When walking into the Moorestown Library, you enter a large circular lobby area. If you aren’t careful, you might miss something pretty impressive in the display case on the right hand side. If you walk over to see it, you might notice tiny versions of houses, trains and other structures all built and handcrafted by Moorestown’s own William Rose.
Rose’s homemade models will be on display at the library until the end of February. The display features imagined structures, working trains and familiar buildings from around the area, all created with amazing detail and precision.
“I’m getting good comments coming back. They didn’t know I had all of this talent,” Rose said.
Although Rose had always been a fan of trains since he was a child, it wasn’t until 1948 that he started to get into the building of trains. He was inspired by “Model Railroader Magazine,” a magazine still in print today, that he had found at his junior high school.
“I remember when I was in junior high school, I picked up a train magazine, scanned through it and thought it was pretty neat. In 1948, that was the beginning,” Rose said.
After getting the magazine for a bit, he learned to build trains, went to the hobby store in Center City Philadelphia and got his first engine for a “whopping” $14. He took it home and hooked it up to a train he had built and he got hooked on the hobby.
From that hobby grew a 24-by-10-foot layout that features working trains, homes, buildings, structures, plants, people and more. Each year around November for National Model Railroad Association Month, Rose opens his house for people to look at his work. This year, Rose’s work might be a featured stop for the national convention in South Jersey this October where members of the NMRA go around to featured builders in the area to look at their displays.
Rose now constructs models for people who might desire a model of their home or a model they wish to place on their own layout. Since he has started, Rose has built around 500 models, with 60 to 70 of them being in his possession.
“They say, ‘Wow! It’s amazing, all of the detail,’” Rose said.
And Rose does not like to hold back on the detail. In his own layout, he created even the smallest details such as mailboxes, manhole covers and people.
“I don’t hold back when it comes to detailing something,” Rose said.
Almost everything Rose makes is handmade. He uses supplies such as wood, paper, cardstock, metal castings and real lights, just to name a few.
“Back when I started, things were very crude. You had to make everything yourself, and now I still like to build,” he said.
Rose has a lot of favorite parts to model building. He enjoys getting started and being so inspired that there are times he can’t wait to get up and continue working. He also likes putting a lot of the detail on his models, such as weathering pieces or putting in the working lights. Keeping busy and having something enjoyable to do he said is the best part.
“The worst part is when it is done and there is nothing else you can do with it,” Rose said.
Although Rose doesn’t find anything hard about model train building, he does admit it is hard for beginners because everything is so expensive. What used to be a $14 engine can now go for $400 to $500.
“The hobby has changed a lot. They aren’t catering to the builders. They want to sell train sets,” Rose said.
Rose does worry about the legacy of his models as well as others. He hopes people still continue to care about them and get into the hobby, not letting the pieces go to waste.
Each month or so, the library will display work by different local artists.
