Getting on the right track for charity

Few can resist stopping and watching when they see a model rail track with working engines in action.

And that’s what Sean O’Cluaid and John Vogan are hoping, as they put the final touches to a model train setup that they intend opening to the public in Mullingar at selected times between now and Christmas, in order to raise funds for the National Council for the Blind in Ireland (NCBI).

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The train set is in place at 8 Woodlands Avenue, Mullingar - which is the Free Grace Evangelical Church.
There is no entry fee, but donations are welcomed, and these will go to the NCBI.
“Schoolchildren are welcome with their teachers in the mornings - but the schools need to call first for an appointment,” says John, adding that a number of schools have already indicated an interest in coming along to see the fruits of the two weeks’ labour that has gone into setting up the track.
The model train exhibition will run on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays between now and December 14 inclusive, starting this Thursday, November 28. It is open to the public from 4-7 pm on Thursdays; 4-8 pm on Fridays; and 2-6 pm on Saturdays.
Sean, who is from Ballykeeran, outside Athlone, who is retired from his position as mechanical engineering lecturer at AIT, has been a model railway enthsusiast all his life.
“I’m a lifetime collector,” says Sean, whose attic is full of trains of all sizes.
He doesn’t have a working track set up at home, but last year, installed one in Roscommon for charity - which is running again this year - and now, he is undertaking this Mullingar project, in a large room to the front of 8 Woodlands Avenue.
The Mullingar track is “garden size”, and designed for use out of doors as well as indoors. Sean has laid around 100 feet of track, and has three engines going on it.
John Vogan is the chairman of the Free Grace Evangelical Church, which decided to fundraise for the NCBI after hearing from a computer technician of the breaks the NCBI had given him in his bid to get into a computing career, despite having sight difficutlies.
If anyone wants to visit the railway, they can call during the hours listed above, or make an appointment with John Vogan at 044 9341354 or 085 1564914.