Model railroading is a fun-filled leisure activity that provides plenty of scope for the creative individual with a technical bent. Model railroading incorporates a variety of interesting activities from building, maintaining, upgrading and operating a model train set.

What kind of world you create, where you create it, and how much time you spend in it… is entirely over to you.

You can build a model train set layout in the solitude of your basement, loft, shed or garage workshop… or you can sit in a sun lounger and watch model trains weave around your garden (g scale)… or you can join a local model railroading club and share your ideas and experiences with others. The opportunities with model railroading are endless.

1941-1945

US railroads remain under private control during World War II. Trains move on average twice the monthly volume of both freight and passengers as during World War I.

The longest train journey in the world without changing trains is 6,346 miles (10,214 km.), from Moscow, Russia, to Pyongyang, North Korea. The train trip takes almost eight days with only one train a week taking this route.

Of the numerous train models on display in the Chatham Railroad Museum, four are of special note. Scale models of the locomotives in use in the late 1930s on the New York Central Railroad, they were handmade by Walthers Brothers, a top model train set maker, for display at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. The trains were later shown off in various New York Central stations, as well as Grand Central Station, on a working model layout. The late Frank Love, the first director of the museum who had worked for the railroad, arranged for the train set models to be displayed at the Chatham museum in the early 1960s.

To get there: From Route 6 (Mid-Cape Highway) take Exit 11 Chatham/Brewster Route 137. Address: 153 Depot Road, Chatham, MA 02633

Train News: New Zealand

Vintage steam locomotive WAB794 puffed back into service after 43 years on 27 August 2005.

The 78 year old steam locomotive returns to the North Island of New Zealand’s main trunk line as part of a tourism experiment. The historic steam locomotive pulled Tranz Scenic’s Overlander carriages 200 km from Feilding (near Palmerston North) to Ohakune and back. The journey took passengers through some of New Zealand’s most beautiful countryside.

1840

More than 2,800 miles of track are in operation in the USA.

The London Underground or ‘the Tube’ as it is universally known to Londoners, is normally the quickest and easiest way of getting around London with 275 stations conveniently dotted across the city (63 in central London). In London you are never far from a Tube station. Most people in London use the Tube.

London is served by 12 Tube lines. Underground trains on all lines run every few minutes between 5.30 until 00:30 Monday to Saturday, and between 7.30 – 23.30 on Sundays. Each line has its own unique colour, so you can easily follow them on maps and signs throughout the system.

1838

Five of the six New England states have rail service, as do such frontier states as Kentucky and Indiana.

The first train arrived on December 26, 1913, and the last train left on January 5, 1988. The original train station had been consumed by fire so the MCS was hurriedly put into operation before the finishing touches were done.

Since then the building has remained unfinished, because it was too busy functioning until after World War II, and after that it didn’t make enough profit to cover expenses.

As at June 30, 1941, the US Railway Mail Service employed 20,584 officers and employees, of whom 19,486 were postal clerks.

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/

1833

A total of 380 miles of rail track are in operation in the U.S.

1861-1865

The Civil War becomes the first major conflict in which railroads play a major role as both sides use trains to move troops munitions and supplies. Two-thirds of the nation’s railroads were in the northern states in 1861. The north was where the industrial centers were located.

In the South there were gaps in the rail network within and between states. Tracks of differing gauge (five feet was the dominant gauge) caused problems in transferring passengers and cargo between rail lines. Also, the South had less rolling stock, while track materials and locomotive factories were scarce.

Fort Bend County, Texas, has been a hot bed of railroad activity for more than 150 years. These days a suburb of Houston, Fort Bend County is crossed by some of the most active rail lines in the US, including the former-SP “Sunset Route”. Living in various communities in this area, the members of the Fort Bend Model Railroad club are blessed both with the opportunity to see a lot of full-size trains in action, and to model railroads in N scale indoors as a way to seek relief from those long hot coastal-Texas summer days.

The Club has a large NTRAK layout composed on many modules, tied together by the theme of railroading in Fort Bend County in 1951. When all the modules are used, the layout is about 40 ft. x 24 ft. in size, with a center island with 9 12 ft. tracks used for staging.

Here’s the central piece of the module: the Imperial Sugar Factory and company-town buildings as they appeared in 1951. The reconstruction is based on extensive research and interviews.

Looking due west from the east end of the Sugar Land module (near the old crossing tower), some of the lower details of this module are visible. That’s the California Zephyr approaching in the distance.

These photos kindly supplied by the Fort Bend Model Railroad Club http://www.fbmrc.com/

Ponderosa North Model Railroad Club describe themselves as a round-robin club. Why? Because, the club does not have a permanent home – but rather it moves from members house to another members house on a monthly basis. This happens each month with the exception of the summer months of May – August, as it gets a bit hot in Phoenix.

Ponderosa North Model Railroad Club members share knowledge and experience with one another, displaying and critiquing each others model making. Members also view prototype train videos, help each other in building our home layouts – laying track, wiring, building scenery and running the trains in a prototype manner. Members also like to go rail fanning on the two transcontinental main lines as well as the dozen or so short lines in Arizona.

The club has a modular layout that is housed at club members homes. This layout is a working layout that is run at model railroading events like Railfair & the Great American Train Show. Work is normally done at these events to show both a running of trains and a demonstration of how to work on a layout providing visitors with help building their own layout.

The Ponderosa North Model Railroad Club has an excellent website that is well worth inspecting http://www.arizonarails.com

Slim Gauge Guild Model Railroad Club in Pasadena, CA, has two layouts located in a 2000 square foot basement.

The Model Railroad Clubs HOn3 layout is based on the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad and the Rio Grande Southern. On the HOn3 layout the club tends to model specific prototype scenes.

The Sn3 layout is more freelanced. The club loosely models the Colorado and Southern for their mainline and northern California lumber companies for their highline.

Well weathered Sn3 Oil cars. The tank in back is painted on backdrop.

Santa Fe F7 passing the water tank at Colorado City yards Sn3.

The HOn3 track at Windy Point

The Slim Gauge Guild Model Railroad Club in Pasadena has its own Model Railroad Club website http://www.slimgaugeguild.com/

A model train enthusiast can build a model train set layout in the solitude of his or her basement, attic, shed or garage workshop… or they can sit in a sun lounger and watch model trains weave around their garden… or the model train enthusiast can join a local model railroading club and share their model train ideas and experiences with others.

The opportunities for the model train enthusiast are endless!

‘We don’t stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing’
George Bernard Shaw

As the name implies, the Indian Pacific Train travels from the Indian Ocean all the way to the Pacific Ocean. This famous ocean to ocean train trip across Australia is one of the world’s longest and greatest train journeys.

This train journey from Sydney (on the East Coast) to Perth (on the West Coast) covers 4352kms. The Indian Pacific Train travels from the spectacular Blue Mountains to the treeless plains of The Nullarbor, where the train travels the world’s longest straight stretch of railway track (478 kilometres).

Passengers experience three nights aboard the train as well as scheduled stops at Broken Hill, Adelaide and gold rich Kalgoorlie. A remote outpost on the Nullarbor Plain called Cook, population 2, presents a further opportunity to stretch your legs.

The Indian Pacific passenger train first ran in February 1970 from Sydney Central to East Perth linked New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia but by-passed Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. The Adelaide rail terminal (with standard gauge connection) was opened in May 1984.