Windsor Model Railroad Club fall open house

By Kenneth Pastushyn

Members of the Windsor Model Railroad Club held their fall open house in hope of increasing their

membership.

The open house offered a chance for visitors to learn more about the hobby and operate many of the

club’s train sets.

“We don’t run the trains very often,” said Shane McCarthy, who has been a member of the Windsor

Model Railroad Club for six years. “Once a month, we set aside time to run the trains.”

The club is building a layout of the Windsor riverfront. With the help of a 3-D printer, there will be

replicas of local landmarks like the Canadian Club grain silos, the Hiram Walker & Son’s distillery and

showroom, the Canadian National Railways freight barn, as well as the Ford and Chrysler factories.

“The goal is to mimic Windsor and this is actually a good representation,” said McCarthy.

Other notable Windsor landmarks included in the layout are an old railroad line, which is now the Chrysler Greenway and a scale model of a railroad roundhouse with a turntable. The roundhouse used to be located across the street from Devonshire Mall, hence the name: the Roundhouse Centre.

The layout of the Windsor riverfront is being built collectively by all the members of the club.

“I enjoy it, especially the social part where you make a lot of friends,” said Mike Serafimovski, who has been with the club for 16 years.

Serafimovski also has his own train sets at home and helps other members by using his electrical and building skills.

Mitch Gault is building his own layout mimicking the scenery around Denfield, Ont., complete with shrubbery and a wooden bridge along the VIA Rail route from Windsor to Toronto.

Gault’s father did the carpentry and woodwork for the layout while Gault made the casts and did the modelling and painting. It took him about eight months off and on to complete the entire landscape.

“The scenery is the last part of the project,” said Serafimovski. “But sometimes it is the most enjoyable.”

According to McCarthy’s estimates, the club will be connecting the Windsor riverfront layout with modules of the steel city of Hamilton with the Canadian Rockies and the port city of Vancouver approximately three years from to create their own cross-Canada railroad journey.