History Model Railroad Group

Revised 6-2011

The original layout donation to the museum was from Mr. John Gowland of Lutherville, MD in 1994 and 1995. The layout, locomotives, rolling stock, buildings and other materials were stored for several years until a building could be built. A replica of the Maine Central freight station in Bowdoin, ME built in in the late 1990s, and the layout was re-assembled by volunteers in 2002.

Mr. Gowland had built “The Eastern Front Railroad” portraying the European eastern front during World War II. This large layout was revised and remodeled to more resemble a New England setting, and was used as a display layout for a few years. During this time the volunteers sold parts of this and other donations at train shows to raise money to design and build a permanent layout portraying Maine railroading.

In May, 2003 a volunteer group was organized to operate the display layout, represent the Museum at model train shows, and to raise money to construct a permanent layout. This group still builds, runs, and operates the model railroad layout. Other than the building and utilities, the model railroaders are self supporting and funded by donations and sales.

In 2006 a track plan was completed and sufficient funds had been raised to start work on a new layout, described in Layout Description and in a number of pages of photographs.