By Mike Jackson
Posted on Monday, October 13th, 2025
Greeley, Colorado, is home to the United States’ largest model railroad museum. Its massive HO train layout includes many zones of activity, including towns, buildings, bridges, rivers and lakes spread across the 5500-square-foot facility. I went there originally as part of a Fort Collins Digital Camera Club outing. On that day, I took a digital card full of “broad” shots of the layout. I was intrigued by the many interesting period signs on the buildings, as well as the billboards and lettering on trucks and train cars.
A week later, I returned with my tripod and a 60-600mm telephoto lens. I spent four hours taking photos of the miniature signage and buildings. The main HO layout is 1:87th scale. At this scale, a six-foot person is only .79-in. tall in the layout. The signs on the façade of the buildings might average only 1.5 to 2 inches. Even at these small sizes, the detail is incredible!
The curators at the museum told me it took dedicated volunteers and model makers five and a half years to complete the layout. It includes 20,000 pine trees and 12,000 aspen trees spread across the rocky hillsides, towns and industrial areas.
The layout is based on a time stamp of the fall of November 10, 1975—the day of the sinking of the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald ore carrier in Lake Superior. Based on the rugged Rocky Mountain style slopes and fauna I was seeing, I originally thought the layout was fashioned after fictional Colorado scenes. Upon reading some of the signs and documentation, I learned the layout is based on fictional Oregon towns and scenery.
The walls in the museum are adorned with neon signs, posters, additional model train collections, and historical railroad paraphernalia adding to the experience. Of course, the museum is located next to an active railroad line, so you might occasionally feel the ground tremble and hear the whistle of a passing train.
Besides the photos included here, you might also be interested in seeing the town and landscape scenes I took on my first visit. Check out Tiny Colorado – Mike Jackson Photography.
For additional information, visit the Colorado Model Railroad Museum website. You may also want to take a look at the SignCraft article on another model train village, the Franklin and South Manchester Railroad, in Peabody, Massachusetts.
Mike and Darla Jackson operate Golden Studios in Loveland, Colorado, and do a variety of sign-related projects. Mike’s website is www.goldenstudios.com. His email address is golden@goldenstudios.com. You can see more of Mike’s photos at www.mikejacksonphotography.com and www.goldenstudios.com.
