Last Call

Kyle Mikolajczyk, vice president of WPI’s Model Train Club

Veer Mudambi

Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK

As a student who was into robotics in high school, Kyle Mikolajczyk was used to seeing the code WPI Lib on materials that he used. He was curious what it meant and when he found out, he applied to WPI in his senior year of high school in Mahwah, New Jersey. Now he is ready to graduate with a degree in Computer Science and even his childhood dreams have come to fruition. While he may not be a train driver like he hoped to become, he is the inaugural vice president of WPI’s new Model Railroading Club. Mikolajczyk sat down to talk with Last Call about all things model railroad, about how to get a college hobby club off the ground and where to go from there.

How did you get started with this club?

I’m not the principal founder but it’s been known in my friend group that I’ve been into trains and railroading for some time — it’s like a running joke. I saw flyers around campus and I thought, I need to be a part of this. And from there we started the long task of getting signatures. We actually had a table set for nine hours but within the first two hours we had enough signatures.

Around this time two years ago, I reached out to my computer science professor as the advisor. He was a new professor then and was very excited since he used to have a train set when he was a kid, and liked the opportunity to be more involved with students.

The Model Railroading Club was officially recognized by WPI in October of 2021, but it’s been in the making since 2020, when the group first began seeing the interest around campus and presented the petition to the Student Organization Council.

So what do you guys do?

Each meeting has a different theme to it. One meeting, we talked about the Providence Worcester road — it goes right by campus — and its history. Sometimes, we have an open setup where one of our members brings their own model and sets it up. Occasionally, we do a thing called Trainspotting, where members purposefully go and hunt down a special type of train that they heard is coming by and go see it. We watch videos together and we’ve all learned a great deal about trains and engines. I had no idea about the number of existing variations of trains and engines.

And a bunch of our members are civil engineers so they’re into models in general. Since we know there’s not really another club that focuses on models, we’re slowly expanding. One member has a lot of construction equipment and the best part about model railroads is if you’re trying to replicate a city for a scale model, it encompasses a lot more — so you need roads, a crane, that kind of thing.

Do you see it developing into a hub to talk about their work?

Yeah, it’s very collaborative. Another thing is hacking the trains — these days, trains are basically computer based and you can control models with your phone. It’s really open ended and people can make whatever they want.

How are you working on that? Is there an app design aspect?

We haven’t started yet but I’m taking classes on that. It would be using everyone’s technical know-how — comp sci, designing, and coding web interfaces, mobile UI, but also including electrical, mechanical engineering. Theoretically, all disciplines on campus could be involved.

How many members do you have currently?

I’d say about 15 to 20 members, but we’ve only been a club since November. Now that many of the pandemic restrictions have been dropped, we are meeting regularly. We weren’t able to be at the activities fair at the beginning of the year to advertise ourselves, but more people are interested in joining us.

I imagine it’s kind of exciting now that things are back to normal

Yes, it is exciting. I’m very confident it will explode in popularity and things to do.

Are guest speakers a possibility?

I know that’s something that will happen. A staff member came in and talked about it since he knew people who work at railroads, so it makes sense for people from the industry to come in — maybe people from the model railroad industry.

What’s your favorite aspect of the hobby?

Besides the part that I love trains, it’s a very creative and open-ended hobby. You can take it wherever you want and each person can do something different. I’m more interested in writing code to make the train go where you want, but a modeling engineer would be interested in the model aspect.

Do you have a favorite train?

I’m a big fan of steam engines. I love steam trains. I’ve been to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and rode on the old steam engines as a kid. They’re so massive and beautiful, you can see how much work went into designing and casting and the steam coming out of it. They’re a rare breed at this point because most of them were melted down during World War II. Worcester has a long history with railroads. We were the first train line between Worcester and Boston, and we were one of the first cities anywhere in the world with trains in the early 1800s.

Think this will be your legacy?

It will definitely outlast me and that’s what kept me going because it would be nice to see what it becomes in many years.

Are alumni donating their own collections?

Yes, there’s one who doesn’t live too far away and he wanted to donate his track and trains. He said he’d much rather see other people using it.

One of the biggest challenges of the hobby is the price and space needed, but WPI is a great place for that. We can all use student life fees to pay for that kind of stuff for anyone to enjoy.

Kyle Mikolajczyk, WPI 2022 and current head of the WPI Railroad club. WORCESTER

POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE