Welcome to the Los Angeles Division, NMRA
Love trains? So do we! We are a group of model railroaders in Ventura and Los Angeles counties who share our love of trains and modeling by educating people and promoting the hobby of model railroading, helping all modelers - from beginners to experts - build their skills and capabilities, and holding in-person and virtual events.
Please look around the site to learn more about the Los Angeles Division, the National Model Railroad Association (NMRA), local rail-related museums, groups, and hobby shops, and upcoming local, regional and national model railroad events.
Spotlight On The 2026 NMRA National Convention
The National Model Railroad Association (NMRA) 2026 National Convention, the Scenic City Express, was held July 27 - August 2 in Chattanooga, TN. I was fortunate to be one of the more than 1400 attendees who enjoyed a week of modeling clinics, prototype tours, social events and admission to the National Train Show held on the weekend of August 1st and 2nd. The NMRA held its annual membership meeting during the convention where they announced a membership fee decrease (!) and the creation of a new Achievement Program for modular railroads.
The main convention hall featured a large Free-moN layout which highlighted Free-mo's realistic scenery and gave attendees the chance to try their hand at prototypical operations. Groups like T-TRAK, the American Civil War Rail Road Historical Society, and the organizers of the 2027 NMRA National Convention in Tacoma, WA and the 2028 convention in Rochester, NY to talk about their events. It was the staging area for attendees leaving on buses for different prototype tours of Scale Trains and different railroad museums and scenic railroads.
The National Train Show featured over 125 vendors and exhibitors and modular railroads ranging from Z scale to L-Gauge LEGO. These modular layouts were a great place for their creators to share their work and for attendees to get new ideas and inspiration. The show was open to the public on Saturday and Sunday, August 1st and 2nd and convention attendees had an exclusive preview on Thursday evening.
The National T-TRAK Layout organized the largest T-TRAK layout in the world. It featured almost 200 participants from 48 states, the District of Columbia, and overseas and had over 715 modules of all sizes (equivalent to 1511 single modules) totaling more than 93 scales miles of mainline!
Below are some photos from the convention. The National T-TRAK Layout had so much great stuff that we will focus exclusively on it in next month's Spotlight.
Not everyone is able to travel to the NMRA National Convention, but modeler in Southern California have the chance to learn new skills, be inspired by other modelers' work, and meet fellow model railroaders at the NMRA Pacific Southwest Region's "All Aboard for 2026" Model Train Convention being held in San Diego September 9th to 13th.
Text and photos by the LA Division Webmaster, Mark Fischer.
We need your help! If you have photos of a model you are proud of, a cool train-related thing you saw in the area or on a trip, or have some interesting news, please contact us so we can share it with the rest of the world.
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Upcoming Events
Some of the upcoming railroad-related events over the next few months include:
- August 1 - TTOS/Southwestern Division Meet and Like Steamers Picnic, Arcadia
- August 15 & 16 - Tehachapi Loop Model Railroad Club Train Show, Tehachapi.
- August 22 - Gold Coast Modular Railroad Open House and Swap Meet, Camarillo
- August 22 - Santa Susana Railroad Historical Society Swap Meet and Open House, Santa Susana
- August 23 - Southern Pacific Historical and Technical Society Summer Swap Meet, Buena Park
- September 6 - TTOS/Southwestern Division Meet & Open House, Arcadia
- September 9-13 - Pacific Southwest Region NMRA Convention, San Diego
- September 26 - Los Angeles Model Railroad Society Open House and Swap Meet, Harbor City
The Los Angeles Division
We are a group of more than 200 railroad modelers in Los Angeles and Ventura counties in southern California. We are one of 150 local groups, called "divisions", of the National Model Railroad Association (NMRA) across the world. The Los Angeles Division is part of the Pacific Southwest Region of the NMRA, which includes three other divisions covering Southern California, Arizona, and Southern Nevada.
We hold a monthly virtual meeting on the first Thursday of every month at 7pm. These informal "Sand House Chats" are a round-table where members can share information and talk about whatever interests them.
All Division members receive the "LA Division Coupler," the Division's quarterly newsletter via email.
In addition to our website, we share information on multiple social media sites.
- The Los Angeles Division, NMRA Facebook page (a public page that anyone can "like" to follow)
- The NMRA Los Angeles Division - A 501(c)(3) non-profit organization Facebook group (a private group for Division members)
- The Los Angeles Division, NMRA Instagram page (Coming Soon!)
The NMRA
The National Model Railroad Association is a 501(c)(3) not for profit educational organization that was founded in 1935. It is a world-wide organization with over 16,000 active members, associates, families and clubs dedicated to the hobby of scale model railroading in all its facets, supporting a hobby of many diverse interests that all relate to the greater world of trains and railroads.