All aboard: Model railroad club to relocate in Mundelein

A model train club headquartered in Mundelein is on the move again.

The North Central O Gaugers Model Railroad Club has been set up in a village-owned building at 428 N. Chicago Ave. since 2022. However, the village is selling the structure to a real estate developer, and the occupants need to move out by July 31.

The Mundelein Tool Library is in the same building and also has to relocate.

While tool library organizers still are looking for a new home, the model railroad club is going to move into vacant space at 161-165 N. Archer Ave. in the Archer Business Center, another village-owned building. The Tighthead Brewing Co. and the Mundelein Community Connection nonprofit group are among the existing tenants in the building.

The village board unanimously approved a rent-free, month-to-month lease for the club Monday night.

Vern Lappe, the club’s director of special runs, said the group intends to move in late June and be running in the new space in August.

“We are looking forward to our new home,” Lappe said Tuesday.

The railroad club was based at the Fremont Public Library, 1170 N. Midlothian Road, for nearly 20 years. It occupied part of a room on the second floor that was closed to the public except for monthly open houses.

In 2021, however, library officials announced they needed to expand the public collection into the space, so club members had to pack up their large layout.

After months without a lair, the club moved in 2022 to the building on Chicago Avenue, which formerly was the village’s water division’s headquarters.

The space in the Archer Business Center is larger than the club’s current space, Lappe said. That will allow members to increase the size of the layout and add a layout for children, among other developments, he said.

The Archer Business Center may not be a long-term location for the club, however. It, too, is for sale.

“While we have no offers at this time, it was made very clear that we were actively marketing the space,” Village Administrator Eric Guenther said.

Village officials also offered space in the building for the tool library. But organizers declined because potentially costly improvements would’ve been needed, Guenther said, as well as the potential need to relocate again if the building is sold.