Oswego Valley Railroad Association

Mission Statement

This is a paraphrasing of the stated purpose for which the corporation is formed as found in the Certificate of Incorporation, August 1989.

To study and promote the importance and usefulness of railroads in American life and
To encourage the enjoyment and practice of the hobby of model railroading for all age groups.
To that end we will construct and maintain one or more operating model railroads, exhibit them to the general public at events, and freely discuss their construction and operation with all interested individuals.

OVRRA Club Layouts and Equipment

Our current traveling layout is modular in nature. Its typical size is 32 feet by 16 ½ feet but can be expanded or contracted as needed to fit the space requirements where we are exhibiting it. We do not try to model any particular railroad or time period, and in this way, club members are free to run trains from practically any era on it. Although the club does own a small number of engines and rolling stock, nearly all the model trains running on our layouts belong to individual club members. Some members will model currently existing railroads, others will model “fallen flags”, and some model “freelance” or fictitious railroads.

Nearly all of the model benchwork, trackwork, and structures belong to the club. Our current traveling layout features both urban and rural scenes. We show a variety of industries, typical of the northeast. We also have a couple of modules that contain engine servicing facilities, including a roundhouse with turntable, coaling tower, machine shop, cinder conveyor, and diesel fueling. Industries include a cold storage facility, stockyard, meat packing house, sauerkraut factory, flour mill, gain elevator, and logging encampment. Future plans would also include a waterfront with coaling trestle. The traveling layout also features an HO scale replica of an infamous low clearance railroad bridge in the Syracuse area that has been stuck numerous times by semi-trailer trucks.

Once we are settled in our new home, we hope to set up a stationary HO scale layout for use in operating sessions as well as set up our N scale layout which has long been in storage. The stationary HO layout will feature four large modules that were once part of the traveling layout, but have now been completely rewired and made functional again, as well as some selected modules from the traveling layout. We anticipate that our new home will provide us with adequate space, not only for running our model trains, but also for maintenance work on the models and layouts and to provide opportunities for us to hone our modeling skills and to teach those techniques to the next generation of model railroaders.

A Short History of OVRRA

The Oswego Valley Railroad Association model train club was founded by a couple of model railroaders in Oswego New York in May 1982. They attracted more members quickly with poster ads in local store windows and word of mouth. By the second month they had acquired 22 members.

They soon fell into a routine of holding monthly business meetings in public locations such as Oswego’s McCrobie building and enjoying operating sessions at various member’s homes.

Later that same year, OVRRA displayed for the first time at the Syracuse Train Show, and hosted their own first small show and display in the basement of a downtown Oswego store, which at that time was known at the Olive Branch. That first local show ran for ten full days and generated some much needed donations.

Up to this point, all the train layouts that the club had been exhibiting belonged to individual club members. The very first “club layout” was a display for the Richardson-Bates House in Oswego that illustrated the “strawberry trains” that had once shipped as many as 5 trains of strawberries per day from Oswego to New York City via the O&W, the DL&W, and the New York Central until trucks took over shipping in the mid 1950’s.

In the late fall of 1983, The Art Guild at Fort Ontario became the club’s first home which they quickly outgrew. Then, beginning in 1988, the club obtained the use of the Fulton War Memorial, for holiday season displays of their layouts. In the early 1990s, the club welcomed vendors to the show to help offset expenses. In later years, OVRRA settled into the routine of hosting its train show in the Fulton War Memorial the second weekend in November, one week after the Syracuse show. This practice continued through November of 2019, when we found it necessary to change venues due to escalating costs.

At first, members’ own layouts were being used for club activities. Once the club began building its own layouts, modules were stored in members’ homes, but eventually, space ran out. In 1993 a couple of club members, who were also members of the local New Haven, NY American Legion, arranged with the Legion post to donate space to OVRRA in which to store and set up the club layouts. This arrangement had served OVRRA well from 1993 up until the spring of 2024 when the American Legion determined that they wanted to sell the building and OVRRA was given notice to vacate. We are currently working out an agreement with a local Grange to serve as our new home.

Initially, OVRRA’s traveling HO scale layout was a historic layout, featuring the train activities and associated structures of the Oswego area and its surroundings. After a couple of decades of use, several members wanted to be able to run any kind of equipment of their own choosing on the layout, whether or not it was historically accurate. Thus a new traveling layout, that would be “freelance” in nature, was constructed using four large yard modules from the original historic layout and completely new modules to form a 16’ x 32’ freelance layout. The old layout was then retired and scrapped, saving only scratch built structures, turnouts, and the best parts.

The freelance layout itself has also seen some changes. The four large yard modules have been retired, to be used in a stationary layout, which we plan to set up in our new home where we can once again hold operating sessions. The traveling layout now features a whole series of new modules, including engine facilities and a new interior yard which has become a very popular feature with current club members. Recent upgrades to the scenery and features of the traveling layout have been very well received by the general pubic at our shows. Currently, OVRRA hosts two trains shows of its own, one in early May and the other in mid-November. We also exhibit at other area train shows including the Thousand Islands show in Clayton, NY, and the Great Model Train Fair in Syracuse, NY.