By T.S. EVANS
Staff Writer

RICHLAND – Model railroads appeal to the child in all of us, say the 28 members of the Patcong Valley Model Railroaders.
The club members have each been spending about 15 hours a week creating a 3,200-square-foot model railroad layout in a building they renovated on Route 40 in the Richland section of Buena Vista Township.
The group first began meeting in 1962 and set up a layout in a second-floor apartment over a drug store at Ninth Street and Asbury Avenue in Ocean City.
As the group’s membership expanded, its members met in area homes until Dick Schiereck offered the use of a former horse barn on his Bargaintown Road property in Egg Harbor Township.
The group moved its layout to the barn, expanded it, and offered holiday exhibits there to the public for 25 years.
“Autistic children would follow the trains with their eyes. I’m not sure why they were fascinated, but from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. the kids watched without incident. We’ve never had a problem with any child,” John Dunn, group vice president, said.
Dunn, a Northfield resident, is a Somers Point Insurance agent who started model railroading when he was 15.
He recalls talking to Ernie Katten, now club president, at a Somers Point hardware store when they realized they had a mutual interest in model railroading. Dunn introduced Katten to the railroading club with the hope that Katten would drive him to the weekly meetings in Ocean City.
Chuck Chiarello, mayor of Buena Vista Township, offered the group a township-owned building in Richland three years ago when the Schiereck property was sold and the club had to move out. The dilapidated building, which still houses an information booth for the township, had to be completely renovated. He offered it to the railroaders rent-free with the condition that they take care of all renovations.
Read more in the print editions of The Current beginning Wednesday, July 11.