Model Train Club Of Zelienople running at full steam
Matt Boehm can pinpoint when his interest to start the Model Train Club of Zelienople began. A little more than five years ago, his sister, Sandy, gave him their father’s train set. It was a hobby he enjoyed with his father. Once he shared the gift with friend Dale Krysinski, they decided to start a local train club.
Boehm made some flyers and started to look for places that could help get the club off the ground. He soon found himself at C.T. McCormick Hardware Store in Zelienople. There he met a grandfather with his two grandsons. He pitched the idea to them and they were interested.
“We encourage family members,” he said. “We were off to the races.”
Ridge and Ronny have been a part of the Model Train Club ever since. “We’ve loved watching them grow up,” Boehm said. “It’s very rewarding.” He said he believes they are bucking some trends by having some young people join their ranks.
Since those early days, the club has grown into a seasonal Zelienople institution. The train club has become a 501(c)(3) Charitable Organization. At the club’s meetings, members share information about model railroading, and they create displays for public viewing. Since teaming up with the Harmony Lodge No. 429 at 330 E. Beaver St., the club has put on four exhibits a year: for Easter, the Fourth of July, Halloween and Christmas.
There are currently about 25 members in the club, from Ridge and Ronny to others in their 70s. People can visit the club a few times to check things out. If they want to join, they pay a $50 fee. “But that’s a lifetime membership,” Boehm said.
One may think that there aren’t a lot of innovations in the model train game. However, Boehm was blown away when Krysinski and other “tech savvy” members showed him that trains can be controlled by an app on his phone.
“I can sit in my lounge chair?” he asked. Yes, and he does.
The train club partners with its “landlords” at Harmony Lodge. Members of the train club do not need to be Freemasons; however, several are fraternal brothers. The club recently helped promote the lodge’s annual Labor Day ox roast and end-of-summer party.
It’s part of a yearlong campaign of promotion and community involvement. In April, the Lodge was filled with enthusiasts of all ages who took in the landscapes, as well as the walls that were lined with children’s train-inspired artwork from second grade students at Rowan Elementary School. There were face painting stations and other activities. The club even offered an hourlong “sensory friendly” period for a calmer and quieter presentation of the trains.
During the U.S. semiquincentennial in July, the club showcased a miniature display of the Founding Fathers signing the document. Their two-day exhibition featured several model trains and a patriotic layout filled with animations and dioramas depicting many of America’s Historic Moments and Landmarks.
Boehm said the group planned its Halloween exhibit to include a tip-of-the-cap to the Harmonist Cemetery and its stone walls. According to its website, the cemetery “may just be the most well-known of Harmony Museum’s properties” and can be seen by passing motorists on Route 68. The stone walls “and its gate shaped to represent the tablets of the Ten Commandments” emphasize the graves of more than 100 Harmonists without headstones “since they believed they were recognized in heaven and no longer needed recognition here on earth.”
“We will have a replica of that on display,” Boehm said. In addition, the club’s Ghostbusters fire station replica and renderings of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and Slimer will return, as will a flying saucer in the process of picking up a cow. “Typical black lights and spiderwebs, but stay tuned,” he said. “We encourage our members to be creative.”
And before the year is out, the club will fashion its annual two-day Polar Express Christmas Model Train Display. That family-oriented event takes place alongside Zelienople’s Miracle on Main Street.
The club accepts donations to keep the nonprofit rolling. They can come in the form of cash, trains, tracks or other memorabilia. They can either sell those donations or add them to the collection.
Anyone interested in joining the Model Train Club of Zelienople can visit its Facebook page or email mtcofz@gmail.com. “We can chat and they can check us out,” Boehm said.
