Baker County Model Railroad Club Seeks Indoor Space for School Outreach

Drew Benjamin, a 15-year-old Baker High School sophomore, leads the Baker County Model Railroad Club and has a straightforward ask for anyone in Baker City with an unused corner of a building: donate it. The club needs an indoor space to assemble, display, and store the modular layouts its members have been hauling to farmers markets and public events since the club formed in 2024.

The layouts are built in modular sections, meaning they can be broken down, transported, and reassembled without a dedicated permanent footprint. That portability is the whole point. "Our plan for these layouts is to take them around to local events and different places such as the different schools or local businesses to show people what goes into making them, and how it can be really fun to get into the hobby of model making," Benjamin said. What the club lacks is a home base where members can build, store, and prep those modules between outings.

The club's scope runs wider than just N scale and HO track. Benjamin describes a community built around any model hobby: "We want to create a place where people of all ages, skill levels and hobbies can share ideas, display their work, trade parts and geek out about the world of model making." Foundation members include Chris Papenfuss, 24, who set up a train display at the Baker County Public Library in December 2024 as the club was taking shape, and Buck Pilkenton. Club secretary Monique Papenfuss rounds out the core team; the group has also drawn mentorship from the 3rd Division Pacific Northwest NMRA.

The club's first public test of that inclusive vision was BC ModCon, the Baker County Model Hobby Convention, held September 13, 2025, in Baker City. The free-admission event featured model trains, dioramas, RC cars, planes and boats, vendor tables at $10 registration, a raffle, and a same-day run on the Sumpter Valley Railroad. "This event is our way of giving back and helping people find a creative outlet they didn't know they needed," Monique Papenfuss said. Before and after that convention, the club maintained a regular Saturday presence at the Baker City Farmers Market in Central Park, where the booth runs from 9 a.m. to noon. It was there on August 9, 2025 that a small engine jumped the rails mid-demonstration, but Benjamin and Chris Papenfuss caught the sound shift immediately, rerailed it, and kept the crowd watching.

The club holds monthly meetings at the Baker County Public Library, 2400 Resort St., typically on the first Saturday of the month from noon to 1:30 p.m. Schedule changes are posted to the club's Facebook page at @BCMRRClub.

Anyone with space to offer can reach Benjamin directly at 541-403-0090 or drewbenjamin4449@yahoo.com. Secretary Monique Papenfuss can be contacted at 208-724-8038. The club's general email is bcmrrclub@gmail.com and its website is bcmrrclub.square.site.