Chicago Museum of Science and Industry

[rogerhensley]

Yesterday, the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry opened its new accurate HO scale railroad that runs from Seattle to Chicago and points in between. The web site does a great job of showing the layout, and the history of the model train layout at the museum.

http://www.msichicago.org/exhibit/g...tory/index.html

From their press release...
"This is not your average model train set. The Great Train Story
replaces the Museum's former 60-year-old Santa Fe Railway exhibit and boasts a new 3,500 square foot layout. It depicts the railroad's winding journey between Chicago and Seattle, passing through the Midwest, the Plains States, the Rockies, the Cascades, and into the Pacific Northwest. Along the way, trains are involved in industries as diverse as grain commodities, raw materials for manufacturing, consumer goods for import and export, lumber, apples, and tourism."

Take a look and enjoy!

Roger

Roger Hensley - [e-mail]
== http://www.nmra.org/beginner/ ==
== NMRA Beginner Pages ==

[rogerhensley]

Oops. Bad URL. Here is he correct one

http://www.msichicago.org/exhibit/great_train_story/index.html

[Anonymous]

I was born in Chicago and when I was a little kid we'd go to the museum and spend lots of time at the original O scale layout. Thus began my quest for trains.....

[dknelson]

What became of the old equipment? The original layout was the work of Minton Cronkite one of the real pioneers of model railroading and one of the first to use a "corrected" gage for O scale, which he called Q. By the time I saw the layout in the 1960s I suspect most of the original equipment had been retired. I believe the Santa Fe RR played at least some funding role for a while.
Dave Nelson

[MAbruce]

I too came from Chicago and remember the layout from many years ago. From what I saw on the website, it looks like they did a first class job.

Now if they only did it in N-scale...

[douginut]

Grew up in Chicago too,

If they did it in N Scale it could have been
"The Americas" or in Z, "The WHOLE WORLD"

yep but slowly circling the layout as it was could infuriate mothers and fascinate fathers. The Marx O-27 always looked so "tacky" set up on the dinner table

Doug, In Utah.