Model Railway Club Is on Right Track

Tucked away in a small shopping center in San Marcos, members of the North County Modular Railroad Society have created a communal, scaled-down world. Some are here because they don’t have room enough at home to play with their trains they way they’d like to. Some just want to be around other folks who share their interest.

Most of the club’s 20 or so members have individual modules that they work on, but some are content to lend a hand to whatever work is in progress, or simply to run their trains on one of the two continuous mainline tracks that circle the clubhouse.

Visitors are welcome to drop in and watch the action--the training, the construction, the wrecks--and take part in the jawboning. The club is in the San Marcos Center at the corner of Bent Avenue and W. San Marcos Blvd.

“We pool our resources. That’s the advantage of having a club like this,” said John Burrow, a Vista resident who is at the club nearly every weekend. “Everybody has different talents. Some are good at wiring, others are good at scenery or track laying. Some, like me, just never got over being a kid.”

The members have diverse backgrounds--some actually touched by full-scale railroading.

Jeff Warner, 22, of Rancho Bernardo has been a model train enthusiast since he saw an exposition at the Del Mar Fair as a 6th grader. He is an active reservist in the National Guard and during the Gulf War he was assigned to a troop deployment control unit that operated mostly by railroad.

Rich Lee of Vista is retired from the military after 30 years of service. Model railroading has been his hobby for more than 40 years.

For most of the members, the club offers a place to sit back and relax.

“It takes your mind off things,” said Lee. “When we’re here we can forget about the outside world.”

“We have some great wrecks as well,” added Burrow, who brings a wry wit to the group along with his track work. Burrow said he draws inspiration from Gomez Addams of television’s Addams Family, an all-time champion of model train wrecking.

Club members convene for a monthly meeting at the clubhouse, where they run their trains on a modular track that the members design and build as an ongoing effort.

The model trains themselves are replicas of the locomotives, freight and passenger cars of railroads like the Southern Pacific, Union Pacific or the Pennsylvania. The locomotives have electric engines that are powered by a twelve volt current that is wired through the track.

The track sits on a table 48 inches from the floor and is made up of plywood segments, or modules, that are 30” wide and cut into lengths of about 4 feet.

When track is laid on the module, cork is set on the plywood and the 9” segments of track are attached with track pins that are pushed through holes in the track and through the cork and wood.

The unique features of a modular railroad is that it can be handily disassembled and then set up at another location, such as a model railroad show or an exhibition like the one put on recently by the group at the Carlsbad Train Station. The modular approach also allows modelers to work on their own layouts and scenery during their spare time, either at home or at the clubhouse, where there’s usually someone to join in.

“It’s the best of both worlds,” said Bob Bethel, a club member and the owner of American Hobby Supply, which is located a few doors down from the clubhouse. “It’s the closest thing to modeling at home, but you can install your module and run the trains with your layout among the others. Most people just don’t have the room at home for this type of set up.”

Many of the layouts are designed from kits that are available at hobby shops, but some modelers augment the pre-fabricated scenery with their own inventions or build scenery from scratch. A carved and stained wooden dowel can be fitted with wire, shredded rope, foam and some green paint to make a great tree.

Modular layouts can be almost anything the builder wants, although the club does have some standards for compatibility. Pre-painted backdrops are often used and scenes may depict a mining town, a redwood forest, a desert, an industrial area or a small town.

One doesn’t really need any equipment to join, or to just drop by and watch the trains run, as people in the shopping center regularly do. For those who do want to get actively involved, model passenger and freight cars can be purchased from local hobby shops for around $5 and up, while a locomotive usually cost $20 or more.

“We’re looking for new members. If they’re interested in trains they should come on out,” said Cy Grimshaw, the president of the society.

“Key Club” members, who get their own key to the facility, pay $10 a month, while members who want to come in when the clubhouse is already open pay a yearly fee of $12.

“We try to keep things as loose as humanly possible,” said Bethel. “After all, it’s supposed to be fun.”

North County Modular Railroad Society

817 W. San Marcos Blvd.,

San Marcos

Calls: Bob Bethel, 744-4221

Meetings: General meetings are held on the third Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m.

Hours: Saturday and Sunday, usually 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; often open during the week, but hours vary. Visitors welcome.