With over 6000 feet of hand laid track, hand painted landscapes, and over 700 train cars, the Detroit Model Railroad Club is Celebrating their 80th anniversary this year in beautiful downtown Holly. Started in 1935, some of the current members fathers were original founding members. Having moved several times and having to rebuild over and over again, they were looking for a more permanent location. The Detroit news, having also left their conference room open to the club for meetings, ran an article about the group that was also picked up by the Holly Herald. A local business man contacted the Club and told them that he had a few buildings that may be of interest to them.
The drive up to Holly wasn’t optimal for all of the members and 22 members fell to 18. The
rental for the Theater was $150/mo and the dues were $10/mo – with $30 left a month they had no money to model! The club made the decision to buy the building. Selling non-interest bearing bonds for $1000/ea to members to raise funds, the Old Holly Theater was purchased in 1974 for the price of $12,000. An investment that the club has made a permanent home, and has renovated to suit their continuing need for space to lack track.
Today the club boasts over 50 members and has many exciting things going on every month. We were lucky enough to spend some time with club members as they toured us through the extensive project that is evolving each and every day. The facility as a whole is impressive entire cities have been mocked up, hand painted mountains, rivers, and life-like subjects are just a few of the highlights that have had hours of work poured into them. If you would be interested in learning how to model, membership in the Detroit Model Railroad Club is open to anyone interested in model railroading and there is no experience required.
The club has many open houses for the public the 2015 Special Summer Open House Dates are July 11 noon-5pm, August 8&9 noon-5pm, and August 12th3pm-8pm. Admission is $5 for adults, $4 for seniors, $2 for kids, kids under 5 are free.
For additional information visit the website www.dmrrc.org
