On December 20, 2025, my father and I were fortune to visit the open house put on by the Waynesboro Model Railroad Club located on Waynecastle Road in Greencastle, Pennsylvania. I was extremely impressed by the scope and detail of their layouts. In fact, we felt a bit overwhelmed and I often didn’t know what to look at or what to photograph. Looking back I wish I’d tried more perspectives and different angles, different shutter speeds and apertures, but that’s always the way of things.
The home of the Waynesboro Model Railroad Club
The club building has two floors, with the HO-scale layout filling a large room on the main floor. On the second floor was the N-scale layout in one room and two O-scale layouts in the second room, one 2-rail O-scale and one 3-rail O-scale. If you’re not familiar with model railroading then some of that description may not mean much. The different scales represent the sizes of the model trains and layouts as compared to reality. N-scale, the smallest of these layouts, is 160 times smaller than the real thing, so 1:160. HO-scale is 87 times smaller than the real thing, so 1:87. And O-scale, the largest of these layouts, is 48 times smaller than the real thing, so 1:48. Power is provided to the model trains over the rails they run on, ie, the railroad tracks. A 3-rail system means there are 3 rails, the 2 the train sits on and a third in the middle. This is how model railroading started. But these days most systems use 2 rails.
HO-Scale Layout
Their HO-scale layout is spread out over a large room with several sections all connected and weaving along the walls and around beams. There are some raised platforms you can step onto to see the layout from a higher perspective. I love how the seasons change as you move along the layout with scenery reflecting the season.
N-Scale Layout
The N-scale is the smallest of the scales in these layouts, which means you can fit more in a smaller space. The layout fills one room of the second floor. It was actively being worked by club members when we visited.
O-Scale Layouts
The 2-rail and 3-rail O-scale layouts fill the second upstairs room. These are the largest of the scales in the layouts so they take up more space. The 3-rail layout was on an island in the center of the room and the 2-rail layout wrapped around the walls.
O-Scale 2-Rail Layout
O-Scale 3-Rail Layout
All of these layouts were impressive with incredible amounts of detail. I saw a group of mountain climbers on a rock face, Bigfoot walking across the top of a mountain, tunnels and bridges, skiers on slopes, a cemetery, emergency personnel responding to a crash, a house being built… the details just went on and on. But these sorts of layouts are almost always being worked so if you visit during one of their future open houses it’s possible you may see something different from what we saw. And I do encourage you to visit them if you’re ever in the area when they are holding an open house. Or if you live in another area then search for any model railroad clubs in your area and see if they have open houses when they invite the public to view their displays and see what their hobby is all about. And please consider leaving them a donation on your way out so they can continue to fund these incredible model railroad layouts.
Click here to learn more about the Waynesboro Model Railroad Club. You can find their current open house schedule and information about the club and how to become a member.
Thanks very much to the members of the Waynesboro Model Railroad Club for opening their doors to the public during these open houses and sharing a little of their hobby with us. We were very impressed with the obvious passion they put into creating each of these layouts.
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