Long-Time Hatboro Business Owner Dies

Hatboro business owner Alvin C. Wipplinger Jr., a self-described “big kid at heart” introduced the lure of trains and accompanying railroad tracks to a new generation of enthusiasts.

Wipplinger, known to many as Al, not only created the Main Street Hatboro Model Train Show – which wrapped its seventh annual event last month – he also bought and sold trains through his borough business, Village Hardware and Hobbies.

Wipplinger, of Horsham died on Sunday. He was 72.

Following his death, folks who worked with him on all things trains, said the borough’s train show, which doubles as a fundraiser for the Main Street Hatboro program, would continue.

“He provided the leadership that was necessary to get this thing off the ground,” Al Zollers, a fellow train lover and train show committee member said of Wipplinger. The show, masterminded by Wipplinger, a member and former president of Main Street Hatboro, would most definitely go on, Zollers said, “as long as there’s a Main Street Hatboro.”

For 30 years Wipplinger had owned Village Hardware, most recently located in Hatboro. The store originally opened in 1983 in the Village Mall in Horsham, Wipplinger told Patch last year.

Vic Klarberg, one of Wipplinger’s four store employees, described his boss of six years as “very caring, understanding and easy to work with” and said he was shocked to hear of his death.

“He was just in the store on Friday and he seemed to be recuperating very well,” Klarberg said of Wipplinger, who had fallen ill in the days prior to the train show in December. “He was coming into work like two, two-and-a-half hours trying to work back into a schedule. He seemed to be fine.”

Klarberg said Wipplinger’s love of trains was obvious to all who knew him.

“There’s absolutely nothing he didn’t know about trains,” Klarberg said.

Perhaps that’s why starting the train show was such a natural fit for the U.S. Air Force veteran and 21-year executive officer at Philadelphia National Bank. Hatboro Main Street Manager Stephen Barth said for the “benefit of the entire community.”

“I think it was his love of the borough in trying to make it a better place,” Barth said of Wipplinger, a “high-integrity individual” who he noted had a “great sense of humor.”

Besides Wipplinger’s love of trains, his store showcased the goods for every household tinkering – big or small.

“He knew how to fix everything and he had every little object that actually fixes it,” Barth said.

As for the store, Klarberg said he is not “100 percent sure” of its future, but, for the time being, “we’re still here to help you.”

Visitation

Relatives and friends will be received by Wipplinger’s family in the Schneider Funeral Home, 431 N. York Road in Hatboro on Friday from 6 p.m. until his masonic service at 7:30 p.m. followed by his funeral service at 7:45 p.m. In lieu of flowers memorials may be made in his memory to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, 30 S. 17th St., Suite 800, Philadelphia, Pa 19103.

Click here to read Wipplinger’s obituary.