Lehigh & Keystone Valley Model Railroad Museum, Model railroad museum in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, US
The Lehigh & Keystone Valley Model Railroad Museum is a model railroad museum in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, that recreates historic rail routes of the Lehigh Valley across roughly 5,000 square feet (465 sq m) on two levels. The HO-scale layout runs three separate routes with about 7,000 feet (2,100 m) of track and a helix to connect the two floors.
The club behind the museum was founded in 1994 and spent years building a layout that depicts the main rail lines of the Lehigh Valley as they operated from the 1950s through the 1970s. The routes shown, including the Lehigh Valley Railroad, the Reading Railroad, and the Central Railroad of New Jersey, no longer exist in that form today.
The models show places like Bethlehem Steel and the Huber Breaker in Ashley as they looked in the 1960s and early 1970s. These scenes remind visitors of a time when steel and coal shaped daily life in the Lehigh Valley.
The museum opens only on select weekends, mainly during the holiday season from mid-November to mid-January and once a month outside that period. Checking the website before visiting and booking tickets in advance is a good idea, especially around the holidays when it tends to be busy.
The model of the Jim Thorpe station was made using a 3-D printer, which is unusual for a volunteer-run museum. The layout is also controlled by a computer system that uses six screens in the control room to manage trains much like a real railroad operation would.
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