John Pettigrew is 72 years young and he still loves to play with trains.

“I was probably 8 or 10 when I got my first train,” he said. “It was a Christmas gift. I wore it out—literally wore that engine out.”

Pettigrew said he played with trains into his teenage years and when it came time for him to get a job and go to work, he boxed everything up and put them away.

Pettigrew landed a job as a maintenance electrician for Boise Cascade and got married, but his fascination with trains never wavered.

“Every time my wife and I would go on a trip, if there was a train running along our path—especially if it was a steam engine—we’d stop and take a ride,” Pettigrew said.

When he started thinking about retirement, his wife, Judy, suggested he build a hobby shop in the backyard complete with a model railroad.

So that’s just what he did.

“And because of that, I wanted to get together with like-minded people,” he added. “So I joined the Tri-City Model Railroaders in 2010.”

The club is the only model railroad group in the Mid-Columbia and its earliest member activities date back to the late 1960s. It incorporated as a nonprofit organization in 1972 with two founding members.

Two years ago, Pettigrew took over as the TCMR president and today the club has about 30 members—including a couple of women.

“Our youngest member was only 14,” said Pettigrew. “He dropped out when he went to college, but from what I understand, he’s going to rejoin. He’s probably 19 or 20 years old now. And our oldest member is in his late 70s, early 80s.”

Pettigrew expects membership to grow now that TCMR opened a new clubhouse at 11 W. Kennewick Ave. in Kennewick. The club acquired the building in February 2016.

Although they’re renting it for now, Pettigrew said they plan to sign the purchase agreement in July.

The 2,000-sq.-ft. building will serve as a space for meetings, as well as having a permanent display model. At the club’s business meetings, which are on the fourth Monday of each month, members provide input on the various design options.

“The design that we’re looking at is going to be five levels,” he said. “It’ll be what they call a mushroom concept. You’ll be able to see part of it from one side.”

The horseshoe design allows viewers to walk onto an elevated platform to see three of the levels from the inside. The layout will depict railroads from Wallula to Yakima, as well as the Hanford area and Spokane.

“We already have a model of the Yakima depot that will be going on our new layout. One of our members built a replica from scratch,” he said.

The group is developing the model themselves, and Pettigrew said their diverse professional backgrounds come in handy.

“One fellow in our group loves to do CAD work, another is a retired civil engineer. We have three electricians and one retired railroad engineer—plus one active railroad engineer,” he said.

Despite their expertise, Pettigrew said it will take three to five years to build their dream display and cost more than $15,000 for just the layout.

“That would be a conservative estimate, because we’re going to have close to 400 feet of track, just in the mainline run to loop, through all five layers of the layout,” he said. “The cost includes the woodwork for building the support, the track and the turnouts, structures and scenery. It will be very expensive and will take us quite some time to build. Not months — years.”

Meanwhile, the group does have a portable layout it uses for club outreach. Various members take home sections of the model railroad and store them until events. TCMR has set up the display during events at the Benton PUD auditorium, TRAC, the Richland Community Center and, most recently, the REACH Museum. The display was at the REACH Museum for nearly three weeks, he said, and it was good exposure for the club.

“It’s a great way to educate the public about the railroads of this area. We set them up and answer questions,” Pettigrew said.

The questions aren’t always about the models they build, however.

“We had one child, two or three years ago, who asked, ‘How come you’re still playing with trains,’” said Pettigrew. “We’re just in our second childhood, I guess. It’d be no different than someone playing with dolls. It’s a good hobby and a good way to meet people.”

Those interested in learning more about joining the club are welcome to attend Train Until You Drain meetings, which are 6:30-8:30 p.m. on the second and fourth Friday of every month.

Membership dues are $30 a month and members are asked to join the National Model Railroaders Association for an annual fee of $44. The national dues help cover liability insurance.

For more information, visit the club’s website at www.owt.com/tcmr.