Carbon Model Railroad Society Marks 40 Years With 2,000-Square-Foot Bowmanstown Clubhouse

Inside a former chapel on Ore Street in Bowmanstown, four model railroad displays spread across two floors mark what the Carbon Model Railroad Society spent 40 years building. The 2,000-square-foot clubhouse at 529 Ore St. was once The Holy Cross Chapel, part of Sacred Heart Church in Palmerton, before the society purchased it in 2002 and set about turning it into something no congregation would recognize.

That transformation required a 10-year mortgage, a year of construction to add a second floor, and the collective skills of members who also installed the building's first bathroom. The result is a large display on the ground floor and three additional displays upstairs, alongside merchandise including the club's own road-specific cars, T-shirts, and additional items for sale.

Garry Mack of Palmerton, who has served as president of the Carbon Model Railroad Society since 1990, guided a reporter through the displays earlier this month. The society celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2025, tracing its origins to a hobby shop in Lehighton where a small group of members first gathered before the ambitions outgrew the space.

From that hobby shop start, CMRS members built traveling displays that appeared at regional mall shows and, notably, at Hess's Department Store on Hamilton Street in Allentown. Those mall appearances served a practical purpose beyond community outreach: the proceeds funded the society's financial footing. "Mall shows were the way clubs could raise money, and then as they became less popular train meets started to grow," the feature noted. "Remember that raising money from these shows allowed them to put money down on the building."

As mall traffic declined, the society pivoted to train meets, and now runs two each year. Both are held at Diamond Fire Company Bingo Hall, 110 Main St., in Walnutport.

The Bowmanstown clubhouse itself remains the clearest evidence of what sustained membership and fundraising over four decades can produce. "Many talented members used their vast skills and hard work to turn a small chapel with no bathroom into a two-story building that houses a large display downstairs, three other displays upstairs and items for sale, including their own club cars, T-shirts and much more." The building that once served Sacred Heart Church now serves a different kind of community devotion, one measured in track radius, throttle settings, and the particular satisfaction of watching a consist pull away from the yard on a layout you helped build.