RPI's Iconic Layout Dismantled; NMRA Rehomes Sections, Students to Build New Layout

The Rensselaer Model Railroad Society's landmark New England, Berkshire & Western Railroad layout was dismantled on January 13 after years in limbo and turned over to the National Model Railroad Association's northeast region for redistribution. The 4,000-square-foot layout, built in 1972 and long housed in RPI's Davison Hall before being moved off campus in 2019, never reassembled and became impractical to restore once its off-campus storage lease expired.

The layout broke down into roughly 75 sections. Many of those sections have already been given away or sold to individuals and clubs, and NMRA volunteers have been placing portions with new homes across the region. The NMRA northeast region will auction the remaining sections at the Amherst Railway Society’s Railroad Hobby Show on January 25–26, 2026, offering an uncommon chance for clubs and modelers to acquire large, finished modules, dioramas, and benchwork components from a single, cohesive prototype layout.

The NEB&W was a prototypically inspired layout rooted in New England and Berkshire-era railroading, and for decades it served as a training ground for students and a recruiting showcase for the hobby on campus. Its size and scope made it a touchstone for generations of modelers who learned layout construction, scenery, wiring, and operations at RPI. While much of the original fabric of the layout will enter new collections, RPI has retained a few select pieces, including a downtown Troy diorama, to keep a tangible link to the past.

RPI has also doubled down on the future by offering the student club dedicated space in the ’87 Gymnasium on campus to build a new, next-generation layout. New students will have the opportunity to design a fresh plan, apply modern control systems, and reuse some preserved elements. The decision reflects both a practical reality and a community-minded approach: preserving iconic pieces while giving students hands-on experience in layout design and construction.

For local clubs and individual modelers, the NMRA auction at the Amherst show is the practical takeaway — an opportunity to add large, serviceable sections or scenics that would be expensive and time-consuming to build from scratch. For RPI students and alumni, the shift marks a transition from stewardship of a historical behemoth to building something that reflects current modeling techniques and student interests.

This is a story of change rather than loss: a legendary layout dispersed to active hands and a campus program repositioned to teach the next generation of modelers. Keep an eye on the Amherst Railway Society show for available sections, and on RPI’s ’87 Gym layout for how alumni pieces and student ambition reshape the next chapter.