Exact replica of Du Quoin train depot built by Wis. company for railroader
Like this reporter who spent every lawn mowing dollar growing up on Lionel 027-gauge track, switches, trestles and plaster mountains, Du Quoin's retired band director Jon Montgomery has the same love of model railroading.
But, he also has the uncanny knack of finding the things off the beaten path that no one else finds.
Case in point: He was recently thumbing through a copy of Model Railroader Craftsman--a magazine that model railroaders buy or subscribe to.
Well into the magazine, there it was! A photograph of an exact replica of the 1905 Illinois Central Railroad passenger depot in Du Quoin, Ill.
The replica was designed and built by a two-man model railroading replica-making company in Genoa City, Wis. called GCLaser.
The work was commissioned by an upstate Illinois model railroader named Bob Perrin, who has created in his 4,000 sq. ft. basement a 1960s vintage replica of the Illinois Central St. Louis Division mainline beginning at the large yard in Carbondale and ending at the freight yard in Du Quoin. The Du Quoin depot burned in the early 1970s.
Perrin's spacious basement allows for 90-foot-long runs of track. The layout is a work in progress.
But, the very authentic continues to feed our imagination as to whether the depot could be reconstructed in Du Quoin. The cost? Probably upwards of $1.6 million. When you dream, dream big. Right?
A similar depot built in 1904 in Carbondale still stands and was renovated years ago.
The Du Quoin HO-scale replica of the Du Quoin depot was designed on a computer CAD-CAM architecture program by designer Tom Las at GCLaser and built from what's called micro-plywood by partner Rich Cankar.
The company has created more than 650 railroad replicas--everything from vintage trucks, to merchant storefronts, to farm buildings--to the Du Quoin depot.
The replica is available from GCLaser at a cost of $249.00. It makes you want to buy done, put it under glass at city hall--and imagine the possibilities.
All aboard!