HOBBIES
MODEL RAILROADING
CROSSES GENERATIONS
PHOTOS BY CHRISTINA TASCON
BY CHRISTINA TASCON
Visitors can see recreated towns, rail yards and scenic railroad routes on Tuesdays and Saturdays at the headquarters of the Treasure Coast Model Railroad
Club on Becker Road.
Club members come from all walks of life
Why are generations ranging from the tiniest
tots to senior citizens so enthralled
by scaled-down villages and cities with
tiny trains chugging around miniature
railroad tracks?
For 40 years, the Treasure Coast Model Railroad
Club has worked to satisfy the creativity of members
while providing fascinating displays to the
public. The club’s headquarters in a former fire
station on Becker Road in Port St. Lucie showcases a
2,000-square-foot area in which members have painstakingly
recreated small towns, industrial back lots,
friendly neighborhoods and even attractions like the
Hoover Dam from the era between 1945 and 1975.
The club invites the public in twice a week to tour
the facility. As guests tentatively enter for the first
time they remark on the grand scope of the display
and are drawn in by the individual dioramas, exclaiming
34 Port St. Lucie Magazine
over favorite railroad lines and groupings of
people, animals and decor.
TECHNOLOGY ENHANCES MODELS
These hobbyists have not only incorporated new
technology but have embraced it wholeheartedly
with LED billboards, movable screens on the sides of
their rail cars and even lights on each café table. The
track acts like a network cable with a controller in
each locomotive and a computer working on the layout
with throttles and specific cabs that are assigned
to the locomotives. >>