This weekend marks 20 years since we were first cleared to enter and start work on a derelict building in Angels Gate Park.
It was a struggle, but we managed to start and continue an O Gauge/O Scale train club in Los Angeles -- one of only two in Los Angeles County. A handful of members (the "charters"), spending their own funds for materials and trash hauling put in hundreds of hours rehabilitating a building that had been stripped of just about all of its fixtures of any value. The work included:
- Stripping out partitions.
- Filling an exterior wall where the windows had been broken out and the frames rotted out. We turned it into a wall.
- Replacing over 60 square feet of water-damaged flooring.
- Removing and replacing the original wiring for lighting – the old wiring had cloth insulation which was badly deteriorated.
- Sanding and sealing the lead-based paint on the interior walls.
The work was done during daylight hours on Saturdays until we were able to get a safe interior electrical connection. Then we were able to work after dark and added a mid-week (Wednesday) work session which became our official meeting day.
We caught some good breaks along the way. For reasons unknown, the City Recreation and Parks director liked us which got us a new roof from a budget surplus. We got several donations of materials and some equipment. I guess we made a positive impression on a few people since we were the subject of a couple of blog entries and an article in the Los Angeles Times. We've also had visitors take stacks of flyers to pass the word along.
Of the eight original charter members, Howard Packer and I are the last two still active with the club. John Pignatelli and Don Lewis left California. Ramon Garcia has cut back on his activity in the hobby. Jack Whitmeyer, Lowell Jeans and Fred D'Aguilar have sadly passed on.
Several new members have come and gone over the years. We changed our membership structure from a per-person to a per-family format two years ago to allow kids to essentially function as full members under supervision of their parent or guardian (the member of record). The "AGHR Kids" have become very dedicated operators and are often entrusted to run some very expensive equipment. They're also much better demonstrators of model railroading for the kids that visit the club. Speaking of visitors, we have some regular visits by kids with autism and one of the most rewarding things we've experienced is watching them become more communicative and outgoing. Trains seem to have that effect, but I don’t have a clue why.
Five years ago, the City approached us about setting up at their Winter Festival. It provided entertainment for the kids and an opportunity to educate people about the hobby in general. Surprisingly, there is a large segment of the population that didn’t know O gauge trains were still being manufactured, let alone the radical changes in the technology that drives them. We set up every year with a simple set up of four loops with a train on each – Thomas and the Polar Express being the center pieces. We've considered building a sectional layout for this and other potential shows, but storage and transportation issues have put that onto the long-term back burner.
The park sits on an elevated area that used to be the upper reservation of Fort MacArthur military base and has an incredible view of the ocean (unless there’s fog in which case you don’t see didley). We’ve estimated the property itself would be worth about $1B due to its size and location (we’re next to one of the most expensive areas in LA County). We’ve been lucky in that the Angels Gate Park property, being a historic site, would generate a firestorm if the City tried to sub-divide and sell it. This is the big shadow over things, but after 20 years, the park seems to be taking on a character similar to Balboa in San Diego between the art studios, the gifted program high school campus and the numerous filming projects that go on there.
I don’t know what’s in store over the next 20 years, but with the current officers and membership, the club is in good hands.
