For over 80 years the basement of Denver Union Station was home to the one of the finest model railroads in the world the Colorado Midland Model Railroad.
In the beginning the layout was on the 2nd floor mezzanine above the ticket counter. The original basement space was records and REA storage and was offered up to the club after the Great Platte River flood of 1934. As it was said in legend, “Clean up the mud guys and it’s yours”. Built in American O scale or 1/48 on Q gauge track O5W the final layout was eventually spread like rings of a tree into adjacent areas to just under 7000 finished square feet in its final form in 2011. Eventually one of the jails was offered to club and it became the attached work shop in the 1950s.
The layout grew from a smaller original size to eventually filling the entire area beneath the main grand hall above. The layout was always 2 rail DC and later with a then state of the art propulsion system using block to block control designed by the club membership and one member in particular that worked in telephone systems in 1959.
Today the layout is a memory fully dismantled in 2013 for the Crawford Hotel redevelopment in the newly renovated LoDo “Union Station Neighborhood” which has recently in unprecedented conditions become a crime riddled mess of the unhoused and temporary residency especially after the COVID panic .
This is a memorial, a special place to share with the model railroad community and the world this astonishing model railroad layout that once was a prominent part of Denver history for more than 7 decades spanning generations of families and recreating history in the basement of Denver Union Station.
The old Union Station on a club Tuesday night. We met at 7pm had dinner and worked and played often times late into the wee hours of Wednesday.
This REA depot was one of the last scenes added in 2010.
On3 was also a big part of the layout.
The “mine” as we called it and western slope area of Colorado mostly near Grand Junction was the last area added and was never really finished before it’s destruction in 2014.
The old 1940s layout and code 190 steel rail in place in Springs yard with the original 1936 built bridge passing over the Round House. 
Then modern kits were added or replaced older structures over the decades.
Keiser’s Korner named after a member whom joined in 1959 at the age of 16.
The mine in 2011.
I am trying to document this thing seen here in 2009.
Trinkle Trains enjoying the layout in 2009
Me trying to remove structures for packing and moving in 2013.
Great fun with fellow members like Gerald who used to work at Caboose Hobbies.
Hugh Blaney
The late Chip Rovetta here on OGR as “ChipR” in red and Hugh in black shirt are visiting while at a work night in 2012.
Rail fanning on the layout.
I will add some new material as I get it uploaded and edited, the layout was a great piece of art in place for over 80 years. The Club that owned and operated the layout the Denver Society of Model Railroaders disbanded in September 2019 closing out the clubs remains and a final donation to another local museum.
