Ophir, Tintic, & Western Model Railroad Club Information
Located in Orem, Utah, USA
The Ophir, Tintic, & Western Model Railroad Club was organized by a small group interested in HO scale model railroading on March 22, 1990. The club was organized it the Caboose Lounge at the Well Trained Model Railroad store in Provo, Utah. Those present at the first meeting were a group of modelers primarily from Utah County and shared a common interest in mining railroads.
The original intent was to build a club owned modular layout with a mining and steel mill theme. The layout was to be based on real scenes in Utah with coal and ores from the Wasatch Mountains moving to the mills in Provo and Salt Lake. It was decided that since no one railroad served all of these areas, a fictional or “freelanced” railroad would be created. Several names were quickly suggested, however it was charter member Albert Schmuhl who came up with the name that seemed the most appropriate. He suggested that the original railroad could have served the mining areas to the west of Utah Valley. Taking the lead from the prototype railroads of the old west he combined names from the mining ghost town of Ophir, to the mining district of the Tinitc Mountains and the grand wish of all early railroads to push to the Pacific came the name of the club’s railroad was born, the Ophir, Tintic & Western.