Railroad Fanatics Build Models, Start New Club

Wander into Stoughton 4 and you will probably trip over two shiny strips of steel that run across the floor. Francis A. White '53 will look up at you and yell, "Get off the train tracks. The 5:15 is due any second."

Most students pack away their toy trains and stop thinking about them a long time before they come here, but White and many fellow railroad enthusiasts remember their early love and cherish it as a full time hobby.

As White's partner Lawrence W. Parsons '53, points out, there are more nuances to collecting and running model railroads than most people dream of. When you mention model trains students generally think of Lionel toys they had when they were younger. Among connoisseurs these trains are contemptuously spoken of as "tin-plates" and they will have nothing to do with them. Hobbyists deal only with exact reproduction of commercial and antiquated trains, all of which they build themselves.

Recently twenty or thirty undergraduates organized a Railroad Club. Charles R. Cherington, associate professor of Government and John H. Van Vieck, professor of Mathematical Physics, both enthusiasts themselves, were secured as advisors, a charter obtained from the Student Council, elections held and the year's program planned. The club hopes to get outside speakers, schedule movies, and to take numerous short photography trips. Robert P. Gillis '52, president of the club hopes to arouse interest in model railroads. If enough men respond, the club will build a complete layout in the basement of one of the houses or yard dormitories.

Gillis points out his interest in trains is an outgrowth on an early desire to be a fireman or an engineer. He may seek a job designing trains after graduation. The other members of the club intend to enter business, law or medicine.

Railroad enthusiasts become highly indignant if you mention the similarity between little boys playing with choo-choos, and men toying with models. They insist their approach is scientific and they point to large organizations in New York, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles, where successful and prominent citizens gather to tinker with model trains.

Not all railroad builders copy existing commercial lines. Edward H. Cass '51 specializes in trains of the last century. Usually model parts are available in kits but Cass doesn't use standard pieces and must make his own. Now that trolleys are slowly disappearing, Cass foresees a trolley-model rage that may equal the enthusiasm for model railroads.

A cranberry grower on the Cape runs a tiny railroad on his farm. It is the last two gauger in the country. He picked up the antique's parts a few years ago from a Maine junk dealer, put them in working order and now uses the line to haul cran-berries. The local railroad-bugs intend to visit him sometime this spring and spend an afternoon examining his models and riding his ancient train.

Visits to large railroads are major undertakings and must be planned far in advance. Therefore, the local club is not planning any large trips but will depend on a national organization, "Railroad Enthusiasts, Inc." to run its outings.

One such trip in Maine is planned for this spring. Five or ten members intend to join 1,000 national enthusiasts in a series of discussions and tours through several famous Railroad museums.

When asked how they'd go, one member replied, "Oh, trains cost too much! We'll go by car."