The Western Pennsylvania Model Railroad Museum

[Rollin]

Welcome to a tour by photo of an amazing layout which I visited.
Fellow members of a preservation group which I belong to, the American Steam Railroad, got a personal open house recently, with track privileges and an unobstructed view of the scenery. which is protected by glass panels on regular open house dates.

For those who want more, I encourage you to check out the following websites

https://www.americansteamrailroad.org

http://wpmrm.org

[Rollin]

Inside this large building is the layout, as well as gift shop, snack bar, displays etc.
The organization has plans to expand in the near future. You can also find recent coverage and a track plan in the December 2023 issue of Model Railroader.

The HO layout is a fictional road set in the very real landscape of SW Pennsylvania. The Mon Valley would have been created by a merger of several roads in the 30's. The club has gone to great effort to show the towns and locales as they would have been in the early 1950's

[Rollin]

When I entered the layout, I was standing on the south bank of the Monongahela River, looking at the Pittsburgh skyline. The bridges are magnificent.



Over my shoulder is the office building for the P & LE, as well as one of the city's famous inclined railways.

[deemery]

Those 2 bridges are spectacular!  But the P&LE station should be next to the Smithfield St Bridge (the double lenticular).  

That layout is close to where my grandparents lived, but that was A Long Time Ago....

dave

[Rollin]

Club members have used 3D printing to fabricate trusses for this passenger shed. They have decaled and weathered much of the rolling stock for this empire. The freight depot looks very busy with those trailers.

[Rollin]

The streets are busy with vehicles and people. It wasn't until. I looked at the pictures that I realized there is a mirror hiding there making the street longer.

[Rollin]

As we move away from the downtown triangle, we come to one area that is being refurbished. There will be an intricate set of tracks here servicing the steel mill.

[GPdemayo]

Neat layout.....thanks for posting Rollin. 

[ReadingBob]

Looks like a great place to visit!  Thanks for posting the pictures Rollin!

[tom.boyd.125]

Rollin,
 Looks like you had a great time seeing this impressive layout. Thanks for sharing your visit to this RR museum.
Tommy

[Zephyrus52246]

Some pretty big bridges there.  Looks like a great layout.  Thanks for sharing.

Jeff

[ACL1504]

Afternoon all,

Thanks for sharing the layout photos Rollin, a great layout.

Dr. app. this morning and I've ben doing pretty much on nothing all day.

Hope all is well with ya'll.

Tom 

[Rollin]

Guys, thanks for looking in and your comments. This layout is so big, I'm still walking down one wall of the building. As we approach the next corner, we come to the biggest yard on the layout. We see a line of crummies with their custom lettering.



Behind them is a scratch built model of a roundhouse, matching the prototype.
It actually was a wooden roundhouse, modified through the years as motive power got bigger and longer.

[Rollin]

In the yard, one of the impressive structures is a long icing platform.



You might also notice, the lighting seems to be changing...when the layout is operating in computerized display mode, the lighting cycles through a day into evening, and will even go nighttime dark. This shows off the lighted structures very nicely.

[Rollin]

I love the detail that has been added in every area of this layout.



We've now reached McKeesport, where travelers are waiting on the platform. Next door is the library and you can see the books.