Open Houses
Continue for 2022
Check back in
late July/early August for dates and information on how
and when to sign up
to be part of the event in 2022.
Welcome to the original Delaware,
Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania model
railroad open house site. You will find
listings of open houses as you always have on
our easy to navigate pages.
The Model Railroad Open Houses
are an annual November event which showcases
local model railroads in our region. Thanks to
all who have participated in the past.
The event
would not be successful without our state coordinators,
Joe Walters, PJ Mattson, Earl Paine and Fran Giacoma and
our webmaster, Karen Darling. If you have never
participated in the open houses, please contact your
state coordinator (listed below) prior to signing up.
We have an active Facebook page. Please visit and
share your photos. Layout owners are also able to
post pictures of their layouts to entice
visitors. The Facebook page is "Model
Railroad Openhouse Schedule."
Please
join our social community and participate.
Thanks to all who donated so
generously towards the maintenance of this
site. Your support is much appreciated!
If you have never contributed in the past,
please consider donating and keep our great
site working for you.
We are still
looking to update the listings with a description and
photos of the layout owners and a layout shot to be
shown in the rotating images at the top of the page.
If you have not sent a description (3-4 sentence
overview) or photo, please do so this year. Further information can
be found at the very bottom of this page.
Joe Walters
josephfwalters@yahoo.com
Meet the Model
Railroad Open House team:
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Joe
Walters
MMR
|
Joe is the head
coordinator for the site, and the
Delaware coordinator. Joe, a
Master Model Railroader (MMR),
has loved trains most of his life.
After serving in the Marines, he
started working for the Reading
Railroad. For the next 32 years he
worked for Reading, Conrail, and
Amtrak in the Mechanical Dept. His
layout, the Northeast lines, a
freelanced short line is an operating
railroad, that meets once a month. Joe
has Easy DCC and has sound in 90% of
his locomotives. Joe is an active
member of the NMRA, Philly
division.
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|
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Fran
Giacoma
|
Fran is the Maryland
Coordinator and the administrator
of our Facebook page. Fran
has loved trains since getting his
first set at 4. He turned that passion
into a 35 year career with Conrail and
CSX. His 12’x 20’ layout depicts the
B&O RR Shenandoah Subdivision set
in the fall of 1956. It is an all
diesel (with sound) operation using
wireless DCC (Digitrax) and run by
timetable & train order. It
features 4 working CPL signals, 3
grade crossing flashers, and has 95%
of the scenery complete.
|
|
Earl
Paine |
Earl is the
Southeastern Pennsylvania
coordinator. Earl
Paine lives in Skippack, PA, and has
been active in the Philly Division
since 1988. He has served on the
Philly Division Board and has been
active as the division newsletter
editor since 2007. He currently is
involved in the NMRA AP Program, and
helps coordinate the AP application
process through the area MMR’s. Since
his retirement from public school
education, he has been modeling the
Reading Main line in 1976 from
Conshohocken to Reading, PA.
|
|
PJ
Mattson
MMR
|
PJ is the New Jersey
coordinator. PJ is also a
Master Model Railroader (MMR).
His railroad
Raccoon Valley was featured in
Model Railroading in November 2005. PJ is also the NMRA/MER NJ Division AP
director, and coordinates the Friday
Night operation sessions for our
Friday Night Operators group. Retired for 15 years and enjoy
working and operating on model
railroads.
|
|
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Karen
Darling
|
Karen is the internet
coordinator. Karen has
been a raifan as long as she can
remember since first seeing her
grandfather's American Flyer layout
that took up two spare bedrooms.
Her other grandparents lived along the
Penn Central line outside of
Newark. Hear a train coming,
she'd be found at the end of their
lane waiting. She originally started
doing the website for "G-Day" for the
garden guys and offered to do the same
for the November open houses back in
2006.
|
NOTE: If you are hosting an
open house and have NOT sent a picture
of your layout that you would like featured in the rotating pictures
at the top of each page, please email it to Karen. Each picture
should be in a "landscape" format. I'd prefer you send the full size image, let me do
the cropping. Keep in mind
that I need to use a portion of the picture that will show your
trains and/or layout in the 500 x 200 pixel area. I'll let you
know if it is acceptable. Due to the large number of folks
participating, only one picture from each person will be used. If
your layout has a name and website, please let me know and I will
include it in the listing.
We are also working to include a photo of the layout owners.
Please send a picture of yourself along with the layout picture.
Your description should be a short 3-4 sentence overview
of your layout.
