Today, I'd like to tell you all about our Expo Room. For those of you familiar with our attraction, you may pass by it and wonder just what it is, why we have it, and most importantly, why it isn't open to the public. Well I'm here right now to show and tell you the answers to those questions.
All the way back in the beginning of the EnterTRAINment Junction project, when it was still in its earliest stages of conception, one of the main goals of the facility was to promote model railroading in all scales, not just G scale. (G scale is the scale of the main train display.) To this end, the Expo Room was included in the design of the facility. The Expo Room was going to be a large open room where we would put modular train displays belonging to local model railroad clubs. The clubs would have a sort of "base camp" where they could set up, work on, and even run their modular displays, and we would be able to offer exhibition of these displays to our guests. Unfortunately, it hasn't quite worked out that way, and instead the Expo Room has been put to other uses. As you can see in the above photo, we currently have many chairs set up in a sort of meeting style arrangement. Local groups and societies can use the space to hold any sort of meeting they might like to have. We have also used the room to house banquets, trains swap meets, and model engineering shows.
In the earliest days of this room's existence, it was completely devoted to the volunteer workshop. Now the volunteer work area has been downsized and does not even cover half the area it once did. The wood and metal shops have been moved to the warehouse area, and as you can see in the pictures above, the volunteer work area in the expo room is where trees, figures, and models are made. It is also where the test track is set up for testing new control systems. This area is separated from the rest of the Expo Room by a half-wall that runs across the middle of the room.
The Expo Room also provides access to the Cincinnati chapter of the National Railway Historical Society's headquarters and Library. Pictured above is the entrance to their library, connected to the Expo Room. Above the door in the photo is the drum head used on the tail end of many an NRHS sponsored train excursion.
Pictured above are two items of note which can be found in our Expo Room. The first is the old control console taken out of Cincinnati's Queensgate rail yard. This was where the Yard Master would have sat and managed the operation of the hump yard. It was given to us by the Cincinnati Railroad Club. The bell in front of the console mounted to the black stand was purchased from an anonymous collector. It is off of an Illinois Central steam locomotive, number 2543. It was a "Mountain" type locomotive, built in Paducah, KY around 1941. The lower picture is of a model which was used in the design and construction of the train display. It's sort of humorous to think that we have a model of our model railroad.
Now, let's get back to the reason the Expo Room exists in the first place: more model railroad displays. We do have three stand alone model railroad displays in the Expo Room. Of the three, two belong to EnterTRAINment Junction, and the third is set up according to the original intention of the space. That is to say that the first model railroad I'm going to tell you about, the Dalmatian Switching District, belongs to a group of individuals who have it set up in our Expo Room so they may work on it. Once it is in good working order, it will be taken to train shows all around the area. It is an HO scale railroad, and unlike most displays you see at train shows, it is intended to be operated like a real railroad, switching cars in a train yard and industrial sidings, instead of simply featuring trains constantly running around in circles. The main man behind the Dalmatian Switching District is Dave Decker, seen on the right in the photo below. The other two gentlemen are two of our volunteers, watching Dave work on his layout. The Dalmatian Switching District, much like EnterTRAINment Junction itself, exists to promote the hobby of model railroading. Dave encourages newcomers to take the controls of his layout and learn all about how model railroading can be interactive and fun. Look for the Dalmatian Switching District to start making appearances at train shows this fall.
The next layout I'd like to tell you about was donated to us by the Indianapolis Children's Museum. It features three-rail, O Scale trains running through a whimsical winter wonderland on it's way to the North Pole. This layout, although permanently set up in our Expo Room, is part of our Christmas at the Junction celebration, and is only operated during the Christmas season. It was originally constructed over a decade ago by Applied Imagination's Paul Busse. Paul Busse is known all over the country and the world for his unique and enthralling train displays. He and his company travel the country setting up their displays at public shows, businesses, and botanical gardens, as well as building private layouts for individuals and companies. Be sure to swing by this Holiday Season and check out the Winter Wonderland Express layout at EnterTRAINment Junction.
The third and final train display set up in our Expo Room is the O scale layout given to us by famed folk musician Neil Young. Neil Young has always been a fan of trains, and especially Lionel trains, so much so that he had a portable train layout built for the express purpose of taking on tour with him around the country. He has since decided to part with his layout, and at the urging of the layout's builder, donated it to us. (It was either coming to us or going to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.) The man who built the display is the same gentleman who constructed our middle period city, and is currently working on rebuilding our modern period city. We are quite honored to have this layout, and we are anxiously looking forward to the day we open up our Expo Room for the public to enjoy. Below are photos of the Neil Young layout nearing completion. Click here to see a photo of the layout very near total completion, as it is at the time of this writing.
So, as for why our Expo Room is not open to the public, well, it's not quite ready yet. However, it's not far from ready, either. Sometime in the next few months we should have the Neil Young layout and the Indianapolis Children's Museum layout both operating on timers activated by push buttons, ready for the enjoyment of our guests. So be sure to come by and look for the Expo Room to finally be up, running, and open in the not-too-distant future!
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