Longtime Trainfest executive director John Tews passed away on Oct. 10, 2024. He was 81 years old.
John, a resident of Milwaukee suburb Sussex, Wis., since the mid-1960s, was a project manager for Wisconsin Electric for 35 years, retiring in 2006. His HO scale Timber River Ry. was featured in the January 1985, November 1992, and January 2019 issues of Model Railroader, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and the PBS series Tracks Ahead. He hosted the first operating session on the layout on June 22, 1968. More than 330 operating sessions took place on the iron ore railroad, which featured trains running from Minnesota’s Mesabi Range to the docks on Lake Superior in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
John was also building On30 and O gauge layouts at his vacation home. He was still running the Lionel Santa Fe F3 and Pennsylvania RR steam turbine he had as a child.
In 2011, John was the first recipient of the Spirit of Model Railroading Award named in his honor for his lifelong dedication to the model railroading hobby. The National Model Railroad Association Master Model Railroader retired as executive director of Trainfest, the Milwaukee-area train show, in 2014. John served in that role for more than 20 years. “Due to the time required by Trainfest, much to my chagrin at times, my model railroad empire the Timber River Ry. has sat idle in my basement,” Tews was quoted in the April 2014 Model Railroader. “It has beckoned me many a time. The situation has caused me many long soul searching hours to resolve the time constraint conflict of Trainfest versus my personal life and passion for the hobby.”
In addition, John Tews was Sussex village president and treasurer of Christ Our Savior church for 12 years each and was past president of Friends of East Troy Railroad Museum.
He is survived by wife, Nancy, and sons Christopher, John, and Mark.
