A Day Out on the Rails

This weekend, a few of us went to the Medina Railroad Museum, to look at their large HO-scale layout. It's quite an impressive layout, having over 800 feet of mainline track! That equates to about 13 miles of real-world track (assuming that I have done the math right).

We also got there just in time to see the museum's fall excursion train leave, headed by GVT's Alco RS-32 #2035. Here it is coming back to the museum, long hood forward. The locomotive was originally built for the New York Central railroad in 1962.

We also went out and saw some CSX trains in Batavia and at CP 382, where the West Shore branch (which runs past RIT) diverges from the mainline. All told, we saw about about a dozen trains pass by from our vantage points. Most of the trains were either intermodal or auto racks (car carriers), but the last train that we saw was a mixed freight with a bunch of trash cars (presumably from NYC) in the lead. As a result, it turned out to be quite a good day for watching trains -- especially since the weather was quite wonderful (it got close to 70 at times)!

The View from Red Onion

A heavy R&IT freight train makes its way through the city of Rochester, passing through the neighborhood known as "Red Onion." Even though this neighborhood does not exist in real life, many of our visitors are convinced they know where it is! Detailed scenes like these make up the bulk of our model railroad. Come down and check us out in Room A420, we meet Tuesday nights at 7:30.