St. James Model Railroad Club Opens Doors With 11 Trains Running Simultaneously

Eleven trains running at once is the headline number, but the detail that earns a second look is the working drive-in theater. The St. James Model Railroad Club wrapped its first Spring Open House session on April 9 and returns this Sunday, April 12, noon to 4 p.m., at Mills Pond House, 176 Mills Pond Road, St. James, New York.

The layout behind that simultaneous 11-train operation spans 38 by 48 feet of O-scale Lionel track, built up over 42 years since the club's founding in 1983. It started as a re-creation of the Long Island Rail Road's Smithtown-to-Port Jefferson corridor, and while the scenery has expanded well past that original geography over four decades, the regional railroad lineage still threads through the freight and passenger scenes filling the room.

Beyond the trains themselves, the animated details reward close attention. Sunday's open house features the drive-in theater alongside subway sequences, a fire scene with working operational detail, and lighted vehicles moving through the layout. Taken together, those elements turn an O-scale display into something you'll want to work around the room and study corner by corner. Plan the full four hours.

Admission is a requested donation: $2 per adult and 50 cents per child. The layout occupies the basement of Mills Pond House, an 1838 Greek Revival structure designed by New York architect Calvin Pollard and now home to the Smithtown Township Arts Council. Parking is in the rear lot off Mills Pond Road, directly across from Flowerfield Celebrations at 199 Mills Pond Road. The event is wheelchair accessible.

The club meets every Wednesday night at 8 p.m. in the same basement space. For questions before Sunday, reach the club at 631-543-8732.