Museum Making: Model Railroad Museum

Centennial Railway Garden of the Model Railroad Museum was opened to the public this summer. After many, many months of maker collaboration this 1/32 scale recreation is of Balboa Park icons as they were back in 1915 for the Panama-California Exposition. The video above takes us down a portion of the exhibit while following one of John D. Spreckels streetcars.

By definition the Model Railroad Museum is built on collaboration. It’s actually a collection of model railway clubs under one roof working together to preserve the heritage of railroading through a series of models of California railroads. In preparation for the Centennial Celebration of Balboa Park they decided to build Centennial Railway Garden.

This effort required the input and support of many people and groups. Two we can be particularly proud of from our community are Clayton McIntyre, who build the 3D models that provide the structural details in the buildings, and Maker Place, one of our favorite places to make things (and first sponsor of the San Diego Mini Maker Faire in 2013). While there were MANY others involved in this project, the point is it couldn’t have happened without collaboration.

Check out Clayton’s work as described in this Instructables project.
Below you can see the results of this team’s months’ of effort.
Or, better still, go visit the MRM as a part of Maker Faire!