Greenville's making tracks

By S. Kim Henson  

NOVEMBER 19, 2010 1:36 p.m. (0)

The concept for building North America’s largest HO-scale model railroad exhibit in Greenville began with conversations over the counter at Blue Ridge Hobbies after model railroaders heard about the Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg, Germany.

Frank Ruby, owner of the hobby shop on Pleasantburg Drive and Miniature World of Trains’ president and chairman of the board of directors, said, “It’s not just about model trains around the Christmas tree any longer.”

German twin brothers, Frederik and Gerrit Braun, created a nearly 69,000-square-foot private museum and continue to add to it and to the world’s largest model railway inside. Greenville’s site is expected to total 50,000-square-feet. It will include a 30,000-square-foot layout of the country’s well-known railroad scenes, a railroad history museum, restaurant and Ruby’s hobby shop.

Negotiations are under way for prospective locations. The most promising to date are in high traffic areas and near the interstate. One is in the Interstate 85 and Woodruff Road vicinity and the other on Wade Hampton Boulevard.

Ruby said Greenville is an ideal location because it’s in the center of four major metropolises (Atlanta, Columbia, Asheville and Charlotte) and within a daytrip’s distance of nine million people and the climate and nearby attractions offer destination appeal.

“This attraction has a tourism component as well as an educational component, to allow visitors to learn about railroads, the historical features, high speed rail and much more. And there’s a lot of technology involved that may offer some good jobs for the Greenville area,” said president and CEO of Greenville Area Development Corporation Jerry Howard.

The initial phase is projected to open in early 2012. Starting with the East Coast, phase one will feature Greenville’s downtown, businesses like Allied Steel and GE, North Carolina’s Saluda Grade and farther reaching highlights like the Florida Juice Train that in two days carries Tropicana orange juice from Florida to just outside New York.

With a focus on education as well as entertainment, the facility will promote green building, advanced technology and not just trains but all forms of transportation.

The project will be built in sections on the most popular scale in model railway, the HO-scale, because merchandise is accessible. The ratio is 1:87 and replicas of train cars are shorter than a pencil in length and smaller than ones by Lionel.

For its startup, the museum will need $500,000 and more than $1.5 million for the initial phase. As the non-profit winds down its first month of fund raising since acquiring non-profit status, Ruby said they have accepted personal contributions as well as $200,000 in product donations from model railroad manufacturers across the country.

The cash is being spent for advertisement, to order T-shirts and construct box cars and other merchandise with the museum’s logo to present in exchange for donations.

Ruby is looking forward to grant funding and tax deductible contributions from the general public, corporations, private hobbyists, model railroad clubs and railroad charities as the word spreads.

For now he said there will be no loans to prop up the project. Paperwork has been filed with local companies like Duke Power, Michelin and BMW to ask for sponsorships and matching funds when employees donate.

Howard said when asked about funding in a down economy, “Recessions are temporary but museums last.”

The facility will support 100 to 150 employees and donate back to the community, said Ruby, based on what is happening in Germany and at one of the world’s largest science museums, Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry.

Ruby said, “The project will have worldwide appeal. Germany’s railroad museum attracted a million visitors last year and Chicago’s museum also seems to be thriving.”

“I don’t have a crystal ball but this has potential to be a major, major tourist attraction. A tourist destination that may draw a whole lot of people to the area,” Howard said.

Ruby started Blue Ridge Hobbies in 2005 as an online business, opened a retail store in 2007 and relocated last year to a building twice its size.

He said, “It all started when my wife made the mistake of giving me a train set on our first Christmas together. They kept getting bigger and bigger as our houses got bigger. Then Blue Ridge Hobbies and now this.”