If tinkering at home isn’t
enough, a hobby club might
be the answer
Windsor Model Railway Club has been open for
close to 15 years, but just recently moved from the
basement of Market Square to the second floor, where
Theatre Windsor used to call home. The club, on the
move upstairs, was able to tear out and repurpose the
seating risers, stage and miscellaneous walls to create
the platforms for their tracks to run on.
“Moving upstairs at the Market Square, where we
can leave the door open, we’re getting a lot of walk-by
traffic,” says WRMC president David Naismith.
Naismith has been a member of the WRMC for a
few years, and embraced the hobby because of his
family history.
“I come from a railroading family. I was always
around railroads, but chose to not work on them, so it
became a hobby instead,” says Naismith. “For me, it’s
nostalgia, because the railroads have changed so much
from what they were. I build from a different era - like
what I remember.”
“We’re recreating Windsor as it stood in the
mid-60s,” says WMRC past president, Peter Bechard,
showing off his efforts. “Where the steam engine was
down by the waterfront, it was all tracks, and we’re
recreating that.”
Bechard’s on the younger end of the membership,
and found that tinkering at home wasn’t enough of a
hobby, so he joined the club. “I was always interested
in trains, learned some online and from books, but
there was so much I didn’t understand on my own,”
says Bechard. “I figured the club would be a good way
to learn some things, and in the last eight years my
modelling knowledge has grown tenfold.”
“Everyone, if you talk to them, has a different
reason for being here,” says Naismith
If it’s not your family background, then where you
live might play a factor in choosing a hobby. There’s a
huge variety, especially by geographical region, in what
is popular.
“Locally, remote control off-road cars are the most
The Windsor Model Railroad Club has members of all
ages. Some of them are recreating a scale model of the
1960’s Windsor riverfrontin their new home at Market
Square