West Central Model Railroad Members
Henry Bangsberg

I have been a member of the WCMRR since 2003.  I like to kitbash rolling stock and motive power for my freelance model railroad.  I buy whatever locomotives and rolling stock I like and paint or modify them however I want.  I have a soft spot in my heart for the odd: EMD's BL-2, doodlebugs, and streamliners; and the unique: massive diesels like the DD40 and giant steam like the 2-6-6-6 Allegheny.  I don't really have a favorite railroad because I am amazed by the unique challenges that every railroad has had to overcome.


John Corems

Working in a Train Club requires a personal commitment along with a commitment from each individual club member.  What I find fascinating about the club is that the work is never done.  You finish one task and another exciting challenge comes along.  The fun is never ending!
    Trains have always been a part of my life.  Even as a child I was always excited to see the trains coming and going, loading and unloading, and of course watching the people that used the trains for transportation on a daily basis.  Because of my love for trains I hope that I can share some of my handyman skills to repair problems, but most of all I want to be able to share my ideas that I have dreamed about for years.  For the past 30 years I have been busy making a life for myself in this country.  Now, I am semi-retired and can spend more time fulfilling my dream of being part of a train club.  I currently have my own train but I truly love being able to share other club members trains and accessories.  Each member has a unique collection to share and it is so nice to see these collection in one place, a place where trains and train enthusiast come alive!  Because I have a special place in my heart for trains, I will work very hard to make this club special. I hope others will visit us and allow me to share my love for trains with them.  This is John saying, "All aboard" and have a great day on the tracks.
Jason Dennison

     I love railroads of the west, especially the Western Pacific from the 1920s to the late 1960s, logging railroads, and western narrow gauge.  I fondly recall seeing Milwaukee FP-45s in West Salem when I was 2, I remember running out of my mom's college friend's printing shop to see what was going on!
     I also have a growing library of videos and books and I model WP's high line in northeastern California. I also like modeling short lines in nevada like the Virginia and Truckee, and enjoy logging railroads also.
     Model railroading has really helped me with the problems I was diagnosed with when I was little.  I have been a member since 2003.
Dennis Hamilton

Dennis Hamilton joined the club in January of 1988 after buying his sons a train set for Christmas.  He has always loved trains going back to Waukon, Iowa, where he was born.  A Milwaukee Road steam locomotive brought the train to town every day, right across the road from where he lived.   As with many boys growing up in the 50s, his greatest Christmas gift ever was a train set which he shared with his brother.  They kept adding cars and structures until it finally wore out from use.  He started getting some HO equipment from a local hobby store in Iowa Falls, Iowa, but it was hard to have any kind of layout in college, but it was nice to dream and read Model Railroader and Railroad Model Craftsman.
    Dennis was a science teacher at Sparta High School for 35 years with audiovisual as a second preparation so he was a photography and television production teacher as well, which served him well in the model railroad club.  He also loves to create with his computer and has designed and printed the club's brochures, posters, and calendars for many years.  He is proud of his pictures and has added smoke and steam to many of the model railroad shots that can be viewed on other parts of this website.
    Dennis also saw the TV show of Bob Ross the painter and thought "Why not use this as background for a model railroad?"  He bought a bunch of art supplies and went to work and painted some of the backdrops on the West Central model railroad.  He wants to do more, but just can't seem to find the time.
    Dennis likes to model the transition era of steam to diesel and even up through the 70s.  He loves steam and Alco diesel locomotives and has painted and lettered quite a few of these for the West Central Railroad.
Tom Hicks

My love of trains started at an early age, as early as I can remember Granddad and I would go to the Chicago & Northwestern depot in Ames, IA to watch the trains.  During the war years there was lots of trains going through Ames as the C&NW was the Union Pacific route to Chicago from the West.  Along with the many freight trains everyday were the City trains (Denver, San Francisco and Los Angeles) also C&NW's own passenger trains.  I got to ride to Denver in 1945 and Albuquerque in 1946.  Great trips for a kid!
    I started with a wooden train on the floor and soon after the war ended I got a wind-up version of the UP M-10000.  For Christmas of 1949 I got my first Lionel train, a steam engine with smoke and whistle, I thought I had the world by the tail!  I was very happy with my Lionel until Christmas of 1954 when my mother purchased a used HO layout.  This was old enough it even had steel track.  Try keeping that clean!  About the same time a family friend, Walter S., had gotten in to HO.  He was from a Chicago Burlington & Quincy family.  Walter was very influential in my switching to HO where I have remained every since.
    As I have lived in Iowa for many years and the North/South line through town was originally the Cedar Valley Road, I started using the Cedar Valley Northern as my own road name.  No one can tell me I have too many windows in that caboose or the headlight is in the wrong place! As for prototype roads I lean towards the CB&Q, the Chicago Great Western and the C&NW.
    I met Wally Schuster at the La Crosse Train Show in March of 1988.  After I told Wally I would be at Ft. McCoy that summer he said I should look up the train club when I got to town.  When I first went to the club they were in the process of turning an old warehouse into a usable place for a layout.  As I am an electrician by trade I was able to help with the work right away.  I joined the WCMRR in 1988 and am still the long distance member.
    I did continue to work on my own CVNRR at home but more of my energy was devoted to the WCMRR over the last 20 years.  I lost my CVNRR in June 2008 during the record floods in Iowa.
    I prefer steam and early diesel engines.  Many of the models I run were made in the 40s and 50s.  Some of my trains probably should be on a museum shelf and not run, but that is no fun!
    The friendships and contacts I have made at the WCMRR club are very important to me and I have really enjoyed the club.
Jim Hunter

In 1946/47 my first electric train was an American Flyer.  That was the first year they made two rail “S” gauge trains.  That makes 62 years of playing with my trains.   I still have the complete train and it will still run.  I have been in model trains since then.   I modeled in S gauge through high school.  In 1972 I started in HO and model that now.  My favorite line would be The Milwaukee Road in support of the fact that all my family were Milwaukee Road employees.   For many years freights were my mainstay, but now I show a great interest in passenger service and have a mix of both.  I prefer steam and first generation diesels.  I prefer The Milwaukee Road colors up to the date they change to UP colors for passenger trains.  I joined the club when we were in the basement of the downtown store before any track was laid in 1984 or 85.
Mike Jamesson

I started model railroading when I was nine or ten after my uncle Ken gave me his model railroad stuff one day.  Ken talked my dad into getting me some more necessary things to finish building a small 4 x 8 table layout.  I loved building it with my dad.  I learned so many things about electrical work, carpentry, modeling, etc.   I ran that for a few years and then we moved to Sparta.  Soon my dad helped me build a nice layout in the basement of dad's business in downtown Sparta.  I spent most of my teen years working on it and playing with it.  That's probably what kept me out of trouble growing up.  Then adulthood and the normal changes of having a job, getting married, having kids, and the many other distractions that happen in early adulthood.  My money needed to be spent more sensibly, so with no money left, all I could do was abandon my railroad while waiting for federal funding.
    After many years without any model railroading, I still had the strong urge to model a railroad.  I looked a few times at building one and starting all over again but I couldn't believe how things had changed.  Of course much higher prices for everything but, in return, DCC, sound, true scale models that were no longer toys, and so much more.  Early in 2010, I joined the West Central Model RR club.  I waited too long to join and should have many years before.  Great guys and lots of help.  It was like going to model railroad school and having fun learning.   Now I learn and play at the same time.  I used to model  C B & Q or BN from my childhood in La Crosse.  Then in Sparta I lived near the Milwaukee Road and Chicago & North Western and like all three railroads.  Now only by chance I ended up currently having 3 Wisconsin Southern engines.  Guess I like that too.  So join a  model railroad club if you are even remotely interested in trains.  It is well worth it and easy.
Ron Jurgens

Ron's model railroading started in 1975 with the purchase of a train set.  His wife thought it was just going to be a train that would go round and round.  Little did she know that before the end of summer a layout would pretty much fill the living room in their mobile home.  The following year a new layout was developed in the master bedroom of their two bedroom apartment.  When they bought their own house it took up the largest room available.  Ron joined the club in 1988.  He's mainly a scenery builder.  His railroad of choice is Santa Fe of the 50's through the 80's.
Tom Michele

My parents got me an O scale oval around the base of the Christmas tree when I was very young, later a 5-foot-by-5-foot table set up in my bedroom during winter months.  With my photography hobby, including 8mm home movies, the Milwaukee Road through hometown Watertown was an occasional subject. The MILW was east-west Chicago-St. Paul, with the north-south Chicago & North Western crossing a diamond in town.  The Milwaukee Road is now Canadian Pacific mainline and C&NW is now a barely-used Union Pacific track.
    Thirty years later I saw an HO exhibit at the Rhinelander Library and latched onto those guys, becoming a founding member of the new Rhinelander Railroad Association (They have a 24-by-40-foot HO layout in basement of salvaged and restored Soo Line Depot moved to a Rhinelander Park.), and started stocking HO rolling stock and town buildings. I built an 8-foot-by-14-foot layout in my Baraboo home in about 2004 as my Kreuziger, Yellowstone and Nicolet Railroad was created, all 1885-era style.  Kreuziger my mother's maiden name, Yellowstone National Park I visited twice, and Nicolet National Forest in Northern Wisconsin I was a very frequent visitor to in my 22 years in Rhinelander.  Guadalupe, Montana, home of the KY&NR vanished upon my move to Tomah in 2008 and my new job as a photojournalist at the Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office.  I watch Amtrak, Canadian Pacific, Union Pacific, and Burlington Northern Santa Fe daily through New Lisbon to La Crosse.
    I enjoy every aspect of model railroading, rail layout, community set up, scenery creation, different locomotives and rolling stock, operating in club atmospheres, attending model railroad shows, chasing real trains throughout Wisconsin, and all of that with a camera. Replicating a neat part of history, past and recent, is part of the aura.  Doing it with friends in club settings makes it double, triple and more fun.
Mike Morse

Mike got his first train when he was 4 years old.  It was a OO scale Lionel New York Central Hudson which he still has.  He joined the West Central Model Railroad Club in 1987 right after the present clubhouse was purchased.  Mike models the Northern Pacific and belongs to the Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association.  He models the late '50's to early '60s focusing on the Tacoma-Seattle area.


Wayne Olson

I was first interested in model railroading when I was a young boy back in West Bend, WI.  I got my first HO train set when I was around 8 years old.  I remember walking all the way to the Milwaukee Road Tracks to watch trains go by.  About 3 years ago, while moving my cousin form CA to OR I found an HO train set in boxes that had belonged to my nephew who is now 25 years old and no longer interested in trains.  I wound up getting it.  I then started buying a few cars at a time and became more and more interested in the hobby.  I joined the WCMRR sometime in 2007.  Since I worked on the Milwaukee road it is now my favorite railroad with the Chicago and Northwestern a close second.
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