The Hawkeye Model Railroad Club's Final Operating Session
Founded in 2006, the Hawkeye Model Railroad Club was located in Coralville, IA in the Johnson County Historical Society Building. Over the course of 15 years, the club built a layout in about 2000 square feet representing a generic east-west mainline across Iowa. All locations were fictional except for Iowa City. The railroad also featured two branchlines and two helix's to staging yards. The layout was designed for end-to-end operation and regular operating sessions were held during club meetings on Wednesdays.
After 15 years in Coralville, redevelopment of the area that the club was located in forced the HMRC to move. In June of 2022, the HMRC broke ground on a new building located at the Johnson County Fairgrounds. This new building would be the HMRC's own and will provide the club a permanent home long in to the future.
On July 30th, 2022, the final operating session on the HMRC layout was held. Members came out to run their trains on the old layout for the final time. I have been involved with the HMRC for the last four years and have spent countless hours at that layout, and myself and the other members all have fond memories of our railroad. I chose to document the final trains that would run on the layout. Various members ran dozens of different trains that day. Over the months following this video, the layout was torn down. Only a few small sections of the old layout were saved and moved to the new building.
Today, the HMRC is fully moved into our new building at the Johnson County Fairgrounds. We are currently designing the new layout in a far larger space than what we had before. To learn more about the Hawkeye Model Railroad Club and our rebuilding efforts, visit https://hawkeyemodelrrclub.com/.