The GCRR Today
The Grand Central Railroad Park includes trains, track, buildings, bridges, tunnels and scenery over an area 85 feet wide and 245 feet long. Sidewalks around and thru the layout enable visitors to see the trains, building and landscape from all directions. Benches are also available for visitors. Ample parking is adjacent to the GCRR Park.
The Track Layout: Our Garden Railroad (G Scale, 45mm gauge) has 1,800 (actual) feet of track (equivalent to 10.9 scale miles) configured as 6 interconnected loops each with associated sidings, interchanges and spurs. The minimum radius on the outside loop is 10 feet to accommodate the larger engines and passenger cars. The smallest loop has a minimum radius of 4 feet and displays the logging trains quite nicely. The layout easily allows 6 or more trains to operate at the same time, each under independent control. Our members use traditional model train transformers, modern electronic control systems (Digital Command Control or DCC) as well as radio control handsets to operate each train.
The trains pass through varied southwestern landscapes, a few tunnels and over many bridges to cross dry riverbeds and other tracks. The railroad crossing at the sidewalk is a favorite spot to watch the trains up close and personal.
The era & place: We haven't modeled a specific era, or any specific railroad at the GCRR. Rather, we have created a model railroad which represents a portion of the southwest United States, locomotives & rolling stock from many eras and from many different railroads.
Members run trains that are modeled after the early days of railroading up to modern motive power in use today.
ERIE 2-8-8-8-2 Triplex
Depending on the members who are operating any given day, you may see old logging trains (Shays), small and large steam engines (Forney, Mallet, Challengers, Triplex, 0-4-0 to 2-8-8-8-2), diesels from switch engines to large mainline motive power, passenger and freight trains, and even Thomas the Train shows up for a run around Sodor on occasion.
The towns & industries we serve: The railroad park has several towns including a ghost town (did you find it?), a small western town and Main Street in a larger town.
We have several industrial areas, an engine house, several passenger stations, grain silos and more.
The experience: The Grand Central Railroad Park is a multi sensory experience. Watching the trains running down the tracks and passing over the bridges will catch your eye first. You will be able to see the action of the drive gear on the steam engines (an advantage of G Scale is that it is large enough so you can see the details). You'll hear the unique sounds of each locomotive under power and you may even overhear some "cab chatter" from the engineers in the locomotives. Completing the experience is the smoke you will see & smell from the engines. The point is... the Grand Central Railroad Park is best experienced in person.
We invite you to visit soon and often.