The Lakes Region Model Railroad Museum is expected to open in 2025. However, we will have some previews at times. On Friday August 11 we will have a tent in Cate Park in Wolfeboro as part of the Lake Winnipesaukee Day celebration with laser light show at 9PM. We expect to be there from 3PM to 7PM. Come by to talk with us about the museum.

The framing for the museum inside the freight house is mostly complete. Take a look at the Photo Album.

At our tent at the 150th Anniversary Celebration on Friday August 12, 2022 starting at 3PM we will have our freight train game. Use it to develop your skills as a railroad engineer.

“A train arrives on the main line with full freight cars to be delivered to some combination of eight businesses on four sidings. The engine must pick up any empty freight cars on the sidings to prepare to move them to the next destination, and deliver the full freight cars to the proper business as indicated by color near the tracks in as few moves as possible.”

To play the game, place some freight cars on the main line with an engine to make a train, place a couple empty freight cars at the colored business locations. Use the engine to move the cars to the appropriate business, and gather the empty cars at the businesses into a train ready to move them to the next destination down the line in as few moves as possible.

Friday August 12 is the 150th anniversary of the Boston and Maine Railroad, Steamship Mount Washington. The Celebration is at the Wolfeboro Docks and in Cate Park, starting at 3PM and continuing to the 20 minute laser light show at 9PM. LRMRM will have a tent there at Cate Park, with various photos and exhibits and information about our plans for the museum. We are also celebrating the 150th anniversary of the first train arriving in Wolfeboro, the Eastern Railroad E.R.R. 66 on August 19, 1872.

The photo shows the HO Scale model of the Steamship Mount Washington built by David Warren for the museum.

The LRMRM has a model steam train exhibit at the New Hampshire Boat Museum. As part of NHBM’s two year exhibit, “Letting off steam: Escaping to New Hampshire in the Golden Age of Steam”, the steam train layout shows the Eastern Railroad 66 engine, the first engine to bring a train to Wolfeboro in 1872. This was also the first year that the Boston & Maine S.S. Mount Washington first docked at Wolfeboro. The layout is the Wolfeboro Section of the Klickety-Klack model railroad, and includes the station, freight house, and the O.P. Berry Excelsior Mill, Peavey Block, and the B & M Railroad Wharf Building. Also showing is a video simulation of a train running between the station, across Main Street to the dock, and reversing direction at the roundhouse, as well as slides of photos and postcards.

The LRMRM museum is projected to open in the Wolfeboro Freight House in 2025. The outside of the building has been completed. Work is proceeding on the interior. Design of the interior and model train layout are ongoing. The interior will have a railroad artifact collection on display, and a model train layout used to show the history and the effects of the railroad on the people, business, and industry in the area. The model trains can be operated by everyone from those with little experience, to experts for operating sessions.

The Freight House has been painted, and the ramp and loading dock are well underway. The plans for the inside of the building depend on what is allowed by LCHIP, the NH Land and Community Heritage Investment Program which has provided some of the funding for the restoration.

Painting of the Freight House is nearly complete. Here is a photo tour of Bean Park, the Freight House, the Station, and the beginning of Bridge Falls Path, and photos of the Freight House and Station from the other side of Back Bay. Click on the photo to view the gallery.

Dave Warren recently completed a superb HO scale waterline model of the SS Mount Washington in her railroad days for the Wolfeboro part of the train layout. He also has models on display at the Wright Museum, the New Hampshire Boat Museum, and the Lake Winnipesaukee Museum in Laconia NH.