What was Railroad's at Work? (World's fair train display)

Now-a-days, it doesn't feel that difficult to come across a giant model railroad display. A simple search for "large train layouts" on Youtube will get you results of video's of anything from massive train club layouts, to exabits like "Minature Wunderland" or "Northlandz". 

While I'm not about to tell you guys that massive model railroads weren't a thing back in the early days of model railroading, some weren't as well documented as they are today, simply due to the fact that camera's weren't something everyone had in their pockets. It's a shame, because I imagine there's plenty of giant model railroads out there that haven't been well documented for one reason or anther, case in point, today's topic: Railroad's at Work. 

What was it? 

 Debuting at the New York's World Fair in 1939, "Railroads' at Work" is a train exhibit that isn't nearly as well documented as it should be, simply because of how massive it was. Most of the information I found on the train layout was from  www.rgusrail.com, which has the program that was handed out about the exhibit digitally archived along with other happenings at the World's Far that year.  

Dubbed the largest model railroad at the time, the train layout was sponsored by railroads in the east, such as Lehigh Valley, Baltimore & Ohio, Norfolk & Western, and Pennsylvania. 

The massive layout had just about everything, mountains, towns, factories, rivers, and even waterfalls. 

The water features of the layout are what I find most impressive as the water on the layout is real. Having real water on a layout can be risky as water and electricity don't exactly get along with one anther, yet the Railroads at Work layout had 7,000 gallons of water in it. 

As for the gauge, the layout was O scale and double O for train in the background. It should also be noted that the layout isn't 3 rail O scale like Lionel, but 2 rail instead, which I find amusing. Lionel's 3 rail O scale is well known and manufactured these days, yet one of the earliest and at one point largest train layouts there was to see was in 2 rail O scale. 

Speaking of the trains, the layout had 500 pieces of rolling stock and 60 locomotives on it. 

Going back to the scenery, the layout had 1,000 buildings, 7,000 trees, and 250 lights in the buildings. 

Alongside trains, ships on the layout would move by an intricate mechanism below the surface of the water. 

The Layout was 160 feet wide and 40 feet deep, and guest would view it in an auditorium which was said to have speakers that would play train sounds, since this was long, long before the days of DCC sound ready trains. 

So what happened to the layout?

I'd love to tell you guys that this massive layout is currently stored in a museum somewhere that can be viewed in all it's glory, that's sadly not what happened to the layout. According to Youtuber Leonard Williams in a video showing off one of the engines and cars from the world fair (and spoiler alert, despite it being over 70 years old it still runs great), after the 1940 World Fair exhibit, the layout was disassembled and then reassembled in a Macy's for Christmas. 

After that, all rolling stock and engines from the layout were sold off. Only thing was the engines and rolling stock were vastly different from anything on the market. 

Again, the trains were 2 rail O scale, and the couplers didn't look anything like the real ones in real life.

Screenshot from Williams video showing the engine from the exhibit 

Screenshot from Williams video showing off the cars and the couplers. 

 

Still, I'd imagine the trains were built well. Again, referring to Williams video, the train he runs makes it's way around his layout pretty well for an engine that's old and already has a decent amount of milage on it. Even the cars it's carrying behind it do well on the track. 

It does sadden me that the layout couldn't be saved or stored in a museum though. Again, at the time this layout was one of the largest ones in America, not counting any layouts hidden in the mansions of toy train loving billionaires. It would have been nice to see it placed in a model railroad museum or even turned into an train exhibit people could visit. 

Railroad's at Work's successor? 

As I mentioned at the beginning of this blog, it's not hard to find a massive train layout these days, weather it's a museum or train club, but what about one that's similar to Railroads at Work? One that's not only massive but also shows people what's in store for a train on it's way from and to somewhere? 

I'd have to say that the closest successor to Railroads at work would be "The Great Train Story" at the Museum of Science & Industry. 

Now before anyone calls me out on it, yes, I know that "Railroad's at Work" and "Great Train Story" have a laundry list of differences, starting with the fact that one is in O scale and the other is in HO. But the reason why I believe the "Great Train Story" is a successor to "Railroad's at Work" is because both educate the public on the railroad industry. 

"Great Train Story" covers a train's journey from Chicago to Seattle and all the stops in between, while "Railroad's at Work" showed a train's journey from the crack of dawn into night. 

That said, I do think "The Great Train Story" has an advantage, in giving folks the ability to walk around the layout instead of just sitting and watching it in an auditorium. 

Conclusion

As much of a bummer as it is that Railroad's at Work wasn't preserved, it is because of the layout that interest in model trains continued to grow. I also imagine it inspired other model railroaders to try and make their own "largest train layout". 

I just hope they had deep pockets and a lot of time. Making a massive train layout doesn't happen over night, even if you do have a team of men to help you out...