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Oceano Railroad Museum Raises $6K From Biannual Buy-a-brick Campaign

The biannual buy-a-brick campaign at the Oceano Depot Railroad Museum and Community Center has come to an end.

But this year, the campaign saw an overwhelming amount of support from community members: the nonprofit raised $6,000.

"We've had people from Santa Ynez, Atascadero, Paso Robles. Everywhere," said Linda Austin, Oceano Depot Association president. "They're really wanting to get their brick here at the depot ground."

These bricks aren't part of the structure. No, they're part of a special fundraising campaign that will go toward running the museum.

"Right now we have a dock out here in front that needs to be replaced and so that's kind of what this was going to go for — more of the exterior," said Austin.

For the board members, it's all about preserving a piece of Central Coast history

"This is the third time we painted it and people come here that have restored other ones and they said, 'We've never seen a restoration this nice,'" said Austin.

The community has responded to the need. Just during February, more than 90 bricks were purchased.

"Being new to the board, just seeing the outpouring of people that want to come and be part of this special place is just amazing," said Jennifer Rokes, Oceano Depot Association director.

"It shows me that people care about their community," said Karen McCain White, Halcyon resident. "They care about their historic sites, you know, because I think so many people just forget where they come from."

The owner of another Central Coast landmark stepped up to help as well.

"The train depot is one of the hearts of the history of Oceano and it is a great opportunity to be a part of that," said Marios Pouyioukkas, Rock & Roll Diner owner

The depot played an important part in the early Arroyo Grande industry in Oceano but was eventually closed as trucks replaced trains for crop transportation and farming methods improved.

But many families want to leave their mark at the depot to make sure its mark on the area's early development is remembered.

"My son's mark is on there too and my family's mark," said McCain White. "The Whites are there and the McCains are there. It's just really important to me."

Austin's father and the Oceano Improvement Association saved the depot by turning it into a museum and community hall.

"It makes me proud because people don't save things anymore," Austin said. "It's all this new throwaway society thing, and then to have this building here full of all of our amazing history. It makes me feel good that people still do care about their hometown."

Despite the buy-a-brick campaign coming to an end, Linda Austin says that they have decided to temporarily extend their campaign for those who wish to be a part of Oceano's history.

If you're interested in participating in the Oceano Depot Railroad Museum's brick campaign, you can view the order form here and learn more on the organization's website.

Former ETSU Railroad Museum Looking To Reopen Downtown As The Johnson City Railroad Experience

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) — The former George L. Carter Railroad Museum at ETSU is hoping to reopen in a few months with a new name and location.

The museum moved out of the Campus Center building in August due to the university demolishing the building.

Now, the museum is looking to reopen at 207 N. Boone Street in downtown Johnson City as the Johnson City Railroad Experience.

Director Fred Alsop wants to open the doors at the new location in time for the annual model railroad show at the ETSU mini-dome at the end of May.

"We are in a new building and you can see all the construction around us," Alsop said. "We actually moved into these quarters about the middle of December, and we hope that we're going to be open to the public by sometime in May. But we still have a lot of work to do."

The new location is nearly twice the size of the old one and will feature a larger library and children's playroom plus more parking.

"On campus, we were only open on Saturdays for five hours," Alsop said. "Here we'll be open Tuesday through Saturdays, five days a week. So we expect 20,000 plus visitors in the first year. Once we get open, we're going to be a happening place for Johnson City and, and everybody in the region. And we're going to be telling the story, the origin story of Johnson City, which is connected to Henry Johnson's water tank, that was just a couple of blocks from here."

Once it opens, visitors may notice changes to the model train layouts as well.

"They're going to be bigger than what we had before with a lot of reconfiguration and the Tweetsie layout, which is our focal layout because that railroad started here, the East Tennessee and western North Carolina is going to be bigger by at least a hundred feet. And we're going to have a lot more Johnson City in it and Elizabethton that we couldn't put in before."

Alsop said there will also be more hands-on exhibits and even a theater where visitors will be shown introducing them to the museum and the region's history.

"So when you come in there'll be a nice film of about 10 or 12 minutes that not only tells you what to expect in the museum, but it's also going to tell you a lot about the history of this region," Alsop said. "And that's what this museum is all about. A lot of people move here with their own histories, but we've got a history of our own, and this is going to be one of the cornerstones for telling that history, based on the role that railroads played."

A QR code has been placed at the front of the building that people can scan to keep up with the construction progress. More information can also be found on the museum's Facebook page.

Next Stop: Roslindale's Model Train Museum's Open House

In this miniature "Roslindale Village" — the jewel of the handcrafted landscape hidden upstairs in the model train club's South Street headquarters — little versions of trains, tracks, and the trappings of life make up the sprawling, immersive model, at 1/48th, 1/160th, and 1/187th the scale of real train tracks.

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The trains are digitally controlled. When a train stalls, Tom Landro, a club member who tends this section of the model's semifictional town, dives into a tunnel below model Birch Street, erupting from a cluster of buildings like a comic book giant. He jostles the wire above. It's an easy fix, and the train rolls on.

"That is a common occurrence," he says.

If only real train maintenance were this easy. But for the Bay State Society of Model Engineers, headquartered at the museum, it often is.

Since 1968, collectors who outgrew their basements and garages have combined their resources through the club. Members moved into their current space in 1979, building, over time, a model landscape representing thousands of miles between Portland, Maine, and rural Wyoming, all within the top floor of the 3,900-square-foot space.

The museum contains more than just trains. It's also the little things: Minuscule curtains in hotel windows flirt with an unseen breeze. Tiny laundry dries on a tiny line, tiny corn grows in a stamp-sized field, and tiny travelers wait in stations for trains that do, eventually, arrive.

Toward the mountains, trees yawn into autumn color, frozen in time around early October. (However, they never freeze completely: "They don't put the fake snow out," said Landro. "It's just a mess.") Time, too, is a construct in the museum, and vehicles and vignettes represent origins in multiple decades. It could take years to notice every detail in this massive, miniature work in progress, just as it has taken decades to create what exists today.

What is the recipe for building a world by hand?

"Imagination, patience, and determination," said Jeremy Hartwell, the club's president. "What you see in the world is just so scattered and random. . . . When you tend to build something and plan it, you make it perfect, right?" He referred to the Japanese artistic tradition of wabi-sabi, which values the presence of mistakes. "If you make something that is so perfect, it's not real," he said.

Club members have packed the streets and valleys with secrets and surprises, many of which reference the builders' own lives. Hartwell, a backyard chicken enthusiast, is especially fond of a tiny scene in which a bear — a poultry pest — sneaks up on a family waiting at a station.

Landro points out the Winnipesaukee motorboats pictured on billboards above the diner, which in real life belong to the member who built the advertisements. He calls attention to the row of triple-deckers, their siding and shingles meticulously hand-detailed. Tiny dentils frame the edge of a porch, while a family relaxes above.

"This is the house I lived in," he said. The full-scale one is near Dorchester's Ashmont Station. Landro built the ones here from scratch.

"Social clubs are not really a thing anymore," said Landro. But the club connects people as much as train tracks.

"There are individuals who could put something together like this on their own, but they're very rare," said Landro. "I think a lot of our members are here because of that, like: 'There's no way I could have something this magnificent, built by myself.' "

In addition to the open house weekends, which are held twice a year and serve as club fund-raisers, guests may sign up to visit during Wednesday meeting hours. But it's during the open house weekends when the trains are fully operational. Landro estimates that more than 1,500 people came through last year.

Landro's father collected trains, as did his father. Landro dashed off and returned with a box containing a palm-sized black Chesapeake and Ohio Greenbrier, a model passenger train that belonged to his grandfather that he modified to work on electrified tracks.

"I think this still works," he said, setting it down into place. It did. Landro's home does not provide the room he needs to set up as he does here, but being a part of this club has benefits bigger than physical space. Among the group, skills, personalities, and interests mingle. Besides engineers, members are carpenters, electricians, painters. Some were present when the group began.

"It's almost like having a grandfather again," Landro said affectionately of the club's longtime members.

But a wave of interest from young people is expanding the club's ranks. Andrew Shine, a 17-year-old photography enthusiast, is a new member.

"It's a whole group of a lot of different age groups that can help you," said Shine. "It's not a common thing." (Currently, all members of the club are men, but that hasn't always been the case, Landro said. Women are welcome to join.)

For Landro, the club can feel like playtime, something he likens to video game escapism. During the day, he is a transit planner — at full scale.

"You would be surprised how frustrating that is," said Landro, who is familiar with real-life community processes, including the many years of input and red tape often involved in making a plan a reality.

"You start off with a great idea and it gets watered down," he said. "And then in five or 10 years, it gets built."

It's different in the club. "I did here what I wish I could do at work," he said.

But that doesn't mean the club is immune to contentious community processes. "When we all try to agree on a major change, it moves just as slow as in real life," he said.

A tiny bridge — first introduced 20 years ago — became a source of fierce debate, said Hartwell, after members failed to agree on abutment size. "It was borderline something out of the Three Stooges," he said.

But most of the time, members said, it is a hive of collaboration. Mountains transform at the whim of their builders; new businesses open in town.

Coming soon, Pleasant Cafe — a family restaurant known for its pizza — will appear in tiny Roslindale Square. Just like its full-scale namesake, it will feature a glass block facade. Landro has already acquired the miniature blocks.

Hartwell will finish his eighth term as club president this month, and looks forward to relaxing back into building in the small world.

"I would love to see humanity be better in so many different ways, whether it's about the environment, or the way we treat people," he said. For him, the model landscape is an expression of that dream.

"There's definitely a bigger thing [here] than just building models," he said.

Perfection is, after all, subjective.

"So you build an imperfection, but you still try to make it a little bit better."

Bay State Model Railroad Museum, 760 South St., Roslindale. Www.Bsmrm.Org. The open house is March 2-3, 10 a.M. To 4 p.M. Each day. The cost is $5 for anyone over the age of 5.

Lindsay Crudele can be reached at lcrudele@gmail.Com.

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