Stroll around the picturesque downtown of Woodstock on a quiet summer night and you might hear the clatter of steel wheels or the sound of a locomotive horn in the distance. This is where Northern Pacific freight trains share the rails with the Metra commuter service. Since the 1800s, railroads have served as the iron arteries connecting this bedroom community in McHenry County to downtown Chicago, roughly 60 miles to the southeast.

Just off the town square of Woodstock, you will find railroad roundabouts on a far smaller scale at M.D. Trains, a popular brick and mortar owned by Matt Drennan, who understands the passion and creativity that embodies model railroading.

“M.D. Trains is basically your classic all round hobby shop,” said Matt. “We carry everything from trains to cars to soldiers, pretty much anything you can envision that for the last 50 years that people have collected.”

“Building a train set or building a model honestly allows you to express your creativity,” said Matt describing the essence of what draws people to this enduring hobby. “If you can imagine it, you can build it as long as you have the time and the money.”

Laying tracks for success

Matt says his love of model railroading can be traced to time spent with a great uncle who had an imitation train set of the area around Crystal Lake in northern Illinois. He also mentioned that a grandmother kindled his interest in the hobby.

“She encouraged us to go and check out the trains in downtown Crystal Lake, specifically the circus train,” shared Matt. “Then, when I was about eight, my parents picked me up the Tyco G.I. Joe train set.”

“As a kid, I collected a few trains. I actually enjoyed going to museums and seeing the real thing. It wasn’t until later in life that I actually started building my collection,” reflected Matt on his early fascination with trains.

A curve in the tracks

The journey from childhood train enthusiast to hobby shop owner took Matt on a journey he never expected. His said he originally went to college for cartography, so that he could learn how to work with maps.

“It turned out I wasn’t very good with ink,” explained Matt. “But I was very good in pencil and fell into landscape design.

“I was designing railroad gardens, which allowed for larger trains to be put outside in a yard,” said Matt. “That led me into a train shop that was also a nursery called St. Aubins and that brought me into their train store altogether. When they closed, we decided to open up M.D. Trains in 2018.”

Matt told us that his wife provided support and perspective, setting a foundational rule for his new venture in the world of retail.

“My wife’s rule was that I better never complain about my job, because all I’m doing is going to work to play,” Matt shared with a smile.

Like many successful small businesses, M.D. Trains first launched predominantly as an online business with merchandise sold out of his house, before moving into his first brick and mortar location.

“We moved into a building which was 950 square feet, and we were in that building for four and a half years,” explained Matt about the steady growth of M.D. Trains. “In 2023, we moved in our present location, which is now 3000 square feet. So, we’ve been getting progressively bigger as we go,”

Matt says the choice to put his store in downtown Woodstock was strategic, taking advantage of the village’s unique character and tourist appeal. Matt recognized that his business could benefit from the community’s reputation, even drawing on the steady stream of visitors drawn to the area’s cinematic fame.

“This town is known for moviemaking. Obviously, the famous one is Groundhog Day,” said Matt. “In my mind, looking at the classic American layout of a square, I felt that an all-American hobby shop would fit really well in this environment.”

The train is rolling

Opening a hobby shop seemed like swimming against the current, according to Matt, who described how hobby businesses have been closing steadily in the face of a changing marketplace.

“Toys R Us had just shut down. Hobby Town around here closed both their locations, one for retirement and one for bankruptcy. We walked into a vacuum,” explained Matt. “There were still hobbyists out there. They still wanted to buy their trains. They still wanted to get their cars. And it just grew from there. We started out as a typical train shop, added in the cars, added in the models, and we have become a general hobby shop.”

At the time, Matt said hobbyists did not simply abandon their interests when their local shops closed, they were looking for new sources for supplies and expertise. Same goes for the pandemic in 2020, which Matt said actually helped his business.

“Everybody was stuck at home. Everybody wanted to work on something. They couldn’t drive to work. They couldn’t go on vacation,” explained Matt. “So, what did they do? They dusted off an old hobby, and they started putting it together.”

A community hub

M.D. Trains now serves as a safe and welcoming place where customers make connections over trains, according to Matt, who said that on a typical Saturday, his store is filled with customers bonding in discussions about trains.

“They’re all across the spectrum,” said Matt looking around his shop. “You’ll have a doctor in one aisle, you have a ditch digger in the other. In reality, they all have this shared communal response when they’re talking about trains and cars.”

The shop features several, prominent model train layouts which are designed to inspire customers for their own model railroad projects.

“One layout is what we call our movie and TV show layout,” explains Matt who says he uses the model train set to inspire kids who come to the store.
“Kids can go through the layout and try to figure out what TV shows there are in the layout, and they can win a prize.”

Another display at the store represents the bittersweet reality that many hobbyists eventually face when age and physical limitations force them to part ways with their beloved collections.

“A customer of mine unfortunately developed Parkinson’s Disease and can no longer play with his trains, and we are selling it for him,” said Matt with a palpable tinge of sadness in his voice.

Adapting to a changed landscape

Although hobby shops were once somewhat omnipresent in the U.S., they have become increasingly rare, casualties of changing demographics and shifting recreational priorities, according to Matt.

“As kids got busy and sports were taking on more of a role of a job than play, the hobby shop environment started to change. It took a long time for that environment to adjust to the reality that it is today,” noted Matt.

M.D. Trains benefited from that consolidation, drawing customers from a broad swath of northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin.

“The fact of the matter is, you can probably count on two hands the number of hobby shops between Alsip, Illinois, and the Wisconsin border right now,” explained Matt. “For us, that’s great. We have our bubble in which to pull customers from because they either have to go all the way to the lake, all the way to Rockford, head south to Elgin, or go north across the border into Wisconsin.”

Matt says the location of his store in Woodstock proved to be perfect, because it fills the void of an underserved geographic market in a village that enjoys the benefits of heavy tourist traffic.

“We have people here all the time that are from all walks of life. I had a couple from France and a couple from South Africa that came in. The downtown area is a little microcosm of what I call old, downtown America,” said Matt. “This is how it was in the 50s and 60s, and it is starting to be that way again.”

“Model trains are classic Americana. Norman Rockwell made them famous. He stuck them in the Saturday Evening Post. Coca-Cola decided to throw them in all of their ads with Santa Claus,” added Matt. “Model trains are part of classic movie scenes from A Christmas Story and Home Alone. Railroading is stuck in the consciousness of the United States, whether people realize it or not.”

This cultural connection has also manifested in a steady stream of vintage model trains and train sets brought to the shop, creating a marketplace where past meets the present. The shop’s role in the secondary market for collectibles adds another dimension to Matt’s business model.

“We’ve had valuable trains from the 1920s walk in the door. I’ve got good friends who travel around northern Illinois who find vintage model trains at area garage sales, and resale shops. The fact of the matter is that this is a green business. It’s a recycling business,” explained Matt about how he tries to give vintage trains new homes. “We are putting items on sale that you had a shot at buying back in the 70s and 80s back in your hands.”

Community building

Over the years Matt says he has learned that owning a retail business is filled with constant change. He offered up a slice of advice to hopeful retailers to always expect the unexpected.

“Every day is going to be a new challenge,” said Matt. “You may be on a high one day, but you’re going to drop to a low the next. If you can’t balance that out and understand that you’re going to drive yourself nuts.”

For Matt, his shop embodies all that he loves about ownership of his own brick and mortar.

“I set my hours. I run my own operation, and I am ultimately responsible. I don’t have a boss above me,” Matt remarked. “Decisions are mine.”

“I do get to be an adult kid. My wife says that on a regular basis,” said Matt with a grin on his face. “I’m basically going on 50, but I’m 13.”