Hello, Upstate Model Railroaders!

To my friends at the Upstate Model Railroaders,

So, I have litterally 1/3 of the house space that I used to have up in NY.  Having a full layout is out of the question for me.  Granted I have a large N-Trak group in my area, I find that I miss the social aspect of the club.  I really do miss my “home” layout up in Glens Falls, NY.

While we’ve been here I’ve tried to contact the Severna Park club, which is one of the top layouts in the country apparently.  Sadly, I don’t think they care to invite new people to the group.  They’ve been covered in the Model Railroading magazine a couple of times in the past (take a look).  Too bad I don’t think I’ll see it until thier open house in December.

Another amazing layout we found was at a local mall.  A couple of churches convinced the Marly Station Mall to give them a good sized room by one of the entrances all year round.  Starting 6 months before Christmas, the churches of many different denominations get together and start building a brand new layout from scratch!  The substructure might be the same, but the rest is all brand new each season.  Essentially, they had 5 layouts this past season.  2 smaller units and one extra large piece with multiple levels and automated equipment that kids cycled on and off from the sidelines.  Everything they ran was O-scale.

We have made our way to DC a couple of times.  I prefer to park at the very edge of the city and take the rails in to town.  Coal trains often go running by as you travers above ground during the first part of the run.  You also get to see the maintenance yards along the way on the east side of the orange line.

Lastly, we’ve also made it up to the B&O Museum up in Baltimore.  Too bad the place is surrounded by so many bad neighborhoods.  But in the facility, things are wonderful.  Whether its steam or diesel, they have your flavor of history.  It includes a short, but historically rich train ride in the local neighborhood.  When we visited, we were lucky enough to see a small G scale layout, a huge N-scale layout, and another layout of 2 separate track plans for a massive O-scale group:  all of which were modular.  Did I forget to mention the outdoor G-scale layout?  Wow!

Hope everyone is doing well!

Daddy (Mommy, & Johnny too)