It takes many active members to maintain our large layout.
Bruce Petrarca
“I didn’t know you had this.” We hear this frequently when folks visit our indoor (HO-scale) layout, a portion of which is shown in the photo.
Many times folks see the garden layout near the parking lot for the Activities Center, perhaps on their way to buy tickets or pick up a DVD or book on CD. They don’t know that there is an entire, well detailed, world of Midwest railroading inside Room 106 at the back of the courtyard.
A quick history: the club was our first permanent installation, started in 2001. We got the use of Room 106 and began building the indoor layout in January of 2006. We ran our first train on permanent track a month later. The main track through the entire layout was completed in August of 2007. However, there are still areas that are not completed and others that we want to rework or enhance. We have only had open houses three times a year, near the major winter holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter). This is when lots of folks and extended families are here to enjoy our labors. However, we are working on the layouts on Tuesday and Thursday mornings starting about 9:00 a.m. We get hungry and go to lunch somewhere together about 11:30 a.m.
We are looking for folks to join us for many reasons: fellowship, artistic input, promoting the hobby. Toward the end of promoting the hobby, if we had more active members we could do more open houses and activities for the community.
Expansion is on the way. We are building some O-scale modules. When the track on these is complete (perhaps this fall), we will be able to set them up and run larger trains for folks to enjoy.
Another area of expansion and outreach is in the Lionel world. We have been focused on scale modeling; this is making our world a precise miniature of the real world as it existed at some point in the past. Thus we have attracted like-minded folks. There are Lionel folks in the community. We would like for them to join us. We can add that dimension to the club and have folks who know about the intricacies of the O-27 world. At Christmas time usually one or two Creekers have need of assistance with their decoration trains. PCMRC would like to have the expertise to help.
You (and your kids, grandkids and friends) can see our indoor (HO-scale) and outdoor (G-scale) layouts set in motion on Good Friday. Our open house will be on April 3, 2015 and run from 10:00 a.m. until noon.
Look for more information and dates on our club website (www.pcmrc.org). Come see us in the Eagle’s Nest Activity Center, Room 106. We’d love for you to join us on our quest.