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WADE'S TRAIN TOWN
RESTORATION AND PRESERVATION PROJECT
Wade's Train Town is a large HO model railroad display layout located in
the Brookford Town Center, 1700 South Center Street,
Hickory, NC 28602. The village limits of Brookford adjoin
the southern city limits of Hickory where South Center Street crosses over I-40.
We have a photo gallery of the layout here.
Restoration working sessions are held each Thursday evening starting at 6:30
pm.
Restoration Progress Report
(latest update on top)
April 2008
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The turnout for our open house this month was good. We had about 80
folks show up, most were first-timers. It really helps when we have
front page coverage in the Hickory Daily Record on the
morning of our show date. As of the end of the month we have completed
just over one third of the scenic restoration of the layout. Progress is
also being made on the electrical portion, with most of the restored
buildings and scenes having interior lighting installed. Soon we will
have the yard and industrial tracks operational -- although we won't be
using them regularly during our open house sessions. |
March 2008
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This was a little bit of a slow month for progress. But Carl Wessel
and Michael Lethcoe continued their efforts and Jim Allen
finished restoring a couple more buildings. Our goal is to finish the
front side of the layout before June. There are about five blocks of
scenery involved. We are still working each Thursday evening starting at
6:30 pm. You are invited to join in -- there is plenty to do. |
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February 2008 |
Our February Open House was very busy. Thanks again to the Hickory Daily
Record including us in a featured spot in the "Things To Do" section, we
had about 150 folks drop by during the day to view the layout. We are
starting to see a real difference, now that we have initial restoration
done on about 1/4 of the layout. Carl Wessel has ballasted the
mainlines along the front and at the Residential end and has installed
manual turnout controls there. The industrial district tracks and yard
now have power thanks to Michael Lethcoe, who has also been busy
installing lights in the restored buildings. Jim Allen has been
doing some restoration work on individual scenes at home and this has
made a big difference in the good progress we have made. Check out his
work in the new photos we
have posted. He did the Pizza Hut scene. We will post more photos of his
work later. |
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January 2008 |
The Open House and all work session activities at Wade's Train Town were cancelled for January. We simply ran out of staff because of
personal schedule conflicts. We resumed restoration activities on
Thursday, February 7th at 6:30 pm. |
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2007 |
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December
2007 |
The biggest news this month is that we will be starting the Thursday
night Restoration Sessions a half hour later, at
6:30 pm, in the coming year. Six o'clock has proven to be just a little
too early to start.
We had another successful Open House this month. Although not as crowded
as the November one, there were still over 50 people who came by to view
the layout.
There will be no work session at Brookford until January 3rd. |
November
2007
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We had an outstanding Open House this month. Over 120 people visited the
layout. The good attendance can be attributed to the fact that the
Hickory Daily Record included us in their front page spread
of "Things To Do" that Saturday morning — complete with a photo
from the layout. In addition, one of their reporters visited and wrote a
real nice article on the layout that appeared the next day in the Sunday
edition. Doesn't happen often, but when it does — WOW!!!
If that weren't enough excitement, about 20 Division members gathered at
Brookford the following weekend for our Fall meeting. After observing
what progress has been made over the past year, several of our members
indicated an interest in doing some "homework" for the layout. We are in
the process of putting together some 'exportable packages' for folks to
work on at home and bring back to the layout at their convenience.
In consultation with the Division's leadership, we are also attempting
to develop a work and open house schedule for the coming year that will
allow for more members to participate in the project. Stay tuned for
further developments. |
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October
2007 |
Not much out of the ordinary to report for this month. We continue to
progress scene-by-scene around the layout. We are looking forward to the
CSD Meeting on Nov 17 so we can show
off our progress. We will also have some smaller projects ready for
members to work on if they wish to remain and contribute a couple of
hours to the project. |
September
2007
|
September was a relatively quiet month for our project. Our open house
this month was very sparsely attended, but we used the opportunity to
continue to work on restoration of selected scenes. You can see some of
our recently completed work in the
"Just Completed" section of
our Brookford Photo Gallery. Our
most significant event was a special viewing session for Cub Scout Pack
300 in Hickory in the evening of September 19th. Twenty-four Cubs and
their parents visited and we talked about railroads in general and
modeling as a hobby. We hope to be able to accommodate more special
groups like this in the future.
Make plans now to attend our special Division Meeting at Brookford on
November 17th. We will have plenty of small projects available that will
help advance our restoration work. |
August
2007
|
Even though we had our first work sessions in July a year ago, work in
earnest began in August. At the end of the first year of restoration we
have accomplished quite a lot. One of the best indications of our work
is the number of manhours we have devoted to this project. As of the end
of August, over 900 hours. Of course, that doesn't compare with the
countless hours that Wade Warren put in while building the project, and
it will take us a long time at this rate to get the whole layout
restored. Having a few more willing helpers for our
working sessions would help shorten that time.
Another indication of our progress can be seen in the
"Before and After"
section of our Brookford Photo Gallery.
These photos only show a selection of the scenes we have completed and
do not depict the 'under the table' efforts of Michael Lethcoe
and Carl Wessel to get lights in the buildings and power to the
rails. We continue to hold monthly open houses, but unless there is a
special event at the Brookford Community Center, attendance has been
slow. Still, those who do come continue to marvel at the scope and
complexity of Wade Warren's work, so that makes it all worthwhile. |
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July
2007 |
We took a break from monthly open houses this month, but we continued
our restoration efforts. Progress continues
on the electrical system and we continue to restore individual scenes to
showcase Wade Warren's handiwork. The
gallery shows before and after photos of
completed scenes. |
June 2007
|
We have canceled the July Open House, mostly because of the conflict
with our Division Meeting at Martin Oakes' house. We will resume our
schedule in August.
Steady progress is being made on individual scenes. The addition of
lighting in the buildings and on the streets really adds to the look of
the layout. The size of the work crew has been dwindling during the
summer months. CSD members are encouraged to see if they can fit a
Thursday evening or two into their summer schedules. There is still
plenty of work to be done, regardless of your skill level or area of
interest. |
May 2007
|
Things really came together this month for two major scenes. We have
declared 'victory' for the
Carnival Scene and the
Residential Area Scene. These two major areas are the visual anchors
of the layout and finishing them represents a major milestone for the
restoration effort. The houses all have lights and the carnival is a
symphony of light and movement, thanks to Michael Lethcoe and
Carl Wessel, who spent many evenings in the 'black hole' under the
layout getting the electrons to do 'the right thing'. Chris
Chrisenbury and Chet Lehrmann put the finishing touches to
the houses and the lawns, so now all the 'little people' are able to sit
back and enjoy them.
Work continues on the downtown area and we hope to have that completed
by the end of the summer. Drop by some Thursday evening for one of the
Restoration Working Sessions. There is still a
lot of work available for all. |
April 2007
|
We held two open houses this month. The first was on our normal 2nd
Saturday and was not very well attended. The second was in conjunction
with the Town of Brookford's Centennial Celebration. Over 300 people
dropped in and viewed the layout. Many of the long time residents
remembered Wade Warren and expressed their appreciation that we have
taken on the challenge to keep his Train Town alive. Our restoration
efforts to date have resulted in completing the restoration of about 10
of the individual scenes on the layout. Photos of some of them are in
the 'Before and After'
section of our Brookford Gallery.
We still have a lot of scenes to complete, so check your calendars and
see if you can make it to one of our Restoration
Working Sessions. |
March 2007
|
About 25 visitors showed up for our March
open house. Guess the newspaper announcement works!
Our "Brookford Blitz" on March 17th was very
helpful in getting things ready for our two open houses scheduled for
April. Tom O'Neil, Jack Haynes, Michele and Dave Chance, Jack
Monette, Roy and Roxana Becker, Michael Lethcoe, Chris
Christenbury, and Gil Brauch each took on tasks that improved
the layout. They set lights, 'destrung' power lines, installed track
feeders, built a paleontology scene, painted building interiors, and set
'little people' in place. There is still plenty to do, of course, but we
continue to make progress from week to week.
Some more 'Before and After' photos have been
added below. |
Jan/Feb 2007
|
We opened the New Year with the first of our monthly open houses on the
second Saturday in January. The weather was nice and we had about 145
persons drop by during the day. What a great start! Attendance at the
February Open House wasn't as good, but the Webmaster didn't get around
to getting it announced in the local newspaper, either. He'll try to do
better in March.
We have almost finished renovating the carnival scene and Carl Wessel
and Michael Lethcoe are
working hard at rigging up lights in various scenes. The
downtown area is our next area of concentration. There are lots of cars and
people that populate these scenes. Take a look at some of our 'Before
and After' pictures below. We hope to have a lot more after
The Brookford Blitz in March. |
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2006 |
December 2006
|
Even though December is supposed to be a
'slow month' for getting things done that are not directly related to
Christmas, our Wade's Train Town Project has experienced no letup in
activity. Many thanks to the team that put in over 370 volunteer hours
of work together since we began in June. Those participating so far have
been: Frank Binder, Gil Brauch, MD 'Chris' Christenbury, Tony Dentino,
Mike Gahagan, Jack Haynes, Rick Knight, Chet Lehrmann, Michael Lethcoe,
Tony Putnam, Carl Wessel, and David Ziehr.
We have been able to complete the restoration of the
small park scene and are working hard at putting the extensive Carnival
scene back in operation. We also continue to work on the town's housing
complex and downtown area; cleaning/repairing the houses/buildings and
fixing up the 'yards'.
In January we begin our regular series of monthly open houses on the
second Saturday of each month between 10 am and 4 pm. If you are a
member of the CSD, you can get points toward your Association Volunteer
AP Certificate by helping out with these sessions as well as the
Thursday night work sessions. |
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November 2006
|
This month saw the Grand Re-opening of the
layout to the public. We held two open houses. One was on November 4th
in conjunction with the Town of Brookford Annual Police Picnic. The
other was over the weekend of November 11-12. Over 60 people came in
and visited. A few photos are posted here.
We are still continuing work on Thursday nights. Much work remains to
clean and repair buildings and scenes.
The monthly open house schedule for 2007 has been developed. We will
host an open house on the second Saturday of each month between 10 am and
4 pm. |
October 2006
|
Our major
accomplishment in October is that we have the new trolley line and the mainlines
installed and running. Basic scenery work is underway in the residential section
of the layout and we are beginning work on the downtown and carnival areas. Even though we
still have much to do with the restoration project, we will reopen to the public monthly beginning on the
weekend of November
11-12, 2006 during Model Railroad Month. |
| September 2006 |
During September we
almost finished with relocating and re-installing the track. We should finish
that the first week in October. As we have relocated the track, we began
re-installing the buildings and scenes on the layout. This will be a continuing
project for quite a while after the layout becomes operational again. We still
have plenty of projects that you can work on either during a work session or at
home at your convenience. Just contact the Superintendent or the Webmaster if
you are interested in helping out.
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| July-August 2006 |
We met our July goal of inventorying the layout and have begun with scenery
restoration.
Equipment will be inventoried as it is repaired and track
restoration continues through August-October. On July 20th we began removing buildings and
the loose scenery materials in preparation for more permanent scenery and
trackwork rehabilitation.
We finished this job
on August 24th and have settled on the revised track plan and building
arrangements. We also removed all of the old electrical wiring 'rats nest' from
the layout in preparation for upgrade. Actual roadbed/track installation began
on August 31st. This includes the double loop mainlines, several double ended
sidings, a small yard, two stub sidings, and an independent trolley line. As
track gets laid, we began putting the final scenery in place. There are lots
of 'sub-scenes' under development/restoration -- not the least of which is the
impressive carnival grounds with operating rides and attractions. |
| June
2006 |
We held our first
two work sessions at the layout on June 22nd and 29th,
2006. Only three folks showed up on the 22nd, but we got some general
cleaning done. We had a few drop-in guests from the karate class next door who
were interested in what we were doing. The turnout wasn't any better on
June 29th with only four folks showing up, two of whom are not Division members.
However, we were able to meet our modest June goal of cleaning up and 'dejunking'
the room. |
Short Description of the Layout
Wade's Train Town is the life's work of Wade Warren, who died in 1995. Since then the
layout has been cared for by several groups with varying degrees of success.
Until we began work, it had been virtually ‘abandoned’ and the heirs
and Brookford town officials have agreed to allow the Carolina Southern
Division, MER, NMRA access to the layout for restoration and preservation. In
exchange the Division has agreed to hold open house for the public at least
monthly.
The layout was essentially complete and sceniked with literally dozens
of structures, most with operating lights and other features
(photos here). The two main lines
circled the layout and were operational and there was a respectable stock of
locomotives and rolling stock. The room also has tools, equipment, and supplies
normally found in a model railroader's shop inventory. However, work
needed to be done before public viewing to clean, repair, restore, refurbish,
and upgrade the
layout and clean up the room and equipment. There is plenty to do for anyone who wants
to participate and all sorts of skills are valuable – even so called ‘beginner
skills’ for those interested in exploring the hobby and trying it out before
making the ‘plunge’ with their own layout.
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Restoration Program Details
The layout is open for restoration sessions each Thursday evening
starting at 6:30 pm. The
long term goal of the restoration program is to preserve the work of Wade
Warren, while upgrading the layout with contemporary electrical equipment and
scenery materials. Selected scenes of the original layout are in
this photo gallery. Additional trackwork has been installed and buildings are
being refurbished and relocated to increase the visual realism of the layout.
U
Volunteer Restorers Still Needed!!
Even though we are now opening to the public, we still are in need of volunteer restorers. A total of
twelve people (some of them not
even NMRA members) have from time to time helped with the project so far and this is not enough. More of
us need to get behind this effort to make it
happen to help grow The World's
Greatest Hobby in our Division's area. You don't need to commit to long term
participation in the project. Just show up on a Thursday night when you are able
and we will have something for you to do.
If you have a free Saturday, we can make arrangements to have a work
session. Just contact our Superintendent, Rick
Knight at
or the webmaster at
and we will set things up. We still need somebody who would like to work with installing new lights in the
buildings and working on other electrical items on the layout.
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How to Get There
From the Charlotte area, come up US 321 from Gastonia and take Exit 42 (NC 127).
Turn right at the stoplight at top of the exit ramp on to NC 127 North. Go about 0.5 miles
to the next stoplight and turn right on to South Center Street. Then travel about 0.4 miles to the Brookford
Town Center. The building is a classic brick schoolhouse on the left, just
across from the Bo Peep Grill.
From points East and West, take I-40 to Exit 123. At Exit 123, take US 321 South
to the next exit, Exit 42. Be alert, it comes up real quickly. At the top of the
exit ramp, turn left on to NC 127 North. Go about 0.6 miles to the 2nd stoplight
and turn right on to South Center Street. Then travel about 0.4 miles to the
Brookford Town Center. The building is a classic brick schoolhouse on the left,
just across from the Bo Peep Grill.
Note: Some maps may show South Center Street as being NC 127. However, NC 127
has been re-routed and you need to look for the turn off of NC 127 North on to South
Center Street.
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