The
Prince William County Model Railroad Club Layout Tour
by
Brian
W. Sheron, MMR
On
Saturday, April 29th, Marshall Abrams, the Division’s Senior
Assistant Superintendent and Potomac Flyer editor, and I headed down
to Quantico to visit the Prince William County Model Railroad
Club. I had not been down that way in a while, and forgot how
big our Division is! The club is located in the VRE train station
that is in the town of Quantico, just inside the Quantico Marine
Corp. base. To get to the train station, you must enter the base
through the north gate reachable off Exit 150 on I-95. You
will stop at a checkpoint and all people in the vehicle have to show
identification (driver’s license works). Upon receiving approval to
proceed, we drove to the town of Quantico, parked at the VRE
station, and proceeded to the layout, which is housed in a room on
the south end of the station. Entering the layout, we received a
warm welcome from Bill Sydow, the club president, and several of the
members that were there operating trains. I would estimate that the
layout room was about about 30’ x 30’ and consisted of a folded dog
bone track plan with various passing and industrial sidings. The
layout uses Digitrax DCC.
Bill
explained that the club’s railroad is called the PD&Q, which is
the Potomac, Dominion, and Quantico Railroad, a fictional railroad
that serves the Quantico area. During our visit, they were running
both steam and some early generation RS diesels. However, I was told
that the members could run any engines that they wanted to. The
scenery varied around the layout and included a waterfront dock
area, some industrial sidings, and some trackage that went through
hilly rural areas.
Bill
explained that they have recently been focusing on some overdue
maintenance, but are now ready to get back into operations.
The club has
served the Northern VA area for over 25 years, and was created with
the primary purpose of sharing the hobby of Model Railroading with
the public.
The club
started as a modular club and still does 10-12 modular shows
annually throughout the county and at train shows in the Washington
DC and Baltimore area. In 2005, the PWMRC began construction
on its permanent layout in the VRE Train Station in the Village of
Quantico.
In addition
to the modular shows, the club hosts an open house at its Quantico
layout on the first Saturday of every month, on the Marine Corps
Birthday, and on the first three Saturdays of December.
The club is
always looking for new members, whether they are seasoned veterans
or brand new to the hobby. They have a relaxed atmosphere and
encourage members to run the equipment and railroads that interest
them. The club is proud of its Junior Member program which
introduces the hobby to boys and girls between the ages of 8-17. The
club also hosts clinics and operations sessions. Their meetings and
events are usually open to visitors and potential new members, and
they encourage everyone to come out and meet them. For more
information you can contact the President, Bill Sydow at westernrrfan@gmail.com
Marshall and
I thoroughly enjoyed our visit to this well-done club layout. If you
missed the opportunity to see it last Saturday, I strongly urge you
to take advantage of their open house on the first Saturday of each
month and stop by for a visit.