Milford Township couple create model railroad masterpiece

By Alysia Burgio

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    MILFORD TOWNSHIP, Michigan (WWJ) — When you think of a model railroad, the tradition of a train circling a Christmas tree may come to mind.

For the past 16 years, a couple in Milford Township has turned their passion for the locomotive into a model railroad masterpiece.

“We started building in 2007 and still building. Thirty percent more to go, I think, to finish this off,” said Jay Qualman.

For Brook and Jay Qualman, their model railroad is more than just a hobby. It’s a passion project devoted to their past.

“It’s just a lot of fun. I’ve really enjoyed it and looking forward to building many more buildings,” Brook Qualman said.

“What we really wanted to do is capture the family history of Brook’s family and my family, and that meant going back and retrieving information because a lot of it was gone, and we wanted to do it in the early 1950s era, which was a good day for railroading,” said Jay Qualman.

What started as an intriguing challenge during retirement for this duo has now grown into a locomotive landscape at their home.

“He (Jay) said, ‘You know, you can build some family houses,’ and I thought, ‘Well, that sounds really interesting,’ and it just sort of blossomed from there, and I got really hooked, and now it’s kind of dangerous how much I enjoy it,” Brook Qualman said.

Each building and piece of landscape is a giant puzzle created by hand.

“It probably takes about a week or two for the basic building, and then it probably takes another three or four weeks for all the detailing and the painting and the weathering and everything that goes into it. It really is very time-consuming,” said Brook Qualman.

Brook’s first feat was the Potter Street Station in Saginaw, a city home to Jay’s family dating back to the 1800s.

“He handed me a picture of that and said, ‘Here, start with this.’ It took six months,” said Brook Qualman.

The model railroad is a 3,000-square-foot meticulous display showcasing nearly 15 towns and cities in Michigan, including where Jay began his career.

“The place I started with General Motors is at the Buick Engineering Complex in Flint, Michigan,” said Jay Qualman.

Core memories from their childhood have also been brought to life.

“The white house on the end there is in Grosse Point, and I was there age 14 until I got married,” Brook stated.

A railroading trip down memory lane through Ann Arbor, Holly, Highland, and, of course, Milford, to name a few spots.

“Most of the buildings in Milford are still here, so it was very easy to copy them. I went downtown with a box of paints to match all the brick colors because the buildings are still there,” said Brook Qualman.

Countless hours of research and crafting. A project that has taken years to create, but that one is well worth the reward.

“It’s really like a job, which I always enjoyed the work, but the beauty of this is it’s a short commute. You just have to come downstairs,” Jay Qualman laughed.

“It just blows my mind somehow that we’ve been able to do this,” Brook said.

The Qualmans say since they started this project, they’ve opened up their home nearly two dozen times for the public to come to enjoy their model railroad. They say approximately 1,000 people have walked through over the years.

The next time they plan to hold an open house is in spring 2024.

The Milford Township couple hope to have their model railroad finished by July 2025, just in time for the National Model Railroad Association annual convention that will be in Michigan at that time.

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