Youngstown Model Railroad Association officer Bruce Silvernail handles the switching operations at one of the large yards on the HO layout. The YMRA HO layout will appear in the national magazine, Model Railroader, with an eight-page feature.

AUSTINTOWN — The Youngstown Model Railroad Association is set to have its HO scale layout appear as a feature in Model Railroader magazine in January.

The feature will showcase the many years of hard work that took place at the largest model train club layout in the Mahoning Valley.

According to club officer Bruce Silvernail, the YMRA began on April 1, 1957, when eight strangers with a common interest in HO model railroading met at the home of George Sankeyon on Tippecanoe Road in Youngstown. HO is the most popular model train scale in the U.S. and Canada.

Out of that meeting, the new members constructed a 5-foot by 10-foot portable layout for the Railroad Community Committee of the Mahoning and Shenango Valleys. That initial layout appeared at Idora Park and the Canfield Fair.

“In December of 1957 we moved into the New York Central Station in Youngstown,” Silvernail said. “We have a model replica of that building on our HO layout that shows our first layout in the lunchroom of that station.”

The club’s first open house was Dec. 2, 1961. Three years later, the club was forced out of its first home and went to the Eagles Building at the corner of Fifth and Rayen avenues in Youngstown. In August 1977, hard times forced the Eagles to close that building, and the club was again looking for a permanent home.

Silvernail continued with the history that included member Butch Phillips, who helped the club acquire the present location, which was the former Four Mile Run Christian Church. The church built a new structure nearby and wanted to see the historic church preserved. The club moved in and cared for the structure while building two permanent layouts. The HO was first in 1978 and in 1980, a group of O-gaugers were added to the roster and an O-gauge layout was constructed upstairs in the former sanctuary.

“We are now 67 years old,” Silvernail said.

The upstairs of the church today houses a large O-gauge layout. It was featured in O Gauge Railroading Magazine in spring 2009.

In a room addition to the vintage old church, a new modular layout is coming together to give the club a portable layout for outreach displays.

The HO layout has undergone a lot of custom and kit-bashing work that brings Youngstown railroads to life. One of the features is a steel mill complex. It features everything from the coke ovens to the final steel coils.

“We even have Stop 14 on Walton Street (Youngstown) that was the entrance to Sheet and Tube,” Silvernail said.

Perhaps the most noticeable segment of the layout is the downtown Youngstown area. It resembles the city as it was in the 1950s and early 60s. Every aspect and building that made up the downtown area was scratch built and added. Even the Realty Building that was destroyed last spring in an explosion is on the layout. It was a true work of art and was gaining in popularity.

“Someone from Model Railroader magazine called and wanted to feature our HO layout just prior to COVID-19,” Silvernail said. “When things began opening up again, the magazine contacted us and set up a visit in 2022. The crew was here for two days, and we got to include what we wanted in the article,” Silvernail said.

He said member Don Lakin helped by climbing on the layout and measuring everything so a map-style diagram could be made for the feature. It was photographed and details were obtained so the feature could come together

Silvernail said word came out recently for the feature to appear in the January 2025 issue of Model Railroader. That issue will actually come out in December.

The feature will cover all the details of the layout such as the drive-in theater that plays real movies. The theater screen is actually a miniature television designed to resemble a typical drive-in.

On the north end of the layout, the members built an amusement park. It included a working roller coaster and visitors started referring to it as Idora Park. It included a trolley stop, which was how the real Idora Park began (as a trolley park).

All these details will be part of the eight-page magazine feature. For those who want to get an early look at the layout, the club is hosting open houses on Nov. 2-3, 9-10, and Dec. 7-8 and 14-15 at 751 N. Four Mile Run Road in Austintown. The open house will run from noon to 6 p.m. all eight days and the club is asking for a $5 donation per person. Those attending will be able to see the latest addition that won’t be in the magazine article.

In wanting to give a better Idora look, members Kurt Sanders, Don Lakin and Ed Williams decided to work together to come up with the iconic Idora Park Rocket Ride.

“It was all scratch-built. No kits,” Sanders said. “Every week for two years we would meet at someone’s house and work on the model.”

As part of the process, the three men visited the Idora Experience in Canfield to take measurements of the real rocket that the museum has in the collection. Using those measurements, the rockets were hand-built and lighted as the real ones were. The base of the ride also has the original food stands from the real park.

“We are like any other model train layout,” Silvernail said. “The layout is never finished; it’s always a work in progress.”