The Quesnel Model Railway Club will be inviting the public to come aboard their new location at West Park Mall.
After nearly a two-year hiatus, they will be moving into a new home come Wednesday, September 1.
The club was forced to move from their previous location at Maple Park Mall with the novel coronavirus pandemic bringing their monthly meetings and any events to an abrupt halt.
“We were worried that the club was going to fall apart,” said member Mike Taylor.
“[But] last week I got a phone call from Tom Mower who is the treasurer and said we’ve got a new location. We’re pretty excited to be back up and running.”
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September will be a busy month as the six members get everything moved in and reassembled. Some items have unfortunately deteriorated from their time in storage and will have to be reconstructed.
Taylor said construction on the larger O scale layout would begin first, followed by a smaller HO scale layout that is currently in the design phase.
“We hope to get something up and running within six weeks for the public,” he said, noting layouts can take decades to complete.
“It’s definitely worth coming down to look at. At our previous location, we had tons of viewers from all over the place.”
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Public viewings are anticipated to take place on Saturdays from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.
The not-for-profit club has operated in Quesnel since 1995 and is always on the lookout for new members to help construct the highly detailed layouts complete with tunnels, bridges, buildings, industry and more.
As well as public viewings, layouts are also run privately by members who oversee it as an actual railway operation complete with a dispatcher and the movement of freight cars and passenger trains.
“And that’s when it becomes really fun,” Taylor said.
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