By Jeff Clemetson | Editor

Local club shares history, culture of model railroading at Grossmont Center

Mike Forys’ first experience with model trains didn’t go as expected.

“My father came back from Europe, from the war, and he brought me a European train. I loved it except that it didn’t work because it had European power. But he went and bought me an American Flyer train later that year.”

The well-intentioned gift to the 5-year-old boy in 1946 sparked a lifelong hobby that continues today. Forys is now the president of the San Diego S-Gaugers model train club, which is best known for its display located in Grossmont Center that is open to the public on Tuesdays and Saturdays from noon to 6 p.m. There is also a window display with a button that passerbys can push and activate a train to ride around a track for a minute or so.

“We’re one of the only layouts in the county that is totally interactive,” Forys said.

Besides the push-button window display, visitors can come in on Tuesdays and Saturdays and operate the other features along the 18 modules that circle around the Grossmont Center display area, including a model train yard and a working crane.

“The least reliable but most fun is the sawmill,” Forys said.

Other scenes in the display include a dairy farm, winery, ice house, fishing cabin, Arizona mesa (complete with a Wile E Coyote figure), and a sand house.

“In the front of an engine, they would put sand in there and when going through the mountains in the rain or the snow, they’d drop sand on the tracks in front of the driver wheels for better traction,” said Bob Graves, the club’s treasurer.

Like Forys, Graves got hooked into model trains when he was a boy.

“My dad bought me, slash himself, a train set when I was 5 and a half for Christmas,” he said. “My dad used modeling as an informal play school where I learned all this stuff about trains. Plus, I spent a lot of time with my dad. And I share that with a lot of fathers who come in here with their kids and they say ‘hmmm, that’s a good idea.’”

San Diego S-Gaugers got their name from the size of the models they use.

“We like to joke around and say the ‘S’ is for superior,” Forys said.

There are several different gauges in model trains, including HO, O, N and G gauges, however “gauge” is a misnomer, Graves said.

“Gauge is the distance between the tracks. Scale is the proportion between the model size and a real-life engine. So, technically, one should say HO scale, O scale, N scale, etc.

“Back in the 1950s, they confused gauge with scale because the larger scales had greater distance between the rails, but in a real railroad there was a standard gauge — 4 foot, 8 and a half inches. That’s the distance between the rails on a real railroad. Then there’s another gauge they used in the mountains where they had to do tighter curves and things and have rails closer together — usually 3 feet. So some modelers will model a narrow gauge in one of the scales, so the words ‘gauge’ and ‘scale’ get really mixed up and confused.”

Since the club formed in 2008, it has focused on making displays for model train shows and to educate and entertain the public. In its first year, it displayed at the Great Train Expo in Del Mar and before moving to Grossmont Center, had a public display at Liberty Station in San Diego. The club also travels out of the area for shows.

“When we took this module to Sacramento for the national train show, we were already members of the NMRA (National Model Railroad Association) and the local chapter there didn’t even know about us because we were brand new on the scene,” Forys said. “But the four of us that were at the show earned what is called the Golden Spike Award, which is the first step in becoming master model railroaders. Since then, two more guys in the club have earned that award as well.”

Most of the modules used in the S-Gaugers display come from kits that are then modified by club members.

“One [modification] is usually lighting because most of the kits don’t put lighting in,” Forys said.

Although he initially played with model trains for fun, learning lighting and all the other power needs of model trains had a real impact on Forys’ life.

“I became an electrical engineer so I can figure out how all of this works,” he said, laughing.

Forys and Graves like to think their display will have the same kind of educational impact on the young visitors as model railroading had on them.

“We really want the general public to know about us,” Forys said. “And bring their kids and nieces and nephews (girls like trains too, believe it or not) and share the one thing we really like about model railroading — that it teaches a lot of different skill sets like electronics, carpentry, even computerized engineering, landscaping and crafts.”

“And how to fix things that break,” Grave added. “You learn a lot.”

For more information on San Diego S-Gaugers, visit sites.google.com/site/sdgaugers/.

—Reach Jeff Clemetson at [email protected].