History and Background

The Texas Western Model Railroad Club was formed in 1996 by a group of railroad modelers meeting in the spare warehouse area of Joe William's Compressor Service at 6807 Anglin Drive, Fort Worth.  This group of modelers had primarily been active in other modular-type railroad clubs in the area, but now they were looking for a permanent place to build a layout with excellent track, beautiful scenery, and prototypical operations.  Through the interest and generosity of Joe Williams and his family we were offered the use of the warehouse in which to build our 1/87th scale empire.  The model railroad was begun with a membership of about 14 people and work was done on Thursday and Saturday meeting nights.  A committee was formed to create a track plan that roughly approximated the Southwest area including Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas with Fort Worth being focused upon in particular.  This track plan was created to emulate the prototypical daily operations of real railroads as they served the country in the 1950’s and to allow for interesting model operation sessions in the future.  After only a few months, trains were running on limited track with minimal scenery, but they were running!  Within a couple of years this first room was approaching completion with 8’ high mountains, raging rivers, and long west Texas prairies for the trains to traverse in their voyages.  At this time we again formulated additional track plans and progressed through a door into a larger room expanding the layout to a whopping 3,100 square feet!  While this is one of the larger model railroads in the Southwest, our gracious host Joe Williams added another 400 square feet of space in 2002 to accommodate our version of downtown Houston and its ports.

During this early time the Texas Western Model Railroad Club had been content to be a hobby and source of pride for its members.  However, we found that our visitors were overwhelmed at the scope and quality of the miniature railroad and marveled at the accurate prototypical details that abound throughout the layout.  They asked many questions about why the railroad did certain things, and marveled at the re-creation of the Art Deco Texas & Pacific passenger station, freight station, and U.S. Post Office as well as many other buildings.  We found ourselves in the role of historians and educators during Open House events, explaining details about the importance that railroads played in the development of Fort Worth and the surrounding areas.  What we found was the lack of knowledge by many, many people of the contributions the railroads of the Twentieth Century in our country.  As a result of this revelation, we decided in 2007 to pursue recognition of our organization as a non-profit educational and historical entity.  We are currently listed in the State of Texas as a non-profit organization, and effective as of November 2006 were recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)3 non-profit as well.  We decided upon a Mission Statement to summarize our future endeavors:

“To construct and operate a prototypical miniature railroad preserving the historical significance of the American railroads in Texas, especially in the Southwest surrounding Fort Worth. This railroad will be utilized to educate the public and preserve the technology, operations, life styles, and impact of railroads as a transportation system and builder of the Southwest.”

We have been featured in the November of 2006 program Texas Country Reporter with Bob Phillips, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram for the past several years announcing our annual public Open House, and in the Forest Hill News, November 2008 edition.  We have also been featured in the model railroad magazine The Cowcatcher, in a feature story by Tim Blackwell.  In an effort to educate further, we have participated in the “Eyes of North Texas” radio program with Adell Campbell.  This program reaches vision impaired listeners across the North Texas area through special radio programming.  In July of 2010 we were featured on local CBS affiliate KTVT in their “Through the Lens” series.  The Texas Western has also opened its doors to the public on Saturday evenings during November since 2006 to celebrate “National Model Railroad Month.”  We have had no less than 1,500 guests come through our layout to marvel at our miniature transportation system and listen to bits of history regarding the railroads.  Our members dress in period-correct dress and inform visitors about operations of American railroads during the 1950’s.

As we move into the future we hope to acquire the means to secure a permanent home for the Texas Western Railroad Association and the Texas Western Model Railroad Club through fund raising activities, donations, and grants.  Our goal is to own our property and building, thus securing the ability to provide for the preservation of the historically significant railroad artifacts and memorabilia, possibly full-sized railroad cars, and educate the public as to railroad’s impact on nation building.  We hope to entertain many more guests in the future with the marvel of a miniature railroad.