Proud History Of Napa Valley Model Railroad Historical Society

December 7, 2005

Napa Valley Model Railroad Historical Society, Inc. was formed in 1955 for the purposes of constructing an HO Scale layout and to advance the hobby of model railroading in the Napa Valley and surrounding areas.

The model railroad club’s early layouts included small portable layouts in the Main Exhibition Building of the fairgrounds during the fair, and a layout in the old West Napa, Southern Pacific station.

In the early 1960’s the model railroad club had its first “permanent” layout and by the mid 1960’s club members began building a large layout in the basement of a barracks at the Veterans Home in Yountville.

In 1970, the Napa Valley Model Railroad Historical Society model railroad club moved back to the fairgrounds in Napa to its current location in a two story 40′ x 40′ building.

The Napa Valley Northern layout occupies this 3600 square foot “L” shaped room. The 1600 square foot second floor serves as a meeting area, library, and workshop for the model railroading club.

The Napa Valley Model Railroad Historical Society has a railroad line running from Napa north through Lake County, with northbound connections to Portland, and southbound connections to Stockton.

The layout has over 1500 feet of track. The time period is from 1940 to present. The observer will see various types of prototype and freelance rail equipment and buildings around the layout. Because of space limitations, areas are not reproduced in their exact geographical configurations.

Above: Napa is the largest area on the railroad. It consists of a large clasification yard (Known as Nelson Yard), an engine servicing facility, an intermodal yard and industrial area. The industries are switched by the Napa Union Terminal Company (NUTCO). Included are Union 76 Refinery, a scrapyard, a pipe plant. Future developments are milling and printing companies.

Above: Just down a dirt road a bit, back on the mainline is Yellow Jacket, a small maintenance area. Here, SP 2405, an ALCo C415 pulls a local on by.

If you are visiting California, then be sure to make contact with the Napa Valley Model Railroad Historical Society. This model railroad club has an impressive layout as you will see when you visit their website http://www.nvmrc.org/