HO Scale Indoor Model Railroad
The huge HO scale indoor model railroad is operated by AMRE, the Alamo Model Railroad Engineers. It is located in the museum's main display building. The layout is enormous by anyone standards. It spans the entire 100 feet length of the building, with multiple layers of tracks, yards, switching areas, turntables and towns among its many features. These will soon include an ore dock complete with a scale sized freighter. HO, which stands for "Half O, which was made popular by Lionel beginning in 1901. HO was introduced just after World War One and became increasingly popular during the Great Depression. HO is the most popular type of modern model railroading by far. Its practitioners take it very seriously. The scale of the models allows for a fantastic amount of detail. HO scale is 1:87. Every inch on HO is the equivalent of 87 inches, or 7 feet 3 inches, on what model railroaders refer to as 1:1 railroading, the kind where the rails are 4 feet 8.5 inches apart. HO rails are 16.5 mm (0.649 inches) apart. HO is the size that most people have in their own homes, maybe on table tops, or an entire room or even the garage. What we have at the Texas Transportation Museum is HO scale model railroading on a vastly higher level of complexity, one that needs many people with all the different skills needed to run such a vast operation, from electronics experts to scenery builders.
AMRE Activities
The Alamo Model Railroad Engineers run the layout every day the museum is open. Museum visitors love to find all the little details that bring any layout to life, especially one as large as this example at the museum. They run trains of all different types and sizes, and from multiple eras, so there is something for everyone. The group has its meetings at 4 PM on the second Saturday of each month in the Zucht display building where the layout is located. The club has scheduled work nights on the third Friday of each month, from 6 to 9 PM. If you are interested in helping to run the layout, you would be most welcome to visit with them at these times.
General views of the AMRE layout
AMRE Members and Visitors
HO scale trains and locomotives
Passenger and freight cars on the AMRE HO Scale model train layout
Duluth, Missabe and Iron Ore railroad
Life long model railroad enthusiast - and AMRE founder - Peter Shavney has put together a truly spectacular set of locomotives and over 100 freight cars that represent the renowned "Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railroad" that brought coal from perhaps the largest man made pit in the world - located in Minnesota - to ports on the great lakes for shipment to the rest of the world. Seeing this train in motion on the AMRE layout is quite a spectacle. It takes a lot of time and effort just to get it all put together, just as it does in the real world.
