About our Club

On Thanksgiving weekend in 1987, three model railroaders built HO modules and brought them to a train show that was sponsored by a local church and Valley NTrak. A full day of switching on these three modules attracted fifteen more modelers to join the original three and form a new modular model railroad club. The members had varied backgrounds as professionals, engineers, contractors, factory workers, business executives, retirees and those from many other walks of life. Members are primarily from Fairfield and New Haven Counties. Our membership is open to those who meet the basic requirement that each member build an operating module within 6 months, which will be part of our operating layout. As faces and names have changed over the years, we remain a group of modeler who are growing, building new skills, and sharing our enjoyment of the hobby within and beyond the borders of our club.

When we started, there were no HO modular clubs that we were aware of. Our challenge was to form a new club that would provide fun and interest for the members, and to promote modular HO scale railroading. At the time we started our club, there were no NMRA or other published standards for HO modular clubs. We therefore decided to adopt the NTrak standards for our modules which are 2’ x 4’ for straight units, with corner sections being 4’ x 4’. Straight modules can be as much as 30” deep to provide unique capabilities as long as they meet the rest of the Valley HO Trak spec.

We elected to be as informal as possible with each member building modules independently. Informal club meetings are held on a monthly basis in members’ homes. Here is where we have the opportunity to hold our business meetings, share our experiences, and present instructional clinics on modeling topics. Many members are proficient in several phases of the hobby and usually present demonstrations to the group on topics including model building, scenery, structure building, operations, electronics, and other relative subjects.

We elected to allow each member the freedom to create landscapes, industries, towns, railroad yards, terminal operations, and other scenes leading to a visual diversity that captures the interest and imagination of the viewer.

For our efforts, we have been rewarded by having several of our members’ layouts featured in magazine articles and have been featured as a club in the 2007 issue of Great Model Railroads,

But most of all we have been privileged to promote and share the same interest and the enthusiasm that sparked the fires of imagination and creativity back in 1987.

For additional information please contact us at valleyhotrak@gmail.com