San Diego Model Railroad Museum facts for kids
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| Established | 1980 |
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| Location | Casa de Balboa Balboa Park, San Diego, California |
| Type | Museum and Exhibition Hall |
The San Diego Model Railroad Museum is a super cool place in San Diego, California, where you can see amazing model trains! It's one of the biggest indoor model train exhibits in the world, covering a huge area of 27,000 square feet. You can find it inside the Casa de Balboa Building in beautiful Balboa Park.
This museum first opened its doors in 1982. Since then, millions of people have visited to explore its miniature worlds. The museum is also a non-profit organization, which means it's a charity that uses its money to keep the exhibits running and teach people about trains.
Contents
History of the Museum and Model Trains
Model trains have a long history in Balboa Park. It all started way back in 1935 during the California Pacific International Exposition. A talented model railroader named Minton Cronkhite designed and built some really big model railroads for that event.
Big train companies like the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway and Pennsylvania Railroad even hired him. They wanted giant model railroads for world fairs! This helped get people excited about train travel and boosted the economy during the Great Depression. Cronkhite's 40-by-70-foot model railroad was a main attraction at the 1935 exposition.
The San Diego Model Railroad Museum officially opened in 1982. Its main goals are to:
- Keep the history of railroading alive through tiny train models.
- Study and protect the history of model railroading.
- Teach everyone about the many cool parts of trains and railroads.
Explore the Amazing Exhibits
The museum has 27,000 square feet of space filled with incredible exhibits. It's home to some of the largest model train layouts of their kind! You'll find different sizes of trains, like HO scale and N scale.
Here are some of the fantastic layouts you can explore:
- Cabrillo & Southwestern (O scale): This huge layout covers 2,700 square feet. It shows a made-up train route that goes from San Diego all the way to Sacramento.
- Pacific Desert Lines (N scale): This 1,200 square foot layout is based on a train line that was planned but never built. It has tiny tracks and covers 33 scale miles of mainline track!
- San Diego & Arizona Eastern RR (HO scale): This 4,500 square foot layout is based on a real train line. It shows the journey from San Diego Union Station through Carriso Gorge to the desert at El Centro.
- Tehachapi Pass (HO scale): This two-level layout shows a famous railroad area from the 1950s. It includes the amazing Tehachapi Loop, where trains loop over themselves! Thousands of photos were used to make this model look exactly like the real place.
- Toy Train Gallery (3-Rail O gauge): This permanent layout is 42 by 44 feet. It has four main train lines, realistic scenery, and lots of moving parts. Club members use modern remote controls to run the trains. You can see old Lionel and American Flyer cars from the 1920s to the 1950s. There's even an interactive area where kids can push a button to make a train run!
The Museum Library
The museum also has a special library. It's full of books, magazines, and other materials about both model trains and real trains. You can use it for research if you're curious about railroads. It's a reference library, so you can't take items home, but it's open for anyone visiting the museum.
Meet the Railroad Clubs
The incredible model railroads you see at the museum were built and are kept in great shape by four local train clubs. These clubs are non-profit groups that love sharing their passion for trains. The clubs are:
- San Diego Model Railroad Association (also known as The San Diego Model Railroad Club)
- La Mesa Model Railroad Club
- San Diego Society of N-Scale
- San Diego 3-Railers
See also
In Spanish: San Diego Model Railroad Museum para niños
- List of railway museums
