Albany

The Thronateeska Heritage Center in Albany, Georgia hosted a slightly modified Model Trains Through the Ages exhibit from April to September 2007. The Heritage Center, located in a magnificently restored depot in downtown Albany, includes a Science Center, a planetarium, and a history center, plus several railcars in the back that are being restored. The exhibit was in the former waiting room of the depot. The 38' long HO scale layout was too long to fit into the room in a straight line, so a 52"x52" corner section was built that turns the layout between the second and third sections. The new section includes a steel yard with a crane loading beams onto a scratchbuilt barge, and an inlet with a concrete bridge crossing the water.

Also included was another HO scale layout, built by the club for the former HobbyTown USA in Macon, Georgia. The 6'x9' layout has a sawmill, hazardous waste cleanup scene, town, and mountain with a coal mine. Around this layout on three sides were walls that hold shelves for the examples of scales. The How-To module (shows how to build a layout step by step) sat on the floor below one side with pictures hanging on the wall. Two LGB trains- a Pennsylvania passenger train and a Santa Fe freight- occupied another wall.

The other modules - coal ship, sawmill, used car lot, ship scrap yard, and glass factory - each had stands with plexiglass cases protecting them. Another display case contained a burnt building scene, an HO scale house, and a plaque with two sets of people from Z scale (the smallest) to G scale (the largest) to show the many sizes of model trains.

For more information about the Thronateeska Heritage Center, please visit their website at http://www.heritagecenter.org.

Below are links to photos of building the corner module and the cases.

First Visit

Corner Module

Detailing

Cases

Assembly

Loading

Installing