The miniature Town of Jerome is for sale for $10,000.
Image Credit: Gerry Yurkosk
September 19, 2021 - 7:05 AM
As a model train enthusiast gets ready for departure from West Kelowna, he wants to find a new home for his little community.
Gerry Yurkoski put a $10,000 price tag on the Town of Jerome – his model railroad set that is approximately seven by 15 feet. The project began simply as a diorama of a town, with the earliest buildings first designed and constructed 30 years ago. But upon completion, he felt like the stationary community was missing something.
“I finished that and thought, ‘now what are you going to do, just look at it?’” Yurkoski said.
He initially had no intention of designing and building a model railroad, but after putting so much detail into the project, he realized it was time to lay some miniature tracks.
“I knew some guys who were into model railroading and thought, maybe I’ll just build one… have a little bit of track running through the diorama for effect.”
From there, he found himself expanding his mini rail network more and more.
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Yurkoski never kept track of how much went into the project, but he figures around $6,000 was invested in materials as well as thousands of hours. The whole set has about 30 buildings, and he’s spent up to 40 hours designing and building a single one.
He put so much effort into the model because he loves detail.
“I was a draftsman by trade. I'm artistic, I paint – and I know how to capture realism.”
Yurkoski poured the roads, sculpted the mountains and applies the realistic effects of weathering.
“The world’s a dirty place – not always pristine. It has to look old and worn and dirty sometimes,” he said. “Anybody can plunk down buildings and graphics on a piece of plywood but to make it come to life it takes the little things, like garbage cans and telephone poles.”
The miniature Town of Jerome is up for sale.
Image Credit: Gerry Yurkoski
The whole set can be taken apart into at least six different sections, he said, and doing so will probably result in only minor damage that can be easily repaired.
Yurkoski decided it was time to put a price tag on his passion project because of his advancing age.
“Health issues are always a concern – I wouldn’t want to leave this for my wife to have to deal with," he said.
While the $10,000 might sound like a lot of money, he said the amount of detail is phenomenal.
Anybody interested in the model railroad set can contact Yurkoski by email at gerryyurkoski@gmail.com.
The miniature Town of Jerome is up for sale.
Image Credit: Gerry Yurkosk
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