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San Diego Model Railroad Museum
Rating Details »
Neighborhood: Balboa Park
1649 El Prado
(between Plaza De Panama & Village Pl)
San Diego, CA 92101
(619) 696-0199
1649 El Prado
(between Plaza De Panama & Village Pl)
San Diego, CA 92101
(619) 696-0199
- Hours:
Tue-Fri. 11:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Sat-Sun. 11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
19 reviews for San Diego Model Railroad Museum
I stopped in here for the first time in years. This was my favorite part of Balboa Park growing up. What I like the most is watching the different routes being built. I mean they have been working on some of these since the 80's and slowly but surely they get finished.
The trains aren't what impressive - its the detailed buildings and amazing fake grass and trees, flora if you will.
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I LOVE MINIATURE THINGS, ESPECIALLY MODELS!!! I'm such a little boy when it comes to model rxr.
Hats off to the creative staff. I LOVED surveying the lands and closely examining the hilarious people scenes. I was by myself and pathetically desperate for someone to point out my discoveries to. I wish I could have stepped inside the passes to get a closer look at the extraordinary detail.
Make sure your party knows where you will be, because cell phone service is NILL. Save your receipt for re-entry.
ADMISSION:
* Adults - $6.00
* Seniors (65+) - $5.00
* Students (with ID) - $3.00
* Active Military (with ID) - $2.50
* Children under 15 - FREE when accompanied by an adult
* First Tuesday of the month is FREE for San Diego County Residents. Out of County residents pay regular admission prices
* Tuesdays and Friday evenings are work nights for the various clubs. Visitors may enter at no charge, but construction work on the exhibits is all that may usually be seen on those nights. Please enter the museum on work nights through the back door. Contact one of the Model Railroad Clubs for additional information about work night schedules.
Who knew there was this much to do with/know about model trains? Probably only these guys.
The passion is infectious, the know-how seems bottomless, and you can combine it with a ride on the miniature railroad and a trip to the Whistle Stop store in Hillcrest and/or bar in South Park.
This town really digs its trains. Which is kinda weird since it took so long for there to be train service to San Diego. You'd think folks would just skip it. Maybe be excited about airplanes? It was a San Diegan that invented the flying car after all.
But I digress. Lots and lots and lots of little trains. Indulge. Why not?
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I was fascinated by my great grandpas train set when I was a kid and was hoping this place would rekindle that feeling. Didn't happen. If you like trains or know someone who does, this might be a good place for you.
A friend of mine came to town, and said she had a love interest who had a thing for model trains, so she wanted to see what it was all about.
Dubious, and ever the doubter, I sighed and agreed to go, suspecting the experience would be dweeby and dull. But I must tell you now, people of yelp... throw out your assumptions! Ignore your reluctance! Come here and be wowed!
Yes, indeedy... this place is truly neato, this coming from a girl who would never ever have expected any coolness to be found here. Granted, I am a photographer, so there were ample delights for me as far as taking pictures go (for example: http://www.flickr.com/... ). But really, the whole thing was just neat. It is ridiculously large for a place that contains only miniature things.
There are several different clubs/groups that have this place as a resource, so it is sectioned off according to each club. This means that one giant miniature city and such is created by one club, and along the other wall, an entirely different group of people built the model on the other side. It makes for more diversity than I was expecting.
The teeny miniatures are truly like little works of art. The people here are thorough...When you look through the miniature windows, you will see whole elaborate scenes within the miniature buildings. Many of the items within here are smaller models of existing bridges and dams.
The volunteers here to whom I spoke were really enthusiastic and love sharing info about everything. You can also tell they've been doing it for ages, and are *seriously* into this hobby.
We saw kids loving it, their parents loving it, everyone, really. We were two twenty-something girls who'd never seen a model train before in our lives, and we had a blast. I believe it is the second or third Tuesday of every month that this place is free, but I can't quite recall. Either way, it is worth seeing. If you go there with a good attitude, curiosity, and a camera, I am sure you will be pleased.
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Part of me feels like this is reeeeally more of a gigantic model railroad collection than an actual museum, but it's pretty darn impressive. The place is huge and the layouts are quite extensive.
It's clear that the volunteers who work on the layouts really love what they do and they take a lot of pleasure in talking with visitors about all aspects of the museum.
I definitely recommend this place (especially for kids!).
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Toy trains and the elderly men that play with them. I had to leave when I started thinking about the dioramas in the old movie 'Beetlejuice,' and wondering where the miniature whorehouse was.
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You don't have to think model trains are cool. In fact, like me, you can think they're kinda dorky and still love this place. And like me, you can come out of this place and think model trains can be pretty cool afterall. In a wow-some-old-guy-with-arthritis-made-scale-models- of-chickens-running-across-the-road sort of way.
Seriously though, the models are pretty impressive and you can't help but take a in a little San Diego history of the city and how it took shape. It took me and my family longer than expected to complete the exhibit because of some of the cutesy scenes (looky here - check out the guy sitting on the can...hehe) and incredible attention to detail. Give yourself at least two to three hours to check it all out.
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Most boring. Museum. Ever.
Once I got dragged here twice within two months. I wanted to kill myself.
Not to perpetuate stereotypes of the sexes, but girls + trains do not compute. I dare someone to show me a girl with a collection of model trains.
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This is a museum...but mostly it's just a gigantic display of model trains, actually running. If you (or your kids...or come to think of it, your dad) think model trains are cool, then the SDMRRM is "not to miss" on any San Diego trip. Plus it's in Balboa Park. As a giant model train display...the only thing that could make it better is if you got to get behind the controls.
They also have a Thomas train table...if you have to stop for that kind of thing. :)
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My father introduced the hobby to me when I was 6, and though I haven't been into it since about 13, I still enjoy watching trains run around in circles.
The reason I'm giving this museum 5 stars is simply because it brings a lot of enjoyment to children. I brought two kids I was babysitting to the museum and we were entertained for a couple hours. There is something about model trains that makes both girls and boys smile in content and makes the trip there well worth it.
My thanks to those who maintain the layouts and keep the trains running smoothly for the enjoyment of others.
You don't have to be a hobbyist to enjoy this museum. It's always fun to watch te work in progress plus learn something about how the rail system changed history and how it changed San Diego history. This museum is one of the few that is actually a project in process, so its not completely polished. This makes it alot of fun for children to see how this hobby gets created. A must see for anyone.
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http://www.sdmrm.org/
The only thing I can add from Andrew S. review is it is surprisingly good sized. 28,000 Sq. ft of space.
$6
Below the Photographic Museum
This place was pretty dang cool....
Granted, as evidenced by Kathleen M... you have to have an appreciation of the fact that it's a museum and educational, but if you "check" on both of those, then this is pretty cool stuff.
The model train guys are crazy fanatical sometimes, and alot of those things take alot of work to do to recreate the little worlds. I had no real idea of how big or interesting it was going to be when I went in there... and then ended up spending a good 2-3 hours in there.
It's a museum.. its educational.. it's visual... have fun.. stroll on through.
This place was a real neat find a couple years back and now its part of our regular San Diego routine. True... model trains are not for everyone, and initially when I saw it I thought well my boys (Thomas the tank engine age at the time) would like it so why the heck not. But the place just keeps going and going. I have never seen such an abundance of trains. Each area is unique from the last and the detail is flat out amazing. It costs almost nothing to get in... If you have boys, this is an absolute A1 must see while in town.
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I hate to say that I thought that this place was pretty cool. It was neat to see the layouts of all the railroad models. The details were amazing. The were still many models that looked like they were still under construction. it'll be neat to see them a few years from now.
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This is a great place to take the kids. We came here on a free Tues., it was real crowded, but we still saw a lot. When I saw it was so inexpensive we decided to come again another day. Good idea, not nearly so many people which made it easier to see and linger. What fun to watch the trains run and to see my kids's faces light up as they watched!
I would have never come here if not for my two train-crazy boys.
Once they are in here, you can't make them leave. They literally stare at the trains for hours!!
This is my 5-year-old son's review:
"This place rocks! Lots of trains! You can even have a birthday party here! Don't forget to check out the gift shop!"
My 3-year-old son's review:
"I like this place the most! We NEED to come here every weekend."
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WOW!! Now these guys have some trains!! Having been a model railroader in my youth (my first job when I was 15 was at a model railroad store, and my second job when I was still in high school was at a miniature steam locomotive train ride in a park in Los Gatos), I'd known about this place since I was relatively young, however for some reason even though I grew up in California, I never made it down to San Diego until I was 30 years old. So when I finally did get down there for the wedding of one of my wife's friends, I made damn sure that I took a trip here (and strangely enough my wife made damn sure that she didn't :-) Anyway, if you like model trains even in the slightest, you will love this place. It is frickin' huge! They have accurately modeled the Southern Pacific's crossing over Tehachapi Pass and the Tehachapi Loop, as well as lots and lots of the surrounding parts of the state. They have large model railroad layouts in N, HO, O, and G scale, plus I'm sure something in Z scale and who knows what else that I'm forgetting. The museum is located in the basement one of the historic Panama-California Exposition buildings and may take some searching to find the signs, but it's worth it. This place is amazing!!
