FREE public open house events have been an important aspect of BMRC since its beginning. The practice of having a monthly open house season has been going on here for nearly 30 years. And we are somewhat unique in that most clubs have no more than one open house per year and they dread even that. Naturally, model railroaders love to show off their work to other model railroaders and the general public. But we also know that there are many folks out there who love railroads, trains, and the way they operate as much as we do. Interestingly, we have found that there are many former or current railroad employees who attend our open houses. Our members enjoy open houses as much as our visitors do and that always makes for a very friendly event.
Most open house events have 6-8 trains of our members’ favorite railroads operating. The trains vary a lot in the era in which the prototypes operated. We usually have steam trains of the 1940’s running with very modern diesel-electric powered trains so your railroad memories are probably represented. And our Appalachian Mountain scenery usually gets as much attention as our trains do.
Two young future railroader brothers do a rolling inspection of the Santa Fe Chief during an open house a few years ago.
The first open house of our 2026-27 season is scheduled for September 19-20, 2026. We hope to see you then. Our hours for both Saturday and Sunday are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. We have parking in front of our building and overflow space in the public parking lot behind.
The remainder of our new season schedule is as follows:
October 24-25, 2026
November 14-15, 2026
December 5-6 and 19-20, 2026
January 16-17, 2027
February 20-21, 2027
March 20-21, 2027
April 17-18, 2027