Model Railroad open house

Rochester, New York — The Rochester Model Railroad Club is hosting a weekend open house.

The club is located on S. Clinton Ave. and is celebrating 83 years of model railroading. It’s like a ride on the Lehigh Valley Railroad from Jersey to Buffalo in the 1960s.

The club has a 350-foot double-track mainline. There are even trolley cars. It is all in the details from the trains, trees, lights, and people. It’s a snapshot of life along the railroad.

“My father gave me a Lionel train in the ’50s and I have been hooked on model trains ever since. That is true of a lot of guys here,” said Jim Moe from the Rochester Model Railroad Club.

This club is so good at what they do that they just got a 10-page spread in the internationally published magazine, Railroad Model Craftsman.

“It is one of the top magazines in the country for model railroaders,” said Mark Rossiter from the Rochester Model Railroad Club. “We like to view ourselves as having one of the top layouts in the country and this helps verify that. The prototype scenes we try to emulate, the realism, the detail and we are trying as hard as we can to make it toy-like. This is a serious model railroad, not a toy train layout.”

This weekend‘s open house is a chance to see as many as 10 trains running simultaneously. You can also chat with club members and check out the best of the best in model railroads.

The open house is Saturday 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. and Sunday 1 p.m. – 5 p.m.

The club is located in the lower level of First Universalist Church at 150 S. Clinton Ave. in Rochester.