Of the 18 museums in Balboa Park, only one is in a basement. The San Diego Model Railroad Museum is the successor to a rich history of model railroading in the park.
That history began in 1935, when a pioneer model railroader named Minton Cronkhite built a 40-by-70 foot model railroad exhibit for the California Pacific International Exposition.
Fast forward to 1981, when both the San Diego Model Railroad Association and the La Mesa Model Railroad Club were searching for new homes. They petitioned the city of San Diego for space and got the 27,000 square foot basement of the Casa de Balboa.
But the museum's size isn’t the only thing that sets it apart.
“The Model Railroad Museum is very unique when it comes to how museums function,” said Michael Warburton. He took over as executive director of the museum a couple of months ago.
“All of the layouts that are in the museum are actually run by independent clubs. And so these clubs represent different types of trains, different scales, and even different philosophies around modeling,” Warburton said.
Besides the museum’s original tenants, there are two other clubs running exhibits there. One is the San Diego Society of N Scale, focused on some of the smallest model trains. The San Diego 3-Railers is the other club, operating toy trains and other accessories in a room called the Toy Train Gallery.
That corner of the museum is a veritable extravaganza of sights and sounds. There are trains, of course, but there are also incredibly detailed buildings and even a drive-in theater!
That, and everything else here is thanks not only to museum staff, but also the hundreds of volunteers who show up week in and week out to engage in their passion of running the rails.
They include Benji Foust, a member of the La Mesa Model Railroad Club. At 23 years old, he is living proof that model railroading is not a hobby limited to the older set.
“This is a semi-prototypical model of the Tehachapi Pass, which is here in California,” Foust said while showing his club's model of the rail line that runs through the Tehachapi Pass, linking Bakersfield to Mojave.
Like the real life rail line, this model is a marvel. It’s a two-level HO scale layout with a total of more than 30 scaled miles of mainline track. In layman's terms, that means they've recreated a 30-mile stretch of that line, in a scale 87 times smaller than the real track.
The standards are exacting.
“Part of being part of this club is the prototype accuracy. We’re really diving into the actual specifics of what trains went over this layout, what cars, what engines, stuff like that. We’re getting into the time period of the cars and accuracy and all that,” Foust said.
The trains may be the centerpiece, but there is so much more that goes into making this museum special.
“Model railroading is such, I call it a super hobby, actually, because it incorporates so many different hobbies in one thing: painting, sculpture, electronics, wood working, all kinds of things that come together in this one super hobby,” Warburton explained.
The museum works to spread enthusiasm about model railroading beyond its walls. A big part of that is education.
“Schools can come here and do programs and projects here. We can also go to schools and do programs and projects. We have adult clinics that we do as well,” Warburton said.
But at the heart of it all is the fascination with and the enjoyment of trains.
“Just being able to work here and watch my train go around the layout is a pleasure,” Foust said as he worked the control of the massive Tehachapi model railroad.
And then there’s the joy of watching others watch the trains.
“The reaction of kids just being so excited to see the trains running and see them running over bridges and things like that … If we could bottle that excitement, it would be amazing, right?” Warburton said as a child screamed with glee watching one of the trains.
Bottle-able? Maybe not. But gett-able — definitely! All it takes is a visit to the San Diego Model Railroad Museum, where it’s all aboard for a trip into a treasure trove of tiny trains.
