Joe Dury lived and breathed trains.

As a kid, Joe listened to the stories of his grandfather, a real character who had been a paymaster for the Pennsylvania Railroad, and developed a passion for model railroading, said his wife, Margaret Dury.

A founder of the Ohio Valley Model Railroad Club, Mr. Dury died at a personal care home near his native Sewickley on Friday. He was 87.

His friend, Chip Holland, said that when Mr. Dury was still living at home, he would visit him and help him rebuild some of his older train models.

In recent years, after the club members had decided that all the rolling stock in their collections would switch over to metal wheels, Mr. Holland would spend Monday afternoons with his friend "and we would sit and talk while I switched wheels on about 400 freight cars.

"He was a good guy, a really good guy. The club meant everything to him. I'm the treasurer, so he would always want to know if guys were paying their dues."

Mr. Holland said the club, which is based in Ambridge, has about 35 members and has been growing.

After graduating from Kenyon College in economics, Mr. Dury started his career in the trust department at Fidelity Bank.

"When he proposed to me and found out I was making more than he was, he decided to change jobs," said Mrs. Dury. "I worked in the traffic department at U.S. Steel."

Mr. Dury was secretary and manager of sales for the Rosedale Foundry and Machine Co. on the North Side, the company that built the gate for the Panama Canal. She said after the collapse of the steel industry locally, her husband went to work in marketing for the coal industry.

Not one to travel much, Mr. Dury agreed to help bring a friend's yacht from Florida to the Potomac River some years ago and the crew had an adventure when they steered the boat, which was having engine trouble, into a Naval base and were motioned to pull up beside a destroyer, where Navy inspectors boarded the boat to check it for security clearance.

"We were supposed to be one week out and it took two," said Mrs. Dury, who was part of the galley crew. "We were quite a green bunch. It was the only time he sailed in his life and he had an adventure any sailor would give his eyeteeth for."

Because of his strong personality and quick decision, Mr. Dury was called "Gruffy Bear" by friends, his wife said, "but with a heart of gold."

Mr. Dury was instrumental in getting the adolescent rehabilitation unit established at the former St. Francis Hospital in the 1980s while a board member of the Staunton Farm Foundation, said Mrs. Dury.

An almost lifelong tennis player, Mr. Dury belonged to the Allegheny County Club and the Edgeworth Club. He was also a member of the Sewickley Valley Historical Society.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by a son, John Cameron Dury, of Brighton Heights.

Services will be at 2 p.m. tomorrow in Sewickley Presbyterian Church, 414 Grant St.

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