North Texas Garden Railroad Club – Objective

The objective of the organization shall be:

• To educate the members and public about railroads and garden railroading.

• To educate and expand the knowledge of garden railroading.

Board Members

President

Thomas Lytle – Term expires 2027

Events Vice President

Jack Huffman – Term expires 2026

Vice President At Large

Ron Natinsky – Term expires 2026

Vice President At Large

John Hainer – Term expires 2027

Secretary

Patrick Miller – Term expires 2027

Treasurer

Pete Dahlberg – Term expires 2026

Webmaster/Editor

Ron Trees – Term expires 2026

Contact:  info@ntgrc.org

Articles of Incorporation

By-Laws

Policies and Precedents

Membership

Dues are due in January.

Family Membership = $25.00 annually
(After October 31st, new members will be considered
paid through December of the following year. Renewing memberships
cover the current membership year only.)

Lifetime Membership = $250.00 one time

To pay membership dues via Zelle – We are registered as: ntgrcpayments@gmail.com

Those applying for or renewing membership should complete or download an application. If downloaded, mail your completed application and dues to:

North Texas Garden Railroad Club
4519 Willow Bend Dr.
Arlington, TX 76017

You may also submit your application and pay your dues at any club meeting.
Please make your check payable to NTGRC.

State of the Club – 2025

FINANCIALS

Our financial situation is provided at monthly meetings, and we do not disclose this information in public forums.  The Board is confident, however, that the Club is in a healthy financial state.  The Club’s principal assets include our trailer, trains & track, Pola buildings, and power controllers. We maintain a sufficient balance to self-insure these assets in case of loss. Members may come to a home meeting, or contact Treasurer Pete Dahlberg, if they have questions concerning our finances.

MEMBERSHIPS

Current membership           78 (32 Lifetime)
Last Year                              69 (27 lifetime)
2023                                     62 (25 lifetime)

ACCOMPLISHMENTS:  ACTVITIES – SHOWS and DISPLAYS

Texas Discovery Gardens (TDG): 2025 saw the completion of the “Super Loop” as Club Board Member and TDG General Manager Ron Natinsky named his latest achievement.  With the help of Club members John Hainer, Julie Spencer, Paul Gramza, and Patrick Miller, the fifth loop (a figure 8) was completed. Ron’s idea was to have two single loops on each side of the main walkway, linked together in the middle of that walkway. After the two loops were completed, Ron had a construction crew tear out a section of the walkway and raise them up so tracks could run “under glass.” The final product was a Lexan covered tunnel that lets the public view the trains run under their feet and continue around the loops. Kids and parents love the view! Ron also had a new, lockable cabinet built to cover the Bridgeworks power supplies. He also had a covered four post shelter built over the area that houses the power supplies to shade the volunteers while watching the trains and talking with the public. It has a radiating heater for winter, and a ceiling fan for summer. Please consider volunteering at TDG on weekends, holidays, and during the State Fair.

The Clark Garden’s Fall Opening Festival on Labor Day weekend is still one of our Clubs favorite events. We have once again been asked to participate in 2025 “under the big tent” and run our trains for the public. During the rest of the year, in winter and summer, we have an active group of volunteers who meet on Tuesday for breakfast in Hudson Oaks. After breakfast, they head to Clark’s to repair and maintain trains, rolling stock, and infrastructure for the four permanent loops at Clark Station. Lead by Pete Dahlberg, member volunteers include Jack Huffman, John Hohenbrink, Julie Spencer, Paul Gramza, Scott Sims, John Hainer, and Patrick Miller. Over the last year, new track has been laid on Loops 1 and 2. Loop 4 is currently being worked on with a completion date of early 2026. Please consider volunteering for a day or two with the Tuesday Crew. There is always something fun to do at Clark Gardens!

We were able to return to set up a train run at Scottish Rite Hospital In August after our train runs there for the last four years were cancelled due to COVID-19. It’s always enjoyable to see the reaction of the kids as well as the hospital staff as they watch the trains.  We were able to set up six loops for a 2-day train run.

The January Dallas Area Train Show was held again this year, as was the Fall Plano Train Show last October.  Pete is still one of the two officials controlling the money at the North Texas Council of Trains. There was a distribution of profits from the train shows as the Council has built up their reserves for future deposits.

We also returned to set up a train run at Cook Children’s Hospital in July.  For the last four years we have been cancelled because of COVID-19 and RSV restrictions on our members.

In October, we set up an outdoor train run for Union Pacific’s Family Day in conjunction with UP’s “Heartland of America Tour” of Big Boy No. 4014, the largest steam locomotive in the world.  It made a two-day stop in Fort Worth for public viewing which was attended by over 37,500 visitors.  At the end of the public showing, they moved 4014 to the more secure UP Davidson Yard where it was the feature of the Family Day event for UP employees, and where we set up our outdoor layout.  Running our model trains with the backdrop of Big Boy 4014 was quite a thrill.

Our Christmas Gathering was held in December at the home of David and Cindy Valdez where we had a great dinner, lots of fun and a lot of members.  A total of 79 members and guests enjoyed a full turkey and ham dinner with way too many desserts.  The gift exchange seemed to be fun for all.  Thanks again to Cindy and David for opening their home to all of us, and they plan on hosting the Christmas gathering again this year.

Home Meetings:  We had a series of successful home meetings in 2024 – 2025.  Club members graciously open their homes to other members and guests which provides an opportunity to meet and discuss trains with fellow enthusiasts, as well as allowing others to see the results of their hours of hard work and ingenuity in setting up and maintaining an indoor or outdoor layout.  Those members hosting Club meetings this past year include John and Tina Pollock (two meetings), Jack Huffman, Victor and Lawanda Jones, Barbara Pena and Paul McCormick, Robbie and Heather Green, and Vard and Becky Moore. We want to thank them for their hospitality, and encourage other members to consider volunteering to host future home meetings in 2026.

GOALS

It is the goal of the Board to have home meetings and displays on equal footing, with approximately six of each, in a given Club year.  In addition, it is also the goal to divide those events and place them all over the Metroplex: North, East, West and South.  This allows those members who like home meetings ample opportunity to intermix with Club members and discuss “Trains”.  Shows and displays also allow those members who love to run their trains for both their and others’ enjoyment an opportunity to do so.  And for those that love to do both, we are there for you all year long.

We have increased our membership with new members by reaching an all-time high of 78 members (from 32 in May 2014). We want to both increase our female membership and to attract younger members to lower our average age of members.  We have discovered that there are many females who are the primary movers and shakers interested in trains – not necessarily the male spouse/significant other.  In addition, we are working on increasing the number of younger members and lowering the average age of our members.  Our members range in age from 20 years old to 89 years young.  Our female members are becoming more active and attending more shows, displays, home meetings and National Conventions.  Our younger members have difficulty getting out of school/work to attend some events and help in set up.  That is understandable.  We also have members whose sons, daughters and in some cases, grandsons and granddaughters have come to assist us.  We want both trends to increase in the future.

Remember, if we do not engage our youth and pique their interest in model trains, our Club will die and wither on the vine.

Respectfully Submitted

Thomas A. Lytle
President
August 15, 2025

Videos

Trains running at Victor and Lawanda Jones’ February 2026 home meeting. Three types of propulsion this afternoon: live steam (Jade Wolf’s train), battery power (host Victor Jones’ train), and track power (Dan Phillips’ train).

Extended video of the Club layout at the Dallas Area Train Show at the Plano Events Center on January 17-18, 2026.

Club Member Jack Schroeder produced this time-lapse video of the Members assembling our G-scale layout for the Dallas Area Train Show at the Plano Events Center on January 16, 2026.

Dallas Area Train Show Layout, January 17-18, 2026, Plano, Texas

Cook Children’s Hospital Christmas Layout, Fort Worth, Texas, December 16, 2025 [Video courtesy of John Hainer]

Live steam running at the Texas Discovery Garden’s layout, Dallas, Texas, November 2, 2025

Fall Plano Train Show Layout, September 27-28, 2025, Plano, Texas

Clark Gardens’ Trainfest layout – August 30-31, 2025, Weatherford, Texas

Scottish Rite Hospital layout – August 5, 2025, Dallas, Texas

Cook Childrens Hospital layout – July 11, 2025, Fort Worth, Texas

Club History

The Early Days

From George Najar

In 1976 we really did not have a club. It was like minded people who liked LGB trains. There were three people that met in 1976 and discussed getting together for shows. It was not until much later that the idea of a club was desired. I would guess the “Club” was formed in the early to mid 80s but that is a guess. Charles Alspach and Dan Carey were very active in the early club. The way it worked back then was at a show we sent out a list for people to sign who wanted to be contacted when and where the next show was to take place. Brian and or I would call the list and let people know about the train setup. As the list got larger Brian would take Dallas and I would take West of Dallas. We borrowed LBG track, engine, and rolling stock from Bobby Halls. We would sign it out on Friday and sign it back in on Monday. We had signs up for Bobby Halls so people would know where to buy the LGB equipment.

The three early adapters were:

• Paul Kepner II
• Brian Lingle
• George Najar

From Ron Greene

1. Joined 1993.
2. Chas Alspack was president.
3. Rented U-Haul to get club stuff to shows
4. Only 2 shows per year.
5. Club stuff stored in Grand Prairie warehouse.
6. Christmas Party each year.

From  Pete Dahlberg

• We did a show down in Palestine in the town square for the Palestine “Train Days”. Because the ground was not level we asked for some ballast, the sponsors brought us some wet building sand. It worked fine for the first several hours but as the sand dried out and we started having all sort of wrecks. The bigger problems was that we had sand in the track joiners for several years after.
• We regularly held meetings at On the Border next to Six Flags. In fact we were having a meeting when the Oakland CA earthquake occurred.
• We had several sessions where the club got together to help build a members layout.
• When we decided to make the mountains we just got several large blocks of Styrofoam from a billboard company. We then had a session where we used chainsaws to carve the mountains. It was a blizzard in July.
• Early on the club did not own anything. Members had to bring the track, powerpacks, trains, buildings, etc. It was quite a task to determine if we were going to have the right things for each show. At the end of each show it was also a task that everyone got their stuff back.
• The objective of the club was “to have fun with trains”.
• Meetings were split between shows, home meetings, meetings in restaurant and work sessions.
• At one point the club was asked to build a layout for the A&M Extension Station in north Dallas. We looked at the space they were going to offer and it was not the best. Also it was going to be our expense for building the layout and we would be responsible for all the labor to do landscaping.

Today

Contact

The Club’s Email Address is:  info@ntgrc.org

Or

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