Our Annual Open House
The Milwaukee & Northern Railway Historical Society, a.k.a. the Neenah-Menasha Model Railroad Club, will be hosting three open house events this fall. Normally we hold one open house per year on the first weekend in December.
We look forward to welcoming you into our home at 323 W. Forest Ave., Neenah, WI, on Saturday, 24 October, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and Sunday, 25 October, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
If you can’t make it on 24 and 25 October, we will be welcoming visitors on 14 and 15 November as well as 5 and 6 December.
Here are a few scenes from last year’s open house.
Admission is free.
Monetary donations will be graciously accepted and immensely appreciated.
We look forward to meeting new visitors and welcoming back repeat visitors.
This December will be the 144th birthday for our historic railroad depot.
Unfortunately, our 144-year-old depot does not have a functional toilet. Please plan accordingly for your visit.
At least once per year we enjoy welcoming the public into our depot, so that everyone can see what the Milwaukee & Northern Railway Historical Society (MNRHS), also-known-as the Neenah-Menasha Model Railroad Club (NMMRRC), is all about.
You can visit our historic, rare 1882 M&N depot.
You can learn what the hobby of model railroading has to offer.
You can discover some of the history of our prototype railroad.
Maybe you will consider joining our Society, or supporting our cause in some other way.
We will be hosting another open house on 14 and 15 November, as well as our normal, annual open house on 5 and 6 December. Stay tuned for more information. Updates will be posted here as well as our facebook page.
Our first public open house was held in 1982.
A 9 December 1982 Janesville Gazette article about our first open house in 1982.
This newspaper article announced the open house which we had hosted on 8 December 1982. This was the first time that the general public was invited to come in and discover what we are about. Previous open houses were hosted exclusively for members of other model railroad clubs. Larry Easton, far right, was a co-founder of the MNRHS.
In April of 2020 Wally, our current president, reminisced about that 1982 open house: “Yeah, I remember that. It was the first time the club opened the doors to the general public. Larry had researched and found that our building was reaching its 100th birthday and we decided to celebrate that with the open house. It was on a regular meeting night and I didn’t know about all the publicity that we had received on it. I drove down to the club with my toolbox in the truck, figuring I could work on whatever project and maybe there would be a few extra folks visiting to see what we were all about. I had to park about a block and a half away, left my tool box in the truck, and when I reached the depot, there was a line of people waiting to get inside! The place was packed. This was before we had built the part of the pike that now fills the middle of the baggage room, so that area was filled with attendees as well.”
Wally added: “We have had many open house events since then, usually on a weekend over two full days, which spreads the crowd out so that we are more able to greet and talk with the people. Over the years we have seen many old friends returning to check on our progress as well as lots of new faces seeing our railroad for the first time. One of my favorite parts is witnessing the wonder in a child’s eyes when he or she sees our miniature world. Or when an older kid exclaims “Gramma, Grampa, the trains run RIGHT through the BATHROOM!!”
Wally operates a train on our model railroad circa 4 November 1989. This may have been a publicity photograph for our open house that year. Photograph courtesy of the Neenah Historical Society.
