Blackhawk Model Railroad Club, Oregon, IL

OFFICERS
President- Bill Kalbfus
Vice President-Paul Pierson
Secretary- Bill Cummings
Treasurer- Matt Sarantakos
Past Pres –Clint Strouse
Director- Marv Binkley
Director- Dick Bird

In early 1999 a group of local train enthusiasts got together to form a model train club. We started in the basement of a church to lay out a course of action, deciding what scale to model, will it be modular or a more permanent lay out and the big question of where we could find space large enough for a good size layout. HO scale was decided on and after a search of locations one of our members was able to acquire a first floor space in an old piano factory, which had been transformed into a mall. We set forth with our members each making a module and connecting them together. Starting with a DC layout and several months of construction and running trains one of our members donated a DCC system which opened up a whole new interest in model railroading. After two years the mall owner made us an offer which would be to move our layout to a much larger space on the second floor for the same rent but be open to the public on weekends. We agreed and began disassembling the layout and moving and expanding our layout which was not without its problems but we managed to over come our moving problems. We have now been running for seven years and have never missed a week end of having the public enjoy our layout along with our members. We are open on Saturdays 10:00 A.M to 4:00 P.M. and Sunday after noon 1:00 to 4:00, groups through the week by appointment. http://www.conoversquare.com/attractions.htm

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