Beneath a Walker’s Point railroad bridge that crosses National Avenue is a hidden-in-plain-sight secret. Built into the bridge is a small building – there’s no signage outside, and it looks like it might be an abandoned storage facility.
But a step through the door into the headquarters of the Model Railroad Club of Milwaukee – which features a sprawling model railroad set, mostly unchanged since club members constructed it in 1950 – is like walking into a time capsule.
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Originally built as a passenger train station in 1916, serving workers at Allis-Chalmers and other factories nearby, the space is now mostly taken over by the model set, which sends miniature trains zipping between the station’s former waiting and baggage rooms.
The electric trains chug through tunnels and over bridges past model buildings, lilliputian pine trees and utility poles, plaster terrain and matchbox-sized cars. A mountain range mural on the white subway tile walls adds depth to the scene.
The station’s ticket window is still there, and behind it is an office, where the club has tables set up to build and repair model parts. A wood-burning stove salvaged from an old caboose provides warmth for club members to gather around and talk shop on cold evenings.
The club, founded in 1933, has called this space home since 1936. The train stop had been discontinued and sat empty for years before a connection at the Milwaukee Road railroad company granted the club use of the building, with the intention that it would be a temporary headquarters. Almost 90 years later, they’re still there.
“We try to keep up a living museum,” says George Edward, the club’s secretary who joined in 1969. After searching for likeminded hobbyists, he decided to attend a club open house one winter night. “I was smitten right off the bat,” he says. “These are my type of people.” As Edward talks, the long, steady rumble of the 7:35 p.m. Hiawatha reverberates as it passes overhead.
To help make these archaic models run, the club depends on members to clean and maintain the parts. They meet every Monday, and the club currently has around 15 model enthusiasts as members.
Edwards says they’ve had a bump in interest in recent years from programs like Doors Open Milwaukee. They also have an open house once a month, so the curious can stop in to see the model trains in action and hear about the club’s history.
“Like any hobby, it ebbs and flows. There was a time we didn’t think we were going to make it,” Edward says. “We got through it; we got some new blood now and some old blood pumped up.”
The Model Railroad Club of Milwaukee is located at 215 E. National Ave. Its open house is the last Sunday of the month, 1:30-3:30 p.m.
