Northlandz????

[Anonymous]

Has anyone visited this gigantic display? I drove by it this week while working in New Jersey along route 202. MAN I wish I could have stopped!!!!

[topcopdoc]

Make sure you allow plenty of time to view the layout. You can walk for an hour and still only see half of it. I believe it is the largest layout world wide.

[Leon Silverman]

There is a lot to see.
If you are the sole model railroader in your family, drop your family off at the nearby Flemington Outlet Market. This would make it an outing for the whole family.

[ksax73]

I have to agree. I've been there twice. Depending on how far you live from there I would reserve a day for the visit.

The layout is pretty much freelanced. No particular area modeled like the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry's layout , but the track system and size of it is overwhelming.

It's like walking through a museum but everything is HO trains. Everytime I go it makes me want to rush and start on my own actual layout (actual benchwork and none of the operating on the floor stuff with no landscaping, lol) which won't be possible for a few years.

[Paul3]

It's also one of the worst quality layouts in the world, IMHO. It's like ol' Joe said, however, "Quantity is a quality all its' own."

The layout is big, no two ways around it, but it was slapped together is such a toy like way that it is quite sad. The bridges have no bridge decks as the flex track is just dropped right on top of the bridge beams. There are no switches as each train runs on it's own loop. The scenery was obviously done using the "hard shell" technique, as most of it looks like towels just thrown over the benchwork. The trains were short, the speeds were high. Quite frankly, it reminds me of a toy train museum...

But, man, is it big!

BTW, the guy who started it all got his money programming video games back in the day. Remember "Lost Admiral"? That was him...

Paul A. Cutler III
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Weather Or No Go New Haven
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[Pruitt]

I was there about six years ago or so, and then again just after Christmas.

The layout has deteriorated significantly. You used to see a few 10-20 car trains, and a whole lot of shorter ones. The longest train this trip was maybe eight cars. Most were two or three. There weren't that many of them. Big sections of the layout don't have any trains running at all. Apparently, where they started having problems keeping trains running, they just shut off that loop of track.

The scenery has a lot of dents and cracks in it (from employees bumping into it as they climb through the scenes to rerail trains and such, I suppose), but you probably won't notice until you see the first one, then they'll jump out at you from everywhere! There's a lot of plaster bits and other debris sitting on the low spots.

Northlandz needs to close for a month or two so that the staff can do obviously needed maintenance and repairs.

It was never a realistic display - it was more a show of the fantastic (and a good one). Now, it's just a show of the neglected and dirty.

After I hear it's been refurbished, maybe I'll go back.

[StillGrande]

I agree with Mark. Talked the family into going there this past summer. My wife and daughter (4) loved all the trains (and the big ride on one outside). If you set aside the model railroader in you and go to look at the whole thing, it is impressive. Yes, there are lots of broken things and very short trains running. Some of the structures are truly amazing. It does seem to be at the "I have a loop of track running trains and now I am bored with it" phase. The staff even seemed bored working. When we bought lunch, the old lady behind the counter seemed insulted we wanted to eat there.

[Anonymous]

I've been there a few times. Its pretty nice, but it could be a lot better.

[Anonymous]

I have been looking at Bruce Williams' (owner and sole builder) work since he had the original in his basement. You have to appreciate the uniqueness of the miniature world. It is tongue in cheek. Any railroad purist will find much at fault, but it is the pure size and stretch that is the point. It is a Disneyland of model railroading. It has silly things like toothpick farms and Civl War Scenes included, but the overall experience is paramount. There is nothing else like it. At spoints the mountains are twenty feet, floor to peak. You cross bridges and look down into valleys. It is not a scale pike. The trains are almost incidental in facf albeit Bruce is a rail fan. I would recommend it simply as something unlike anything you've ever seen elsewhere. Kids might get antsy because it does take time to walk through. There is a dollhouse museum and a working theater organ in an actual theater. They usually have an organist at work, and it is a very pleasant respite and listening experience. If you like bridges and industrial buildings, there are extraordinary examples involved. But no weathering on the trains. It is not really a "Model" railroad; more a World's Fair exhibit, or Disney Creation. My advice is to give it a shot, although the entry fee is not cheap if you have a family. And the Flemington shopping area (Turntable Junction, dishware and glassware outlets, etc.) are very close.

[PASMITH]

MorgantownRR, your close. This has not much to do with trains or model railroading as we know it. It is all a beautifully dark creation like Batman's Gothem city. My grandkids loved it and so did I. It is Ray Bradburry's "October Country " with a great big pipe organ in the middle. Fantastic stuff.

Peter Smith, Memphis