We’d like to wish season’s greetings, a merry Christmas and a happy Hanukah to all who celebrate. Model trains have always been closely tied in with the holiday season, though the origins are fuzzy: Many sources credit the association to a store display with a Lionel train set circling a Christmas tree. The story says that the train was used to carry display items, but passers-by were more interested in the toy trains themselves. Whatever the circumstances, it seems that trains have been a part of holiday decoration since around the turn of the 20th Century.
Obviously, our club layout is a bit more elaborate than your average holiday train. The Sierra Pacific is designed to emulate a real railroad. We model not only the trains and the scenery, but the operations themselves: Passengers, raw materials, and finished products being transported from Point A to Point B to Point C.
But that doesn’t mean we don’t love seeing the trains run. The Sierra Pacific is like a Christmas tree train on steroids: Long, winding trains making a one-hour-plus journey from one end of the railroad to the other, up hills, over bridges, through cities and forests. It is, at the risk of offending some of the more serious modelers in the hobby, the world’s greatest train set. (And instead of running around just one tree, our trains meander through hundreds!)
If you’re intrigued by the idea of trains beyond the holidays, why not consider joining the Pasadena Model Railroad Club? You don’t need to be an experienced modeler; we have members who are happy to teach you. You don’t have to own trains; the club has plenty. All you need is a passion for model railroading, a congenial personality, and thirty-five bucks a month for dues. For more information, please see our Become a Member page.