George Edward has been watching model trains go round in Milwaukee for a long time.
“This is my fifty-fourth year,” he says.
George is now the secretary of the Milwaukee Model Rail Road Club, but back in 1970, he was still looking for a club to join.
“I showed up for one of their open houses and it’s hard to find for the first time,” he says. “I saw a bunch of people standing in line in the snow – because it was November. I figured that’s got to be where it is and sure enough, that’s where it was.”
You might have also had a hard time – the club is housed in an out-of-service World War One era train station tucked under a bridge.
“Someone talked the railroad into lending us this space for a temporary location, which I’ve been told was supposed to be one year,” George says.
The building has tracked a lot of years since then, and so has its members. For Mike Bauer, this hobby started young.
“On my first birthday in 1944, my dad bought me a Lionel train,” Mike says. “We got married and my wife said, ‘put up the tree and put that Lionel around the Christmas tree.’”
Mike went on to add three engines to his fleet, all at important milestones – like the birth of his daughter and his 35th wedding anniversary.
“These are our investments,” Mike says. “You’re not going to find these in the local hobby shop.”
George says you can find store bought train parts, but that’s not really the point.
“For a lot of us, it’s about building things from kits of building things from nothing to make something – wiring, painting, gluing, drilling, filing, sanding. Soldering, even!”
As George gets up there in years, he appreciates that variety.
“I think about if I went to an old folks home, and they have a shop where I can build bird houses, will they let me use a blow torch?” George ponders. “You know, I doubt it.”
These men also appreciate friendship.
“One night a week I take off and go. I can’t bowl anymore, so I come down here,” Mike says.
“Sometimes it’s just an old men’s club,” George adds. “We sit around and shoot the breeze or come out here and do some work.”
“It’s kind of camaraderie – these are all brothers in a way,” Mike says. “We’ve known each other for years.”
The guys keep each other close – in life and in death.
“None of the people who actually put this together are still with us, so we’ve been given this fantastic living museum and it’s up to us to take care of it,” George says. “We don’t try to change it anymore. We just try to keep it going.”
It’s a 73 year old tribute to each other – to Milwaukee’s history – and to a fading hobby.
“Preservation. There’s a lot of things being preserved nowadays that people were trying not to let go,” George says. “It’s a dying art, I’ll tell ya.”
But as long as these guys are around, they plan on keeping their trains running to the end of the line.
The Milwaukee Model Railroad Club is always looking for new members. If you’d like to meet the guys or check out the track, the club opens to the public on the last Sunday of every month from 1 to 4 pm.
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