The Chi-Town Union Station is a 5,000 sq. ft. multi-level O Scale model railroad with a 12-track double-ending passenger station built to service four separate mainline railroads (DCC and sound). A three-track main is 565' long to run 200+ hopper car trains, and a double-track main runs up to 14 trains with full computer control. A second double-track main handles mountain operations over more than 1,000' of track. A single track mainline interchanges with the other three lines. Source (
visit link)
The address is
8275 Cooley Lake Road, Commerce, MI, 48382
(248) 613-9471
Hours are Fri 12 noon to 8 pm, Sat & Sun 10 am to 6 pm;
The story behind the model railroad is almost as interesting as the railroad itself. The article from the Detroit Free Press on November 28,2009 tells us (
visit link) :
"One could say Paul Gribbell works on the railroad. All day long.
And what started out as a way to indulge Gribbell's passion for model trains has morphed into an attraction that draws thousands of visitors annually to a former grocery store in Commerce Township.
The Chi-Town Union Station, now open for its fifth season, is the largest O-scale model railroad in the state -- if not the United States -- said Gribbell, the owner. He said 4,000 to 5,000 visitors come each year to see the trains -- which are one-forty-eighth the size of a real train -- chug around more than 7,000 feet of track during the season, which runs from November to April.
"I admit it, I'm kind of nuts," said Gribbell, 68, of West Bloomfield.
About 20 trains are running at any given time through scenery that includes murals of downtown Chicago and the California desert.
Seth Lampe, one of about 12 volunteers who helps Gribbell, said Chi-Town is based on the railway systems that ran out of Chicago in the 1950s and 1960s. There's the bright yellow Super Chief that ran from Chicago to Los Angeles and the two-tone gray 20th Century Limited that ran from Chicago to New York.
"I knew the names of all these trains when I was a kid," said Lampe, 72, of West Bloomfield.
Gribbell, who retired in 1997 as a manager with Ford Motor Co., began working on the exhibit in 1999. He had been seriously into model trains since the 1970s and wanted to build his own display. He started looking around for space, finding and buying the 10,000-square-foot former grocery store.
As he started building the exhibit, Gribbell knew he had to open it to the public; Chi-Town was born. It continues to grow, with about 1,000 feet of new track being installed and a new coal dumper -- which puts the coal cars into a queue and flips them before sending them down the line -- made operational.
Gribbell works four or five days a week most of the year on the project. While he won't say how much it cost to build or maintain -- Gribbell acknowledges it is a substantial amount -- the look of joy and excitement he sees on faces young and old makes it all worthwhile. And for railroad fans like Jim Judge, the effort is not unappreciated. Judge, 74, of Troy visited Chi-Town in February and plans to take his son and grandson in the coming months.
"It's absolutely remarkable," Judge said. "The way he started from scratch, it's fabulous."
Contact KORIE WILKINS: 586-826-7262 or kwilkins@freepress.com"