kevinpreston8
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2006
- Messages
- 371
Today was a great day.
Only a few miles from where I live are the Pomona Fairgrounds. I visit there a few times a year for the vintage car shows/swap meats they have about 9 months out of the year. I have never been for the actual fair, or for some of the permanent exhibits.
I had heard for years about a huge model train setup out there that has existed since the 1920s. My son and I ventured out there today.
Not only is this thing huge, we went on a tour of it. It is outdoors in a garden. It was originally a small diorama build for the fair in a tent; it outgrew that tent and in 1935 it was setup in its little grounds.
It was originally a 1/2 inch scale railroad, with custom rails and transformers. It has been slowly changed and converted to a whole series of G-guage track. However, the 1/2 rails remain, and they have modified some of the original motors, put truck bodies on them, battery packs, and you see semi trucks just going down the little roads like nobody's business! They simply use the old 1/2 inch rails as guides!
There are trains running all over the place. There will be one little set off to its own in its own space. There are seperate themes. There is a Jules Verne type 1800s future type train. A whole team of dedicated volunteers keeps it running.
While it is open and functioning on some level year round, they only pull out all the stops during the fair and during the big RV shows, etc. Even though the fair was crowded, this was away from the midway in the museum area and is very quiet.
This may be the biggest and oldest train set in the world.
The picture below is the "center" of the town.
Only a few miles from where I live are the Pomona Fairgrounds. I visit there a few times a year for the vintage car shows/swap meats they have about 9 months out of the year. I have never been for the actual fair, or for some of the permanent exhibits.
I had heard for years about a huge model train setup out there that has existed since the 1920s. My son and I ventured out there today.
Not only is this thing huge, we went on a tour of it. It is outdoors in a garden. It was originally a small diorama build for the fair in a tent; it outgrew that tent and in 1935 it was setup in its little grounds.
It was originally a 1/2 inch scale railroad, with custom rails and transformers. It has been slowly changed and converted to a whole series of G-guage track. However, the 1/2 rails remain, and they have modified some of the original motors, put truck bodies on them, battery packs, and you see semi trucks just going down the little roads like nobody's business! They simply use the old 1/2 inch rails as guides!
There are trains running all over the place. There will be one little set off to its own in its own space. There are seperate themes. There is a Jules Verne type 1800s future type train. A whole team of dedicated volunteers keeps it running.
While it is open and functioning on some level year round, they only pull out all the stops during the fair and during the big RV shows, etc. Even though the fair was crowded, this was away from the midway in the museum area and is very quiet.
This may be the biggest and oldest train set in the world.
The picture below is the "center" of the town.
