The Wrecking Crew Model Railroad Club

07/09/2026

Much beloved member of the Wrecking Crew of over 30 years Heinz Eberhard Skolud passed away peacefully on June 25, 2026 holding hands with his devoted bride of 10 years, Dominga Skolud. Heinz was 76 years old and resided in Hueytown, AL. Heinz fought prostate cancer valiantly and with great faith in his savior, Jesus. Born on May 23, 1950 in Bad Lippspringe, West Germany, Heinz was the son of Heribert Wilhelm Skolud and Hildegard Goke Skolud. He and his family moved to the United States in 1956 settling in Atlanta, Georgia.

Heinz graduated from Walker F. George High School in 1967 and later from Georgia State University with a bachelor’s degree in business. He participated in the ROTC program both in high school and college. On October 5, 1973, Heinz obtained naturalized citizenship here in the US, an accomplishment he held in high esteem. He proudly served as an Infantry Officer for the United States Army until he began his career as a fluid line specialist. Heinz married Dominga Toner at Shepherd of the Valley Presbyterian Church on June 6, 2016 where they were both members. He retired in 2021 from Kaman Industrial Technologies where he worked for almost 20 years. Before his illness, Heinz enjoyed his membership of the Wrecking Crew Railroad Modelers Club, served as an elder of SVPC, faithfully sang in the Choir and worked with the Building and Grounds Team at SVPC, and after retirement joined the ROMEO (Retired Old Men Eating Out) Club. He will always be remembered for his joyful smile, infectious laugh, strong faith, willingness to help others, and as a loving Opa.

Heinz is preceded in death by his father, Heribert Wilhelm Skolud; his mother, Hildegard Goke Skolud. He is survived by his loving wife Dominga; his children, Jackson McGuire; Nate (Jaime) Toner; beloved grandchildren and great-grandchildren; his beloved sister, Barbara (Wayne) Huddleston; niece and nephew, Kimberly (Zach) Stone and Matthew (Lea) Huddleston; and cousins, Kristina (Marc) Tortorici, and Wolfgang (Gloria) Herda.

A Celebration of Life will be held on July 19, 2026, at 3:00 PM, at Shepherd of the Valley Presbyterian Church at 5081 Eastern Valley Road, McCalla, AL 35111.

All who love Heinz are welcome to attend and celebrate. There will be a private service held at Alabama National Cemetery at a later date.

06/20/2026

Congratulations to the newest members of The Wrecking Crew Model Railroad Club! If anyone ever tells you that the hobby is dying, and that younger people are not interested in it, just show them this photograph.

06/15/2026

Don’t pass up on old kits! They’re a great opportunity to include a unique building that won’t be on everyone else’s layout. In some cases, they can be “reborn” with modern materials. Case in point here. In one area on the new layout we were looking for variety on a residential area that would have likely been built during the 1920s and 30s, thus filled with lots of catalog homes and others of the craftsman bungalow era. We had already acquired a vintage Alpine Dividion Scale Models “The Brown Bungalow” (previously sold under the Suydam and California Models umbrellas) which fit the style we were looking for. Many of those kits date back to the 1950s and are of embossed matte board construction with some wood and plastic pieces as well. The matte board detailing is intended to look like clapboard siding and the effect is “okay” but pales in comparison to modern clapboard materials from Northeastern and Evergreen. So why not try to clone the old kit with more modern materials. The example on the right is a tattered but relatively intact example found for really cheap on eBay for the purpose of being a window and door casting donor for the one on the left. That one was thrown together with Evergreen styrene components in an afternoon using the original kit’s wall and roof panels as patterns to cut out the new pieces. Still a little ways to go but a surprisingly good bit of progress in a relatively short amount of time. All the styrene pieces you see were sourced from The Model Box 2.0 in Hoover, AL. While they don’t necessarily carry model railroad stuff, when it comes to a well stocked hobby shop for raw materials and tools they are probably the best in the Birmingham area. What will happen to the unbuilt original kit? We are strongly considering building it with the matte board walls though reskinned with some peel-and-stick asbestos siding which was quite commonly done on houses like these after the 1940s. We also have another Alpine/Suydam house kit "Dr Whyte's House" that we plan to do a similar "makeover" with as well. Stay tuned!

06/15/2026

A friend of the club sent this over to me and it reminded me of times when I was just beginning in the hobby and it was easy then to get overwhelmed with various aspects and things grind to a halt. Focus on building skills and making equipment run reliably, not on building an "empire" right from the get-go. That first layout doesn't have to be your "forever" layout. The first kit you ever build may not be a showstopper but that's perfectly fine. You learn a little bit every time and the next thing you'll build will be a little bit better than the last one. Find yourself a network of folks that can teach and help you along the way. A The Wrecking Crew, we've long valued being a teaching club. Perhaps we can be part of that network to help you grow in the hobby.

Model railroading for beginners, beginner model railroad mistakes, ...

06/09/2026

Good Morning Wrecking Crew Peeps! I had the pleasure of visiting the club this past Saturday with Carey. I got to see a couple of old friends, and look at your work "up close and personal". I think you are doing very well. Being a member of a very large club (NAPM currently has over 120 members, almost all active) I will tell you that designs do evolve. We had a nice fancy layout drawing like the ones MR used in "featured layout" articles. 24" x 36". It was beautiful! It took all of a week to go obsolete because of necessary changes. Sometimes when you get into that third dimension, things happen. For those of you I missed, I'll be back. Now, here are a few more old pics from the archive!

06/08/2026

These are the kids that will become our newest members. They are all very enthusiastic about the hobby and want to learn about the hobby. They all have built some cars. Jack is currently working on a Ye Old Huff and Puff car kit that was originally a Silver Streak. He's learned how to cut wood parts, outside braces for the car and has done a fantastic job. Sam took an extensively damaged wood structure, and got it completely rebuilt. Our kids have brought a new spark to our club and we all are looking forward to teaching them as much as we can. The younger people are the future of our hobby and unless the older people in the hobby teach them how to be successful in this, the hobby will die. No one wants that!

06/08/2026

Building a new layout means that every so often you realize what looked good on paper doesn’t always translate to 3-dimensions and changes have to be made. Such was the case on sections 11 and 12 where the initial plan was to have the rail/ barge transfer dock at the rear of the section along the backdrop. The downside was that during initial mockup the piling wall on the dock hid most of the barge from view making it hard to interpret what was going on at this location. After some discussion, the decision was made to "flip" the scene so that the dock would be towards the front of the module for better viewing by the public. The downside is this did necessitate realigning the mainlines farther back. Fortunately for us, we happened to have a track gang of three eager youngsters on hand to help us out this weekend. Track-layer extraordinaire Carey Jenkins did a great job coaching the boys in the fine art of laying smooth track work. First, we see a solid foundation of roadbed is glued into place. Next weekend the track will be ready for reinstallation. With the 400+ hours of punishment we put these model railroads through (8-hours a day, 5-days a week for 2-1/2 months) every year during our seasonal show on the third floor of McWane Science Center, reliability in the track and rolling stock departments is crucial.

06/02/2026

Good Morning Wrecking Crew Peeps! Here are some more pics. I'll be in Birmingham this week. if it can be worked out, I'll visit you all this coming Saturday!

05/26/2026

Hello ladies and Gents. Thanks to Larry Smith and Jason Parham for allowing me privileges here. I was an active member from the early 1990's until 2002 when I left for Milwaukee due to a job transfer. I have some older pictures of the Locust Grove and Western, Layout #1 and Layout #2 which I'll share with the group. I'll post a few at a time, partly due to uploading limitations, and partly due to the scattered nature of my photo archives. Enjoy and feel free to ask any questions.

05/15/2026

We have some great news! During the show last Christmas, we set out some forms for anyone who maybe interested in joining the club, including children! We have had an excellent result! We have 4 families that have joined us. The children range in age from 9-12, and there are 6 of them! The families have all joined the NMRA under the family plan, which is a requirement for our membership.

The club's mission is to teach model railroading to anyone interested. What the kids are learning now is tool use and safety, car building, structure building and repair and wiring. They are very enthusiastic and are picking up what we are teaching them very fast.

If you are interested in joining us, or visiting us, contact us via this page. We will set up a time on Saturday mornings, (our regular meeting time), and we will be more than happy to show you what we are doing.

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