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Waynesboro Model Railroad Club Open House - 12/20/2025 /  by Todd Henson

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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Bunker Hill Train Club Open House - 12/14/2024 /  by Todd Henson

This view shows how their layout wraps around the upstairs space.

My father and I stopped by the Bunker Hill Train Club Open House held on December 14, 2024 in their club house in Bunker Hill, West Virginia. During these open houses they invite the public to stop by and check out what they do and to view their model railroad layout on the second floor.

It’s quite a layout and reminded me of spending time with my father at the model railroad clubs he was a member of when I was much younger. I always loved the details they built into the layouts, and you’ll find similar details in the Bunker Hill Train Club’s layouts. I loved how theirs weaved back and forth along the second floor. And as is always the case, model railroad layouts are forever a work in progress. Even when they appear finished there’s a good chance they will continue to go through updates and renovations. It was fun seeing all the different stages, from completely bare sections they were getting ready to work on to sections that appeared very complete.

On a technical note, photographically, I decided to use my walk-about lens, a 16-80mm f/2.8-4 lens. I chose that one because I had no idea what to expect going into this, so I wanted a range of focal lengths. Even though the layout appeared plenty bright from a human perspective, these indoor events are inevitably dark from a camera perspective, so I had the ISO pushed up to between 1600 to 2000 (thankfully Lightroom now has some very good noise reduction). I used fairly wide apertures of f/4 and f/5 both to allow some shallower depth of field for more artistic views of the scenes but also to keep the shutter speed high enough to handhold the camera. I didn’t bring my tripod because I guessed there would be limited space and plenty of other people moving around, and I don’t have a flash and wouldn’t have brought one anyway to avoid annoying or blinding people. All this resulted in shutter speeds between 1/30 to 1/125 of a second. It might have been fun if I could use a tripod to slow the shutter speed down to show some motion in the trains or to try panning with a train to create motion blur in the background.

I hope you enjoy these views of a working model railroad layout created by an active model railroad club. I really enjoyed seeing their layout and getting the opportunity to photograph it.

You might recognize the name Bunker Hill Train Club as they are the ones I mentioned when we visited their train show held at the Martinsburg Roundhouse in 2023, where I also photographed some trains passing by the active train station. Check out those previous posts for more railroad-related photography.

Click here to learn more about the Bunker Hill Train Club. Consider stopping by one of their open houses (and if you do consider leaving a small donation to help keep the hobby and activities alive). And if you happen to live near there and are interested in trains and model railroading then consider becoming a member of their club.

Thanks much to the people of the Bunker Hill Train Club for opening their doors and allowing us a view inside.

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Martinsburg Roundhouse and Bunker Hill Train Shows in West Virginia - 2023 /  by Todd Henson

Today I wanted to share some views of the Martinsburg Roundhouse in West Virginia, an historic railroad site and National Historic Landmark. The photos cover two days in 2023, both when the Bunker Hill Train Club held their model railroad train shows within the roundhouse. We visited the show on April 15 and September 30th.

My goal, of course, was to create some photographs of the site and event that some of you might find interesting. And I did create quite a few, so this is a photo-heavy post. On the first trip in April I had no idea what to expect so I brought my 16-80mm lens, a fairly general purpose lens. It was a very good choice for that location. But even at 16mm I found myself very cramped when inside, so when we returned in September I opted for my 6.5mm fisheye, knowing it would add some distortion but hoping I could capture more of the scene.

Outside Views of the Martinsburg Roundhouse

Below are a number of views of the outside of the roundhouse complex. Towards the end you can see there were two roundhouses at the site but in the early 1990s an arsonist destroyed the second of the two and all that remains of it are parts of the walls and the tracks on the ground.

Arriving at the Bunker Hill Trail Show on April 15, 2023, held at the Martinsburg Roundhouse in West Virginia.

Walking towards the buildings of the Martinsburg Roundhouse. (April 15, 2023)

One of the buildings at the Martinsburg Roundhouse. Nonni's was serving lunch that day. (April 15, 2023)

A view of the Martinsburg Roundhouse. Inside is the Bunker Hill Train Show. (April 15, 2023)

Walking around the Martinsburg Roundhouse. (April 15, 2023)

A view of one of the side rooms/buildings at the Martinsburg Roundhouse in West Virginia. (April 15, 2023)

Outside details of the Martinsburg Roundhouse. (April 15, 2023)

The remains of the second roundhouse at Martinsburg. (April 15, 2023)

Only part of the walls and the ground remain of the second roundhouse in Martinsburg. (April 15, 2023)

Inside Views of the Martinsburg Roundhouse

Inside the roundhouse we get to see views of the Bunker Hill Train Shows and some of the various vendors and visitors. We also get to see some of the core structures of the roundhouse and the adjoining buildings and shops.

A wide view inside the Martinsburg Roundhouse at the Bunker Hill Train Show. This is a wide angle multi-image stitched panorama. Click any photo for a larger view. (April 15, 2023)

A fisheye view of the interior of the Martinsburg Roundhouse while hosting the Bunker Hill Train Show. (September 30, 2023)

A fisheye view of the interior of the Martinsburg Roundhouse showing the actual rotating center. (September 30, 2023)

Another fisheye view inside the roundhouse. (September 30, 2023)

Looking across the rotating center inside the Martinsburg Roundhouse in West Virginia. (September 30, 2023)

Another view of the rotating center inside the roundhouse. To get this view I held the camera above my head and angled it down, experimenting until I found the right angle. (September 30, 2023)

Even with the fisheye lens I wasn’t able to capture the entirety of the ceiling inside the Martinsburg Roundhouse. (September 30, 2023)

The domed ceiling was interesting enough to me I photographed it both days, this time with a 16mm (non-fisheye) lens. (April 15, 2023)

The interior of one of the rooms/buildings attached to the roundhouse. It was empty on April 14, 2023, but on September 30, 2023 it had some local vendors inside. (April 15, 2023)

At the very end of the previous photo is a door leading to this very dark workroom. This was a fisheye view with attempted perspective corrections in Adobe Lightroom. (September 30, 2023)

Details inside one of the shops at the Martinsburg Roundhouse. This was a fisheye view with attempted perspective corrections in Adobe Lightroom. (September 30, 2023)

Another detail view inside one of the shops at the Martinsburg Roundhouse. This was a fisheye view with attempted perspective corrections in Adobe Lightroom. (September 30, 2023)

Parting View of the Martinsburg Roundhouse

And finally, we part with a wider view taken from outside the fence, though I was reaching my arms over it to hold the camera just inside. It shows the back portion of the area. Across the tracks you can see some of the town of Martinsburg, along with the active railroad station.

A parting view of the back side of the Martinsburg Roundhouse complex. (April 15, 2023)

I hope you’ve enjoyed these views of the Martinsburg Roundhouse in West Virginia and two of the Bunker Hill Train Club’s Train Shows in 2023.

Click here to learn more about the Bunker Hill Train Club.

And click here to learn more about the Martinsburg Roundhouse in the City of Martinsburg, West Virginia.

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