Model Railroads Near and About the Nation's Capital
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Model Railroads Near Washington, DC|
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 The
Abrams
Railroad
Empire (ARE) models the "Anachronistic Era." It's
a 20 foot by 22 foot walk-around HO layout that
focuses on operations using Car Cards and DCC in 5
operating yards and 7 towns. Track Warrants protect key single line
blocks. All switching is power routed, controlled by
strategically placed CTC panels for yards and mainline. Scenery
features urban backdrop and a
cut-away tunnel. The ARE provides the crews a fun night of comraderie
and challenges during the sessions, often making you wish you had more
time to run trains ! Proprietor: Marshall Abrams |
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The Baltimore
& Ohio's Monongah Division
is an HO model railroad,
set in West Virginia, circa the mid-1950s. The B&O’s
lines
south of Grafton, West Virginia, ran on light rail and tight
curves. On the Monongah
Division
we run regular operating sessions using Digitrax DCC. All operations
are by waybill and sequential timetable. In
addition to
the requisite coal traffic, there are local freights, traffic between
Charleston and Grafton, an interchange with the Western Maryland,
and
rudimentary passenger service. I model the area near
Buckhannon,
with Grafton and Charleston as staging tracks at the end of the
layout. The layout attempts to capture the backwoods feel of
these lines, without getting picky about the actual trackwork or
geography of any locale. Between yard duties, the local
freights, and the
through trains, I can keep about three crews running.
Proprietor:
Dean Ripple |
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 Lance
Mindheim models Miami's East
Rail District. The site
is divided into two sections. The first section is a
collection
of "photo paintings" edited from shots taken on his trip to Miami in
February of 2006. The second section features images from the
HO
scale model railroad. |
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 The Horseshoe
Curve in N Scale layout includes the PRR mainline from
"Works" in
downtown Altoona, past ALTO and SLOPE Towers, to the "Brickyard", and
up the hill to the curve itself. The line continues past MG tower and
the four-track interlocking, around McGinley's curve to the three
tunnels at the top of the hill. The eastbound and westbound main lines
seperate to
create room for the helper turnback loop in Gallitzin. The lines
re-join in Cresson and
continue downhill towards Johnstown and the west. Proprietor:
John Drye
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 The
Hudson
Point and Hawthorne Railroad is designed for "Point to Point"
Operation with optional "continuous running." Hudson Point Yard
represents the Eastern terminus of the railroad. The only access by
rail to the City of Hawthorne is via floats and barges at the
waterfronts. All of the track within the City of Hawthorne is a
separately operated railroad. The city railroad is largely a switching
operation. Real estate on the city side is at a premium so the yard is
small. It takes very sharp railroaders to keep traffic flowing in the
city! Proprietor: Ken Spranza. |
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| Visit the KayDee LugBahn. The KDLB is a European Lego train layout. |
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 Alan
Anderson's HO-scale
Kristenville
&
Michelleville Railroad started in early 1977.
Designed as a
freelanced 1920's era, steam powered railroad, it serves the limestone
quarries and Al's Brewery, each located on the outskirts of
Kristenville. The Board of Directors recognized the potential
for
some logging business and extended the line into the
mountains. The Kristenville Yard was expanded to its present
capabilities. Alantown boomed with the expanded yard, the thriving K-M
Sawmill Co., and the K-M Lumbering Co. The small
Michelleville
Railroad near Passwater Interchange was in financial trouble and was
bought for incorporation into the KMRR. |
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 The Long
Island Rail
Road Lower Montauk Branch provides maps of the Long Island
City
Area 1953 and 1860, articles by Nick Kalis, modeling hints, layout
description, prototype and layout photos, and a series of glimpses into
industries or warehouses that made for interesting freight operations
on the Long Island. Information presented includes a brief history of
the firm, how it was served by the LIRR, and what commodities were
received or shipped from this facility.
Proprietor: Nick Kalis.Nick recounts, The layout existed from 2002 -2007. Completed by 2007 it appeared on the front cover of RMC September 2007 where a story by Ben Hom appeared. The layout with all its structures is currently owned by Ben Hom and another Potomac Division member. |
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 A lot
of planning has gone into the Nickel
City Line, an HO Scale model railroad set
in the
Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania. The railroad is a free-lanced
short line railroad which operates 102 miles of single track mainline
between Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and Ridgway Pennsylvania. The railroad
is operations oriented.
Operators run trains on a fast clock and adhere to specific rules and
instructions given by a Dispatcher. NMRA Members who operate on the
Nickel City Line can earn hours towards their Chief DispatcherAP
Certificate.
Proprietor: Bob Rodriguez. |
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 Jim Brewer
is in the process of
building an HO scale
model railroad in his 3300
square foot basement depicting the Norfolk
and Western Railroad (now part of Norfolk Southern Railroad)
along
the Shenandoah River between Hagerstown, Maryland, and Roanoke,
Virginia. The period is 1956; the transition period of steam and
diesel. Modeled is 80 miles of the N&W Shenandoah Valley
between
Front Royal and Waynesboro, Virginia, with Hagerstown and Roanoke
represented by eleven common staging tracks, each almost 40 feet long.
Interchange is with the Southern Railroad in Front Royal, the
Chesapeake Western Railroad in Elkton and the Chesapeake and Ohio
Railroad in Waynesboro.See a recent layout tour. |
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 The HO
scale Oregon
Coast Railroad follows the Columbia River from Portland to Astoria
and then south along the Pacific Coast to Tillamook. Modeled activities
include an ocean port with a tramp steamer and car float, a large yard and
engine facility, a large meat-packing plant, a riverside fishing town and a
large lumber mill. The layout fills 36' by 32' room in a folded dog bone
configuration plus a 40' x 2' extension in a second room. The single
track mainline is approximately 140 feet. Total track is over 700 feet with
over 100 Tortoise powered turnouts. Scenery is 95% complete with several
water features and hundreds of trees. The layout was featured in Great Model
Railroads 2014.
Proprietor:
Mat Thompson
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 Howard
Zane’s HO Piermont
Division of the Western Maryland Railroad showcases Fifties
era
Appalachian railroading using equipment from the Clinchfield, Western
Maryland, Chesapeake & Ohio and Norfolk & Western.
Since 1992
Howard has increased the layout area to 2850 square feet. Howard
considers the Piermont to be a painting created with plaster, paper,
foam, rocks and dirt where he can bring to life the fabled coal hauling
roads of the east. The railroad features spectacular bridges, deep
scenes and breathtaking vistas. |
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 The Potomac
and Patuxent Railroad (P&P) is a modestly
successful
urban railroad serving a diverse industrial base in southeast
Washington, DC. Steam operations are set in May 1947, and diesel
operations are set in May 1957. The code 125 and 100 hand laid rail in
O-scale depicts the realism of lighter weight rail. Placement of hand
laid switches does create some interesting switching moves. Proprietor:
Ken Nesper. |
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 The late Mike White was building
the Solomons
and Patuxent Railroad
(the S&P), an HO scale fictional short line operating between
the
villages of Solomons and Owings in Calvert County, Maryland.
The
right-of-way follows the real-world graded path of the never-completed
Baltimore and Drum Point Railroad for most of its 30 or so miles
through the county. It is a country railroad serving rural people,
businesses, and industries in the Great Depression month of October
1936. |
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 Marty
McGuirk's Southern New England Railway
(SNE), is
roughly 16 x 40 with a 9-foot long, 10-foot wide, "choke" point in
the middle. Current plans are for the railroad to start at Tidewater -
a port based on New London, Connecticut, before running through several
small New England mill towns and ending at a small farming community.
Several other New England railroads will cross the SNE on its way
through the countryside, primarily the New Haven and Boston &
Maine.
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 Dave
Renard, MMR, built the
Sylvania
Central Railroad to depict the Central Division of an eastern
bridge road hauling mixed freight and passenger traffic during the
mid-1960s. With mostly
an urban setting featuring scratch-built and kit bashed
structures,trains run from a coal mining area to a tidewater terminal
with a rotary coal dumper. Three hidden staging areas route
trains over this central division of a presumed larger line.
Local way freights out of Sylvania Yard share the mainline and branches
with through freight and passenger trains. The 40-yr. old
layout
operates now with DCC and some sound equipped
locos.
Several hundred figures and small details along the right-of-way depict
irony, satire, and humor to the most observant. Subtle scenic
features incorporate materials collected from travels around the world. |
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 Bernard Kempinski's
1/48th - (O)
Scale standard gauge model railroad depicts the US
Military Railroad (USMRR)
Aquia-Fredericksburg line in 1863. Set during the Civil War the
railroad includes a harbor with car ferry, military bridges, camps,
fortifications, as well as the usual railroad facilities. The
layout is approximately 375 square feet with about 110 feet mainline.
All the track is hand laid track with stub turnouts and code
100
rail. Easy DCC powers the time table and train order operated layout.
The modest stable of brass locomotives hauls a fleet of scratch built
cars. The freight cars have wooden beam trucks with working brakes, and
link and pin couplers.
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 New York Central Western Illinois Division (WID),
is an HO Scale Model Railroad set in 1954. Operates from Kansas
City, Omaha, and Des Moines on the west, through Moberly (MO) and
Hannibal (MO), to Danville (IL) and Indianapolis (IN) on the east.
Modeled activities include a large yard and engine facility with an
18-stall roundhouse with programmable indexing servicing both steam and
diesel. Industries include a meatpacking plant, pulp mill, coal tipple,
city scenery and a port with car float. Proprietor: Pete LaGuardia. |
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