They are a small but dedicated group, meeting every Wednesday in the basement of a Crimea Street office building to tinker, plan and play with their passion: model trains.
The Guelph Model Railroad Society turns 50 this year and on Sunday held one of its biannual open houses, with a steady stream of families, youngsters in hand, dropping in to see the delicate trains, landscape and buildings carefully constructed over the years.
“If you’re into it, you’re into it,” said David Manzon , who came from Caledon with his young son Maveric to attend Sunday’s open house.
“And if you’re into it, you’re going to have to have a really good credit rating and a good credit card, because it’s a very expensive hobby, but a very fun hobby,” Manzon said.
It’s not a quick fix. Model railroad enthusiasts usually take years building their layouts, constantly tinkering and adding pieces, some of which can be very expensive.
“It’s not something you can dive into. The layout I’m going to build at home is probably going to take five to 10 years to build,” Manzon said.
George Watson is one of the original members of the Guelph club, who met for the first few years in the Gummer Building in Downtown Guelph before moving to Crimea Street 47 years ago.
“We have around 30 members, between engineers (full-paid members) and conductors (part-time members),” Watson said.
Membership dues pay for the rent, most everything else is donated by members.
“It’s not a cheap hobby, but it depends how you go about it too,” Watson said.
“We had one man join who is 70-something and he wants a layout ‘right now,’” Watson said with a chuckle. “I’ve spent 42 years building my layout and 50 years building this one here. But that’s the way it is now, people want it right now.”
Most of the 30 members are lifelong members.
“I’ve been going since I was 8-years-old. Sixty-some years,” said Watson.
“I like the whole aspect of it: I like building parts on the benchwork, seeing it all put together, then i like to see the track come together, power put to it then you get the locomotive,
“Then you make changes, that’s exciting too,” Watson said.
“You’re always adjusting and always making changes.”
