Sarah and I recently viewed The Great Train Story at the Museum of Science and Industry, a layout that depicts a journey between Seattle Washington and Chicago. In its current configuration, this 3,500 square foot HO gauge layout was commissioned by the museum in 2002, funded in part with a $3.5 million dollar donation from Burlington Northern Santa Fe.

This layout replaces the original 2,340 square foot Ogauge layout that was built between 1939 to 1941. Tat layout was upgraded and rebuilt several times before being cut up and sold on eBay to help fund the current version.

I’ve not been able to find specific information on the computer system that manages the operation of multiple trains on the layout and find that my only real bugaboo is that they are running the models at a somewhat unrealistic speed. Outside of that, it’s a very interesting display.