NORTHERN INDIANA “O” GAUGERS

The Northern Indiana “O” Gaugers came about as sort of a happy accident.  NIOG traces its roots back to the former Summit City Lines club that used to be set up at South Town Mall in Fort Wayne.  SCL had a store front about 2 spaces down from the G-Trac club.  When South Town was closed, the O-gauge was unsuccessful in securing membership and a new location to keep it going. As a result, the remaining club owned modules went into storage.

When the lease on the storage unit was up.  Walt Stocker contacted Gary Nordmann to inquire if he would be interested in taking some of the modules as a basis for a new club.  Fortunately he said yes.  Ironically, there were enough modules to set up a layout, but not enough local people interested in starting a club, and the modules were stored for another winter in Gary’s garage.

When fall of 2002 came around, the modules were once again moved into another storage unit, Nick Nordmann’s shed.  It seemed these modules would never be used again!

Then one day, Mike Meisener of rural Butler posted on indiana.railfan.net that he was interested in joining an O-gauge club.  Nick Nordmann responded and said that if he was serious about getting involved in and O-gauge club, there were pre-built modules available from the former Summit City club.

The first operating session consisted of Mike and Nick, and the modules were set up in Mike’s dining room.  After running the smoke units, the modules were no longer welcome in the house.  Mike’s wife Joyce did not like the smell of the smoke units.  Can you imagine that?

The first public showing was at the Heartland Museum tractor and farm machinery show in Butler in July of 2003.  The trains were a big hit, especially the agriculture scenes.  Following that we set up at GATS, Science Central and the Botanical Gardens, all in Fort Wayne.  We have even set up in Lima, OH.

When 2004 came along, we had enough members to do road shows, but it was becoming increasingly inconvenient to set up modules every time we wanted to run something.  G-Trac had secures a space at Prime Outlets, and after working out the details, NIOG merged into G-Trac.  The benefit has been tremendous to both clubs.  The layout you see on the website is always set up at Fremont.

About the Layout

The only permanent scenery is simple green and brown ground foam.  This enables the layout to be changed without taking apart the modules.  The club has a sufficient number of modules available to set up a second traveling layout.  This layout is smaller in size and can mate up to the permanent layout should space permit itself.

The modules are built to the same standards as the old Summit City Lines. Many are in fact former SCL modules.  These modules have been compatible with modules from the Muncie and Western club in Muncie, IN.  Walt Stocker, a former SCL member and current NIOG member built all the modules and did all the wiring.  Other members have built scenery and provided rolling stock.

The track is all Gargraves.  Future plans call for an elevated S-gauge line.  The mountains are removable.  In order to facilitate module construction or renovation, unfinished modules are put into the layout and finished modules are removed.  This enables the traveling layout to vary in appearance as well as the home layout.  The curve radius is approximately 90 on the outside and 50 on the inside.  These numbers are approximate.  Needless to say, our layout can handle most any O-gauge product on the market today.

Come visit us!

If you would like to learn more about the club, come see us at Prime Outlets.  The trains are running every Saturday.  If you want, bring in your own trains to run. We are always looking for new members.  Also if you know of a civic club that is in need of a program presentation, we could surely send a member to speak to your club or service group.  We are also always looking for a place to set up the traveling layout, so stop by the club and see us.  We look forward to meeting you!