Extreme Model Railroad and Contemporary Architecture Museum

atanzOGR Forum Member

Has anyone heard of this? Apparently Frank Gehry is designing the museum and it will be located in downtown North Adams, MA near MASS MoCA. Its being headed up by Thomas Krens who was the former director of the Guggenheim. So it seems like there is some serious backing here from big names in architecture rather than just model railroading. I was skeptical at first but after reading a number of articles these guys seem pretty serious about making this happen!

No full track plan yet, but it will feature O Gauge trains. Here's a link to a bunch of pic of the model of the building but mostly focuses on the architecture rather than the trains with one hint a track plan below:
http://www.masslive.com/news/i...he_extreme_mode.html

The economic impact study reminds me a bit of the enterTRAINment story Big Boy posted a few weeks ago, I wonder if they'll really attract as many people as the study expects? I sure hope so.

General concept video

Walkthrough of the model

Interesting stuff, what do you guys think?

4/19/188:05 AM

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C W BurfleOGR Forum Member

How is the big layout in NYC doing?

The last time I was at Mass Moca, there were plenty of people there. Maybe folks would visit both. But Mass Moca is a fairly large museum, it would take most folks all day to go through it.

4/19/188:30 AM

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LandsteinerOGR Forum Member SUPPORTING MEMBER

The NY Times wrote about this back in Sept. 2017.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/0...s-massachusetts.html

I think the museum will draw folks interested in architecture, the main focus of the exhibit, which will be a larger group than just train folks. Northwestern Massachusetts is a cultural mecca with Tanglewood, Williams College, the Clark Art Institute, the Norman Rockwell Museum, etc. I think this could be brilliant and a terrific way to expose the public to both magnificent architectural models and to toy trains. If they pull it off.

4/19/188:50 AM

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Mike CTOGR Forum Member

North Adams Mass. is a terminal/stop/over night, on the Appalachian Trail into Vermont. Appalachian Trail co-exists with the Long Trail to south central Vermont, Killington Mt. were it takes a right to New Hampshire and the White Mountains. Population, that end of Mass. , quite a bit less that the other end. North Adams, not on the beaten path, though my access was as a drop-of point, for a 5 day hike through Vermont. Mt. Greylock, another noted Massachusett's overnight facility on the Appalachian Trail. Beautiful Appalachian/Green Mountains of eastern U.S., might fit right-in as a tourist attraction area. IMO

4/19/1812:59 PM