GREAT FALLS — The Montana Museum of Railroad History at Montana ExpoPark continues chugging along thanks to its passionate members who hold a deep love of trains and scale modeling.
When you enter the Montana Museum of Railroad History, you are met with a sign. It reads, “We don’t stop playing with trains because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing with trains.”
The sign was put up by Dean Zook, a former president of the Montana Museum of Railroad History. Zook was dressed in full train engineer garb, including striped overalls and matching hat.
“Oh yes,” Zook responded, “I call this being properly dressed for the activity in which I am engaging,”
The activity, simply put, is scale model railroading. Eight scale miles of train tracks live at the Montana Expo Park, where the Montana Museum of Railroad History meets year round. When the Montana State Fair is in town, they open their doors to the public, as people of all ages are able to walk around the museum and see the giant train set in action.
In the back room lies a scale model of a real trainline.
“This layout is to represent the railroad between Shelby and Butte,” Zook explained.
Besides sprawling mountains and trees, a small Great Falls town is located at one side, complete with dams, fairgrounds, and the old Northern train station.
On the other side, you can find a daredevil pilot flying under a bridge and fire fighters going to put up a forest fire.
Riddled throughout are small “easter eggs” for those with keen eyes, such as a Thomas the Tank Engine train, Smokey and the Bandit, and even Waldo from Where’s Waldo.
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In the front room, a fake trainline spans the building.
“It was a mythical short line in Montana to connect the Great Northern with the Milwaukee Road,” Zook said.
The new route was given to the museum in the early 2000s, and they are still working on upgrading it and finishing the scenery. One of the railroad enthusiasts, Charles “Stew” Stewart, walked me through the electronics of the models.
“All of our engines have a little computer chip inside it… and there's a computer box in the back of the lay layout that supplies all the track power for the whole layout,” Stewart said, “…it'll send a signal from there through the rails… to the computer chip to tell it what to do.”
The hobbyists help each other learn and get better and invite anyone interested to come to the museum to learn more about the hobby. Regardless of the money you want to put into it, they assure that it is a fun and invigorating hobby to pursue.
“The whole point of model railroading is to be fun, to do things you enjoy,” Zook said, “…That's why you do it. Because it is fun.”
The club meets every Thursday at 7pm and Saturdays from noon to 4pm. To learn more or to become a member, click here to visit the website.
