpiece but his hands have gotten tired.

“Today my hands are getting shaky and so I can't build engines anymore,” he explains.

Railroad enthusiasts have flocked from all over the country and world to take a peek. Jess is most proud of this bridge trestle designed after a real one near the Idaho-Montana Stateline.

Jess is in hospice care and has already asked his son to take care of his beloved trains. His time now is measured in months but with his life's work behind him his legacy will surely go on.

“If I was here 20 years from now. I could still find things to do on the railroad," Jess said.