The Ozarks Model Railroad Association (OMRA) is holding their first indoor sidewalk sale and open house Saturday, January 27, on Commercial Street. It’s part of the annual Historic Commercial Street Indoor Sidewalk Sale.
“The OMRA is a model railroad club that stimulates the actual operations of a railroad subdivision,” said Ron Bradshaw, a member ofthe Ozarks Model Railroad Association.
Ron Bradshaw has been putting model railroads and trains together since he was just three-years-old. He’s the marketing director for the Ozarks Model Railroad Association. It's a group focused on building and operating a model railroad track that runs through miniature towns replicating real life communities in the Ozarks such as Springfield, Rogers, Springdale, Fayetteville and Van Buren.
Bradshaw said they open their building on Commercial Street up to the public on Tuesday evenings at 7, and members of the association demonstrate how their trains work.
“All of the locomotives have a little computer chip in them. It’s called digital command control. We have a throttle where you type in the address of the locomotive, so the locomotive address on this would be 5004. Type in 5004 or 504, something like that, and we’ll call this locomotive individually to life. And then you run just this locomotive in spite of the rest of these locomotives," Bradshaw said. “This is now to the point where we can control each individual locomotive by itself.”
Saturday, the association will host their first indoor sidewalk sale and open house at their building on Commercial Street from 10 to 2, part of a broader event on C-Street from 10 to 6. Bradshaw said visitors will be able to learn more about the organization and see their model railroad.
“They would learn what our club is about and how we operate things. The fact that model railroad is a multifaceted hobby there’s a lot of different things you do, and if you’ve never run a train but you like to paint scenery, we've got a place for you," said Bradshaw. "If you want to be a civil engineering student and practice your civil engineering traits — I want to redo that town over on the other side over there, that includes building streets, building stimulated sewer lines and the whole nine yards. That’s like actually building a small town."
The group uses a collection of materials like plaster, plastic and foam and uses hand-painted backdrops to recreate the look of the mock cities. “It’s almost like Gilligan’s Island of clubs because you've got to have people who are experts in various small areas who come together to make it work," said Bradshaw.
Currently, the association is undergoing construction to their track by rewiring the original layout that was built in 1995. Bradshaw said they are dividing the tracks and incorporating more power boosters into them, which will help them as they operate their railroad. After that, he said, he plans to start an automation plan, so that the trains can eventually start and stop with just the push of a button.
The OMRA hosts an annual fall train show. They used to host one in the spring as well, but Bradshaw said they’re working toward replacing their show in the spring with the Frisco Rail Festival, which will be held along Commercial Street and at city market in June.
The OMRA event will be held Saturday, January 27, at 424 West Commercial Street from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The association will have items off their own track, magazines, books and other items available for purchase.