Manhattan Modelers | Guide to Holiday Model and Train events in New York City 2025
Dec 07, 2025 3:06 pm
Guide to Holiday Model and Train events in New York City 2025
Hello Manhattan Modeler,
This time of year, New York City gets a lot of holiday visitors. We have gathered a list of holiday train shows and possible interest points for our out-of-town visitors. At the risk of repeating things, I am including an updated version of the list again. If you have out-of-town visitors who have some interest in trains and models at this time of year feel free to share.
Holiday MTA Subway Excursions
Last year’s Vintage MTA Holiday Train
The MTA hosts FREE Vintage subway car excursions on winter holiday season weekends. These trains are running in normal service with no special tickets. Fee is a regular card swipe. Operating this year on the uptown F line between 2nd Ave -Houston Street on the F line and 96th St -2nd Ave on the Q Line. They will be running the 1930’s era R1/9 vintage museum train set every Sunday in December.
- Sunday, Dec 7, 14,21 and28th 10:00am-5:00 pm
- Departs 2nd Ave-Houston on Uptown F platform 10am, 12 pm, 2pm, 4pm
- Departs 96th St-2nd Ave on the Q line platform 11am, 1pm, 3 pm, 5pm
www.nytransitmuseum.org/holidaynostalgiarides/
Holiday Train Displays in the City
The MTA Museum Annex at Grand Central Terminal
This is the 21st year of the TW Trainworks/Lionel display. The layout is 34 feet long and two levels. It depicts train and subway travel from Grand Central and the city to the upstate suburbs and on to the fantasy of the north pole. This display remains very popular with young children and tourists especially around the holidays. The display stays up past New Years and the crowds are often smaller then so if you want to avoid the crowds I would plan accordingly.
The 89 East 42 Street, New York, NY 10001
Nov-13, 2024 - Feb 2025
Admission free
Mon-Fri 10:00-7:30pm
Sat-Sun 10:00-6:00pm
The New York Historical Society
Holiday Express: Toys and Trains from the Jerni Collection.
The display this year is a bit smaller than they put up in the past, but they made an interesting announcement. Next year they will open a permanent galley to display a larger selection of this amazing and comprehensive early toy train collection. There are displays of vintage toys and trains with some replica trains running on viaducts high above the gallery as well as some layouts of replica trains running through vintage accessories and toy buildings.
170 Central Park West and 77th Street NY New York NY 10024
Subway B and C train at the 81 St station is the closest
Nov 21, 2025-Feb 22, 2026
Admission $24
Monday closed Tue-Thurs 11-5 pm Fri 11-8pmSat -Sun 11-5pm
New York Botanical Garden Holiday Train Show
Nov 16-Jan 11th $35 off peak ticket charge, $39 peak ticket charge
Open some nights 7-10PM
290 Southern Blvd, Bronx New, York 10458
Reachable by Botanical Garden Station on MetroNorth
Subway B, D, 4 Train Bedford Park BLVD Station
Subway 2 Train Allerton Ave Station to the East Gate (only open during daylight hours)
www.nybg.org
Local Club Winter Open Houses
New York Society of Model Engineers (2 rail O scale, HO scale)
341 Hoboken Road, Carlstadt NJ 07072
Nov 29,30, Dec 6,7, 13, 14th 1:00-5:00 pm
Pending 100th Anniversary. Oldest model railroad group in the US. This club was founded in Times Square in 1926.
www.modelengineers.org
The Model Railroad Club (HO Scale, N Scale)
295 Jefferson Ave, Union, New Jersey 07083 (behind the Home Depot)
Nov 28, 29,30th Dec 6,7,13,14th 11:00-6:00 pm
76th Anniversary of this club. Every hour there is a 15-minute narrated train performance sequence.
www.themodelrailroadclub.org
West Island Model Railroad Club (HO scale)
Friday Dec 5 7:00-9:30 pm
Weekends Nov 28, 29, 30, Dec 6,7 1:00-4:00 pm
www.westislandmodelrailroadclub.com
Garden State Model Railroad Club (HO scale)
Nov 28,29,30, Dec 6,7, 13,14 Jan 3,4 open 12 to 5:00 pm
575 High Mountain Road North Haledon, New Jersey 07508
New York City Hobby Shops
The Red Caboose
23 West 45th St Downstairs New York NY 10036 M-F 11-7pm Sat 11-5pm
Alan Spitz’ well known very full shop carrying all scales of trains is the only hobby shop left in Manhattan
www.theredcaboose.com
Rudy’s Hobby & Art
3516 30th Ave Astoria, NY 11103 Wed-Sat 11-6:30pm
This shop in a vintage pharmacy carries N, HO and 3 Rail O scale trains.
(718) 545-8280
E-Z Catch Trains Traps & Tackle
5 Tysen St, Staten Island, NY 10301 Tues-Wed 11-6 pm, Thurs- Sat 10-6pm
This shop is located next to Snug Harbor. They are primarily a fishing gear and crab trap manufacturer, but they also sell 3 rail O scale trains which makes for an interesting combination. www.e-zcatch.com
NMRAx
Live and prerecorded lectures and clinics hosted on YouTube and Facebook. A short aside about this series. When I discovered this series over COVID it reignited my interest in becoming a better model maker. Also, in the live chat was where I first found other modelers who lived in the city. In a roundabout way it was the spark of starting this group. It is a great resource that the NMRA sponsors. The subjects are often very interesting, and the presentations are well done. They do need to do a better job to get the word out and raise more interest in the series.
3 hours of layout tours, lectures and clinics on the NMRA YouTube channel
Dec 13th 2025, 5-8pm
NERx
Four evenings of model making clinics, roundtable discussions, tips and tricks and layout tours.
If you are interested in contributing a clinic or even a short Tips and Tricks please contact me. [email protected] I have become involved in this production. It would be nice to have some Manhattan Modelers representation.
More information to follow.
March 16-19th 2026
Human(c)ity Junction
Heath Hurwitz has a very active and popular YouTube live stream detailing his progress making an N scale layout in a limited space in Manhattan on his YouTube Channel.
Wednesdays at 8PM
youtube.com/c/HumancityJunction?sub_confirmation=1
Amhurst Railway Society Railroad Hobby Show / Springfield Train Show
Eastern States Exposition Fairgrounds Springfield MA 01089
Admission $19 per day $5 parking per day
Jan 24 and 25th, 2026
Eastern Division Train Collectors Association Train Meet
York Fairgrounds 334 Carlise Ave York, PA 17404
April16-18th 2026 and Oct 15-17th 2026
Call for Submissions.
Please consider contributing to our newsletter.
Email to [email protected]
We have setup a Manhattan Modelers Discord as a place to share projects & ideas, post events, ask and answer questions and make connections.
We have chosen Discord because it is organized around specific interests instead of providing a unified newsfeed. Discord is focused on real-time interactions between people, whereas other social media options function as internet message boards.
Discord also has a Zoom like video conferencing feature, but without the limits of the free Zoom.
Click on this link which will ask you to either create an account or login to your existing account.
Once you join, you will see the logo for the Manhattan Modelers "server" on the left and the various "channel" topics on listed to their right.
Please take a moment to introduce yourself in the #introduce-yourself channel
Please consider sharing this newsletter with your favorite modelers.
