Welcome
Welcome to the San Diego Division. If you are looking for an active model railroad organization where you can learn about the model train hobby, share your modeling tips, meet other model railroaders, start new friendships and have fun, we invite you to join the San Diego Division of the National Model Railroad Association. 

If you are not a member and would like to join, and attend our next meeting or event, contact Rudy Spano at Member Services on our Contact Us web page. A list of this year's events are here online.

NEXT EVENT:

Saturday, November 14, 2026

Fall Meet: The Fall Meet will be held at the Pacific Beach event room at the San Diego Model Railroad Museum in Balboa Park. The San Diego Model Railroad Museum is one of the largest model railroad museums in the world.

There will be two clinics, a lunch, Show & Tell, Bingo For Trains and door prizes. Be sure to bring extra cash to participate in Bingo For Trains. For complete details, please see our Meets/Events web page.

• Date: Saturday, November 14, 2026.
• Time: 9:00 a.m.–3 p.m.
• Events: Events include two clinics, Show & Tell, Bingo For Trains and door prizes.
• Lunch: Lunch will include drinks, sandwiches, chips and dessert. There is a $10.00 donation for lunch.
• Location: Pacific Beach Event Room at the San Diego Model Railroad Museum.
• Parking: Balboa Park has paid parking until January 1, 2027.
  • Parking details and fees on our Meets/Events web page.
• Accessible: The museum is accessible.
• Masks: Not required.
• Carpooling: Carpool with a friend (or friends) to help take the sting out of gas prices and parking prices!

Fall Meet Clinic Information:

Clinic 1: The Kidder Mansion by Dick Roberts, Master Model Railroader (MMR).

• The Kidder mansion was the home of John Kidder who was the chief engineer and, subsequently, the president of the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad. This clinic demonstrates the construction of a "signature structure", using photos and available information to draw a plan and construct the building. The techniques are suitable for many scratch-built projects.

Clinic 2: Improving the Realism of Commercial Kits by Gary Robinson, Clinic Coordinator.

• Commercial kits, especially plastic, can benefit from a few extra steps during assembly. Do you really want the buildings on your layout to look like everyone else’s? Suggestions for how improve the realism and differentiate you kit from everyone else’s will be presented, along with reasons why. This clinic was well-received at the recent 2026 PSR Convention held in Mission Valley in San Diego.

Model Railroad Layout Tours For 2027
We are now scheduling model railroad layout tours for 2027. We have six private model railroad layout tours per year. The months for model railroad layout tours are listed below. Please contact the webmaster if you want to host a model railroad layout tour for 2027.

• January 9, 2027 - Chuck Molnar's HOn3 scale narrow gauge prototypical layout exhibiting the Rio Grande Southern Railroad in Colorado, USA. Era: 1890-1953.
• March 13, 2027 - Dick Roberts' HO scale prototypical layout presenting the Nevada County Railroad located in Nevada, USA. Era: Spring 1920.
• April 10. 2027 - Ryan Di Fede's N scale prototypical layout featuring the Southern Pacific Railroad's Cascade Line in Eugene, Oregon, USA. Era: 1954.
• June 12, 2027 - Ron Walker's HO scale Sonoma Valley and Napa Valley Railroad located in Northern California, USA. Era: Early 1900s to present.
• July 10, 2027 - Open
• October 9, 2027 - Open

If you want to provide a model railroad layout tour or schedule an Operations Session for Division members on a different day than the 2nd Saturday of the month, you are welcome to do so. Please contact the webmaster to schedule this and the webmaster will add it to the website.

More About the San Diego Division
The San Diego Division holds in-person meetings every second Saturday of the month, which include members showcasing their own modeling work, layout tours, and modeling clinics. (A clinic is where one of our members demonstrates techniques or skills needed for modeling, for example, an electronics clinic, how to solder, how to weather rolling stock, understanding decoders, or techniques to improve rolling stock standards.) We have quarterly meetings (which includes a luncheon), an annual swap meet, annual picnic and other activities for our members. The Division newsletter, "The Mail Hook", is published quarterly by email and is sent to our Division members.

The San Diego Division (California, USA) includes the Southern California counties of Imperial and San Diego with a population of over three million, and is one of four divisions in the Pacific Southwest Region (PSR) of the National Model Railroad Association (NMRA). The other Pacific Southwest Region Divisions are the Arizona Division, Cajon Division and the Los Angeles Division. Please find links to the National Model Railroad Association membership rates on our website. 

San Diego Division Facebook Page, Facebook Group & YouTube Channel 

• San Diego Division Facebook Page (Anyone can "Like" this Facebook Page.) 
• San Diego Division Facebook Group (Private Facebook Group for our members, new as of April 2020.) 
• San Diego Division YouTube Channel (Our YouTube Channel is new as of the Summer of 2020. 

Model railroading is also quite active in San Diego County, with multiple model railroad clubs (including the four clubs at the San Diego Model Railroad Museum in Balboa Park), there are many home layouts (of which a number of have active regular operating sessions), a very active Garden Railway Society, three model train stores, and several other general hobby stores that have model railroading supplies.

About the National Model Railroad Association
The National Model Railroad Association, Inc., is a 501(c)(3) not for profit educational organization that advances the global scale model railroading community through education, advocacy, standards, and social interaction. The NMRA is a three-tiered organization. The National Organization is sub-divided into Regions (18 worldwide), and those Regions are in turn sub-divided into Divisions. It is at the Division level that interactions take place between an individual member and the entire NMRA organization.

What's in a Name? 
The National Model Railroad Association (NMRA) has named all the local NMRA groups, "Divisions". While it is tempting to call our NMRA group in San Diego, a model railroad club, or just the club, that terminology doesn't quite fit. The reason is, a model railroad club is where their organization has its own a permanent model train layout, usually in a rented or owned public business-type building.

NMRA local Divisions usually do not own permanent layouts. It is our members who typically own their own private model railroad layouts. National Model Railroad Association Divisions hold meetings and events throughout the year. While some Divisions throughout the world only hold events several times a year, the San Diego Division is a very active and has meeting and events each month. We hope this explains a little more about the San Diego Division and why we are referred to as a Division and not a model railroad club! 

About San Diego Division Model Railroader Members
Our members are very active in the model railroad hobby in San Diego County and Imperial County. Some of our members belong to model train clubs, some have their own model railroads and some do both. There are three types of model railroaders in this scale train hobby. People who like to run model trains, people who enjoy modeling and there are model train collectors. Many model railroaders participate in all of these activities. There is a wide range of model train skill levels in the San Diego Division.

In addition, many of our members participate in Operations Sessions here in San Diego County and Imperial County. Many of our members  provide own Operations Sessions at their home model railroad layout and many participate in model railroad club Operations Sessions. Operations Sessions are when you operate your model train layout like a real railroad. Operations Sessions keeps the interest and fun in the model railroad hobby for your entire life. If you are looking to meet and be part of an organization with active and experienced model railroaders, the San Diego Division might be the right place for you to join.

Note: The San Diego Division does not have a dedicated physical meeting place or office. Each month, we meet at various locations throughout San Diego County or Imperial County. With the exception of during a pandemic, we will hold virtual meetings. All photos on our website credit: The San Diego Division and the National Model Railroad Association.