Baltimore Society of Model Engineers
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As we are a 501(c)(3) organization, donations are tax deductible despite our .com domain.
>The Baltimore Society of Model Engineers is a model railroad club located in Baltimore Maryland, formed in March 1932. We are the oldest organization dedicated exclusively to model railroading in the United States and the third oldest modeling society in the world!
The BSME layouts and offices are now located on the third floor of 3500 Parkdale Ave, Baltimore, Maryland in the historic Woodberry neighborhood. We are short walk from the Woodberry light rail stop.
The society is always interested in welcoming new members, regardless of modeling skills. Part of the club's activities help beginning members to become skilled in all aspects of the hobby. We also have plenty to keep the experienced hobbyist interested and challenged. If you are interested in joining our historic organization check out the membership page for all the details.
News - 11/15/2023
We have been working on our build of a train garden for the Holiday poinsettia show and sale at the Rawlings conservatory and now its time to install in the Conservatory's south pavilion. You can visit the finished display and buy some poinsettias December 2nd - 31st Wednesday - Sunday 10am -4pm: https://www.facebook.com/RawlingsConservatory
The annual list of open train gardens and model displays is up at Grandpa's Holiday Train Garden page: https://wvmgrs.org/articles/traingardens/
The below pictures are from the install of the train garden we built for the Rawlings Conservatory Holiday Poinsettia show and sale check it out this December.
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The Baltimore Society of Model Engineers began humbly as a simple advertisement in the back of the January 1932 issue of “The Modelmaker” magazine, seeking those interested in the hobby of model railroading in the Baltimore region. The organization has persevered through economic upturns and downturns, wars, five different locations. We can’t help but wonder if the individuals who met in a NE Baltimore home on March 4th, 1932 ever imagined that the organization that they began would remain one of the oldest, if not the oldest, model railroad societies.
We celebrate the anniversary of our founding as close to the date of that first meeting on March 4th, as possible. We are an organization of members with a common interest in building and operating scale models of real railroads and trolleys (light rail) transportation systems. And discussing the history of railroads across the state, region, and country.
Give us a shout if you would like to join us in developing skills, sharing knowledge, and planning the future of our organization. We meet every Friday night via Google Meet to share our projects, get advice, and watch videos from our very own curated lists, contact us at: bsme1932@yahoo.com
Below are some pictures of our layouts over our 91 years: