Changing of the Guard - Masonicare to Friends of the Valley Railroad Part 1

Part 1 - History of the Masonicare Model Railroad Room

A little over a year now my life came to a bit of a cross roads. I was about the graduate with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and had a wonderful opportunity for my college internship becoming my first job in my field of study. I will forever be grateful for this opportunity as I considered myself very lucky to have this job in relation to some of my fellow engineering student that were still looking for internships options at this time. Although as I was about to start the next chapter in my life it mean that one very important part was coming to an end.

For the last 10 years of my life I have been a member of a small model railroading "club". I say "club" because in reality it was just a small group of guys that would give up their Thursdays to open up a room in a local Retirement Village/Healthcare Facility. Located in my home town of Wallingford, CT there is a healthcare facility called Masonicare Healthcare Center and on the 3rd floor towards the back of the building is a small room that is filled to bursting with model train and home to 2 fully operation layouts.  It started as of this post around 35+ years ago when a bunch of resident, that all happened to be ex-railroaders wanted a place to set up a train set.

Our sign we put up in the Lobby

Originally the layout was sheets of plywood painted green with brass snap track tacked down with little to no scenery on it. It was primarily HO scale but had small sections of S and O gauge as well. it was a unorganized mess of scales and trains laying all over the table.  About 30 years ago as the original club members where passing the torch to the next generation it was decided that they should focus in on one scale, HO, and to create a larger layout with fully scenic sections and working blocks to control multiple trains and yards with multiple operators. From this point on the layout as continually worked on by our crew of volunteers we have added bridges, tunnels, and sidings. (oh my!) During this time a few members branched off and created a equally impressive but smaller N scale layout. As I have learned from one of the long term members and a now a close family friend told me. "A layout is never finished, It you find yourself calling your layout complete and there isn't anything else to change or do. Then its time to find another hobby. Model Railroading is never finished" and do you know what. He was 1000% right.

Here are some photos of the rooms HO scale layout.

HO-scale roundhouse showing some of the many engines we run

Picture of almost the entire HO scale layout