On Wednesday, June 13th, Children aged 7 to 16 will visit the CentraMod Model Railroad Club to learn about modeling and running trains. They will visit on the second day of a three day “Train Camp” experience offered through the Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum.

The first day will be spent learning about the telegraph and sending messages. Afterwards, they will ride the handcars.

Campers will ride Amtrak to McGregor on the third day to get a feel for traveling by rail.

Event Details

• When: June 12, 13, & 14
• Time: 10 am-12 p.m.
• Place: 315 W. Ave. B
• Price: $25
• Ages: 7 to 16

To register, call Gloria Harris at (254) 298-5165 or email her at Gloria@rrhm.org.

About the Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum

The museum was founded in 1973 to collect, preserve and exhibit the history of the railroads and local history of Central Texas. The original collection was housed in the 1907 Moody Gulf, Colorado &Santa Fe depot. In 1996, an ISTEA grant for renovating the Temple Santa Fe depot, which had been vacated by the railroad and was destined for demolition, was applied for and received. Three years later, in 1999, work on the restoration began. Dedication of the restored depot took place on July 8, 2000 and is currently home to the Museum.

Robert Stinson reported on this report in the Temple Daily Telegram.

Temple’s heritage as a railroad center is a valuable resource that could be used to attract tourists to the city, community officials were told Tuesday.

A report compiled by the governor’s office and the Texas Historical Commission said the city has a number of strengths working for it now, as well as potential for the future, in terms of attracting visitors.

The findings were outlined during a Mayborn Convention Center and Tourism Advisory Board meeting. Nancy Glover of the city’s tourism office said the two officials from Austin, who in February spent two days assessing the city, apparently went away with good impressions of the city’s potential. Read about their visit here.

“They were impressed with the Railroad and Heritage Museum and also the revitalization of the downtown area,” she said.

In the report, the Railroad and Heritage Museum and surrounding area was cited for having strong potential for development into a tourist attraction.

Recommendations included incorporating the city’s railroad heritage into branding and marketing efforts to attract tourism to the city. The report also suggested encouraging retail and restaurants in the area of the railroad and museum, as well as making the Moody Depot, home of CentraMod (Central Texas Area Model Railroaders), more accessible to visitors.

The report also cited the Mayborn Civic and Convention Center and the Cultural Activities Center and their close proximity to each other. The report suggested capitalizing on that and mutually promoting events with both places.

She said the report suggested the city bring in an outside company to produce a tourism plan to help direct its future.

The 26-page report, done at no charge by the governor’s office, listed strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to tourism.

The report did cite the lack of visitor parking in the area and lack of signage as areas for needed improvements. Other strengths included the historic residential district, Temple College and regional partnerships such as the Central Texas Tourism Council.

Others listed as tourism opportunities were sports facilities, the Czech Heritage Museum, the potential for genealogy research, marketing, establishment of a convention and tourism bureau and the presence of festivals and events.

Among other recommendations, the report suggested the city attempt to become a Main Street City, capitalize on the Ma and Pa Ferguson connections to the city, highlight the landscape efforts done at Temple College, move portions of the CAC downtown for display and work harder to promote area events.

Recommendations also included integrating a map with districts and banners to facilitate visitors finding their way around and educating downtown business owners about the importance of visitor parking.

Ken Cicora, Temple Parks and Leisure Services director, said staff members would get together to sort through the recommendations.

Jim Bush picked up Mike Ross and Mike Cleveland and together they made the trek up to the Fort Worth Civic Center to attend the World’s Greatest Hobby Train Show last Saturday, March 17, 2007.

They arrived in Fort Worth around 9:45 AM and found $5 parking right across from the Center. Tickets to the show were $9 each and they were among the first entrants at the 10:00 AM opening. Once inside, they met up with other CentraMod members: the Hierzigs, the Linda’s, Bob Kibbe, Ron Miller, the Teakells, and Troy Wolff.

From a table for table perspective, the Temple Model Train Show appears to have about as diverse group as this show had. Mike and Jim met with many dealers and layout reps, extolling the virtues of the Temple show which will celebrate its 25th Anniversary this year on September 15-16, 2007.

The real difference between this show and the Temple show were the large number of Model Railroad manufacturers exhibiting. Such notables as Walther’s, MTH, Railroad Model Craftsman magazine, Micro-Trains, Woodland Scenics, Kato, Precision Scale Models, and others were present.

The size and scope of the railroad layouts was also different. Whereas the Mayborn Convention Center is quite a bit smaller, the Fort Worth Civic Center had ample space for a 90’ x 100’ NTRAK modular empire assembled by AustNTrak, TexNRail, and the Oklahoma N Scalers.

Also on display were the award winning N Scale Sugarland NTrak modules of Russell Straw. These modules depict Sugarland Texas as it appeared in 1951.

The Northwest Crossing Z Scale club set up their layout at the show. They were joined by CentraMod club member Ron Miller. The crowd was amazed that so much could be done with such a small scale (1:220). The modules had abundant scenery with a variety of rolling stock and motive power. Ron stayed busy connecting modules and placing cars and engines on the track.

This layout picture below was popular because of its modules’ neatness. It was completely sceniced and had many lighted accessories.

This S Scale layout – hence the ‘Flyers’ designation, was well received because of its impressive scenery. The majority of visitors seemed to be mostly unaware that there was an “S” Scale. They evidently didn’t remember American Flyer as youngsters.

After leaving with far less $$ and more “train necessities”, they headed back to Temple around 4 PM. “I believe a good time was had by all,” said Mike Ross.