About the Boulder Model Railroad Club

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Last Modified On: Thursday, 26-Jun-2003 21:21:46 MDT

The Early Days

The first meeting of the BMRC was November 11, 1976 with 19 charter members. Four of them are still in the club. In February of 1982, the BMRC joined the National Model Railroad Association as the Flatirons Division (named for the geological outcroppings which dominate the Boulder western skyline) of the Rocky Mountain Region.

In the 25 years of its existence, BMRC members have done more than just "play with toy trains":

  • put on 23 train shows for the public.
  • worked on restoring coach #280 in Boulder's Central Park.
  • moved track at Silver Plume for the Georgetown Loop Ry.
  • painted C&S engine #60 in Idaho Springs.
  • spruced up and moved engine #30 in Boulder's Central Park.
  • worked at the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden.
  • hosted the 1995 Rocky Mountain Region spring convention.
  • constructed an operating layout for the Longmont Public Library.

Present Days

The Club The BMRC is a non-profit, service and educational organization. The club does not have a club layout; however, it sponsors 2 module groups - one for HO scale modelers and one for N scale modelers.

The Members Since the club does not have a layout, its cohesion lies in its members. There are over 60 active members on the roster of the BMRC with a wide variety of interests and skill levels. It can boast of an NMRA Master Modeler. Several layouts have appeared in prominent model magazines (Model Railroader, Railroad Model Craftsman, and Model Railroading). Members have also had their by-lines on articles in those magazines and others.

At the other end of the skills spectrum, some members joined simply because they caught the "railroading bug" when setting up a loop of track around the Christmas tree one year for the children and came to a club meeting to find out how to keep the little things (trains, that is - not children) on the track. Of course, there is every skill level in between.

The club welcomes any scale of modeling, any time era, and any geographical region; with HO scale, the steam to diesel transition, and western railroads in the plurality. There is strong interest in operations, layout design, scenery construction, detailing, Digital Command Control (DCC), computer applications, intermodal modeling, and steam.

So, even though there is no club layout, the BMRC provides a forum for people of common interest to get together, to learn form each other, and to have fun.

Meetings
Meetings are held the second Thursday of each month, starting at 7:15 p.m. Recently the club explored different locations for the meetings and wound up deciding that the Jaycees Depot, our orignal meeting place, would continue to be our meeting place.

Check the 2002 Calendar for the date and location for the meetings

The evening usually consists of a short business meeting, a break, and a program on some railroad related topic. Though most programs specifically address modeling skills, some are about the prototype (real trains) or history of railroading.

By-laws Click on this link to view a copy of the club by-laws.

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