Vol. 55: Jerry Macri's Pennsylvania
Jerry Macri’s Pennsylvania railroad might be the largest home layout ever built. He began building the layout in his 2,800 square-foot basement, which he added onto 9 years later to develop it into the 4,300 square feet it is now. It takes a train about 25 minutes to run from one end of the layout to the other. Everything on this HO layout is huge, including the famous Horseshoe Curve at 30 by 12 feet and the massive Erie Ironworks at about 40 feet long.
The railroad is only half completed because Jerry is in no hurry to finish it; he enjoys it too much! He decided to model the Pennsylvania when he went to the Horseshoe Curve with his wife on vacation, and fell in love with it. With a layout this big, the towns are far enough apart so a train is never in two towns at once. Along the route, trains travel through scenes that are up to 5 feet deep. The layout runs from Chicago Staging to New York Staging, with the tour starting in Ironton.
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2:15Overview of Jerry Macri’s Pennsylvania Railroad
Jerry Macri’s Pennsylvania railroad may be the largest home layout ever built. This video covers an overview of the layout with Allen Keller. The layout began in Jerry’s 2,800 square foot basement and was added onto 9 years later to the 4,300 square feet it is now. It takes a train about 25 minutes to…
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7:05Touring the Pennsylvania Railroad
The tour of Jerry Macri’s Pennsylvania model railroad with narration by Allen Keller, starts with the broadway limited entering the scene at the Erie Chrome Plating Plant. This area is clouded by smoke from the Erie Ironworks. The steel mill here is huge at about two thirds of a mile long. All this pollution means…
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15:24Operations on Jerry Macri’s Pennsylvania Railroad
Operations on Jerry Macri’s massive HO scale Pennsylvania model railroad with narration by Allen Keller begin with two Alco RSD 15 high noses moving past the King and Sons Coal Company. Many businesses line the tracks around there. The Alcos with train M 8615 work through the Altoona Engine Facility. The Baldwin switcher will pull…
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6:55Inspiration & Techniques on Jerry Macri’s Pennsy Model Railroad
Allen Keller sits with Jerry Macri, builder and owner of the massive Pennsylvania model railroad. The railroad runs in South Central Pennsylvania around Pittsburgh. In spite of the fact that the layout is over 4,300 square feet, Jerry chose not to model too large an area. Altoona to Pittsburgh are areas Jerry both loves, and…
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5:55Using Floral Foam with Jerry Macri
Jerry Macri, owner of the massive Pennsylvania model railroad uses floral foam to build land mass on his layout. This is opposed to the pink or blue foam that most modelers use. Jerry uses the green for a couple of reasons, the most important being the trees that he has modeled. His trees stick well…
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10:04Using Herbs & Spices for Ground Cover
In this video with Allen Keller, Jerry Macri details some of his scenery techniques. Jerry uses typical earth and Woodland Scenics blended turf – about 20 bags of it, but he has also discovered using herbs and spices to add great dimension to his layout for a more realistic look. Jerry shows the different herbs…
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5:53Jerry Macri’s Scenery Cart
Jerry Macri, owner of the Pennsy, uses a cart to hold all of his scenery materials. In the past, Jerry had noticed that it was becoming frustrating to get things out of drawers and move scenery around the layout. So, he created a cart to hold all of his scenery and be able to easily…
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5:58Jerry Macri’s Track Cleaning Sponge
In this video, Allen Keller sits down with Jerry Macri, modeler of the massive Pennsy to discuss Jerry’s least favorite aspect of the model railroading hobby-cleaning track. For his track cleaning, Jerry uses a plaster sponge that he runs over the track by hand. Dish soap or detergent can be used to clean off the…
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