Is the Model Railroad Club Heading for Extinction?
Mike sez… I
by Mike Schafer & Bill Navigato
owe a lot to a model railroad club. In particular, I owe my whole career direction to the now- defunct Forest City Model Rail- road Club in Rockford, Illinois — my hometown. Regular read- ers of our column are aware that I have mentioned the FCMRRC be- fore. I joined in 1963, initially as a junior member. I had been in- vited to visit by a fellow who was a member and worked at a local camera store where I took my crude box-camera railroad pho- tos to be developed.
I remember that first Friday night I walked into the club’s quarters on the second floor of an ancient warehouse building on Railroad Avenue, directly across from the Chicago & North West- ern’s Freeport (Illinois) branch. I was astonished at the huge layout in the club’s main room, which was perhaps 25 x 60 feet. The layout was a simple affair — a
Mike’s world Chet French (left) and Lloyd Rine- hart are shown operating on Don Goshert’s second version Lake Port & Terminal, circa 1970. The now- defunct LP&T was a great example for Mike Schafer as a “benevolent dictatorship” club. It was a private home layout to which Don invited his regular troopers to help build and maintain the railroad. His crew was rewarded with an operating session later in the evening. Today, Schafer follows this format on his HO-scale Illinois & St. Louis. — Jim Boyd photo, Kevin EuDaly collection
double-track folded dogbone with a stub-end yard off one end. To this 14-year-old neophyte, it was the most amazing thing I had ever seen outside the big, now-defunct Santa Fe layout at the Museum of Science & Industry in Chicago. A couple of guys were busy sol- dering a web of wiring beneath the yard. The smell of hot solder still jettisons me back to that evening. In a smaller room down the hall, a couple of other club members were painting buildings. In yet an- other room, one club member’s wife was selling refreshments. I had my first cream soda here! The general meeting room was set up with more than a dozen walk- over seats rescued from aban- doned Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee interurban cars (the North Shore had been abandoned earlier in the year). Every Friday night for the next three years or so, the FCMRRC was my haven and my inspira- tion. It’s what got me through every excruciatingly long week at Lincoln Junior High School. I think the most important thing
80 RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN
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