San Diego Model Railroad Museum ~ San Diego, California
Posted by: brwhiz
N 32° 43.870 W 117° 08.912
11S E 486083 N 3621494
The San Diego Model Railroad Museum is located in the basement of the Casa de Balboa at Balboa Park just north of downtown San Diego, California.
Waymark Code: WMFN97
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 11/07/2012
Views: 9
This museum is devoted exclusively to model railroading. There are four of the largest model layouts in the world; two HO scale, one N scale, one O scale, and one O guage toy train layout.
The largest layout in the museum is the HO Tehachapi Loop modeled by the La Mesa Model Railroad Club. It is comprised of two levels with the Loop itself and Mojave Yard being on the upper level with the Bakersfield Yards and the Caliente Horseshoe Curve being on the lower level.
The second HO layout is the San Diego & Arizona layout of the San Diego Model Railroad Club. It highlights many of the locations of Imperial County with a nice rendition of the Carrizo Gorge Trestle.
The San Diego Society of N-Scale's Pacific Desert Lines is a montage of scenes around San Diego and Imperial counties including their own model of the Carrizo Gorge Trestle, Palomar Mountain observatory, the historic San Diego Santa Fe Station, and San Diego Bay industrial scenes.
The O scale (2-rail) Cabrillo & Southwestern by the San Diego Model Railroad Club includes a working trolley line, a dinosaur being loaded into a boxcar, an operating Bascule Lift Bridge and many other fascinating sights, some with little or no connection to San Diego.
The San Diego 3-Railers Club has constructed an elaborate version of the large toy train layouts that department stores used to construct at Christmastime and that fascinated many a youngster of those bygone days. This Toy Train Gallery will bring out the kid in everyone no matter their age.
And every year in November a huge temporary layout is constructed of Lego blocks in the public meeting room where it remains until early January. This is the envy of every Lego addict in the world (especially my grandson!!).
Sodas and snacks are available from vending machines in the museum itself and there is a nice deli on the upper level above the museum.