For nearly 13 years Kent Manchester has been building a train-lovers utopia in an open field behind Bothell’s Country Village, but by Jan. 1, the Iron Horse Railway and pony rides will be gone until further notice.

Country Village owners group Loveless Family LLC. decided to begin sales negotiations for the four-acre plot with a real estate developer which could be constructing hundreds of multi-family housing units on the land.

“We tried to keep the train rides, but he feels that he has to have pasture for his ponies on site, and I just won’t have pasture,” said Country Village co-owner Leeann Tesorieri.

Increasing property value in Bothell prompted the owners group to consider selling.

“With the increase in property taxes, we just can’t have land that sits there,” she said. “We have to pay property taxes, and there’s no revenue for us.”

Iron Horse Railway has expanded over the years since its inception in 2003, but Manchester’s love of trains started well before that.

The 58-year-old has had a lifelong infatuation with trains, starting when he was 10 after he got his first model train.

He started working as a computer technician at the first computer store in Silicon Valley, he said. He later moved to Seattle, working downtown along Pike Street until the Dotcom bubble burst, when he and his wife started looking at starting a model train business.

After a while selling model trains, Manchester started construction of his iconic passenger train ride, which soon became his biggest attraction.

“The train killed the store,” he said. “Through persistence- inching- we worked our way from $20,000 to over $100,000 annually.”

Manchester said 2014 was a rough year for business due to construction along State Route 527, but that this year was the best he’s ever done.

A steady stream of returning customers is also common, Manchester said.

“I’ve watched families come together,” he said. “A lot of them I’ve watched grow up.”

He keeps a stack of more than 500 index cards with emails and contact information on them from people who want to stay updated on future developments.

He’ll be looking at finding another place he can set up his complex of model train tracks and pony, wagon and train rides, but said he needs at least three acres where he can either rent or buy property.

In the meantime, he said he’ll be looking for another job if no property pans out, though he’ll keep the train for-hire for events and continue running train rides at Country Village for two more weeks.

Tesorieri said Country Village may have more trains in the future, as they look at starting their own rides, but for some, Iron Horse Railway may be more than just a ride.

“Lots of hugs, lots of tears are being shed,” by longtime patrons, Manchester said.