The land now known as Berks County is the ancestral home of the Leanpi people.

Date of Latest Visit: October 18, 2025

Pennsylvania is synonymous with railroads. The eponymous Pennsylvania Railroad was the “Standard Railroad of the World,” and even today, railfans flock to attractions like the Horseshoe Curve, Steamtown National Historic Site, and the Strasburg Railroad. 

But Pennsylvania’s deep connection with trains extends to a love of model railroading with individuals and clubs building scale replicas or cities, towns, and the railroads that connect them. 

One group that carries on the legacy of railroading in Pennsylvania, in miniature form, is the Reading Society of Model Engineers. 

The club is located on a wooded tract in Alsace Township, about 10 minutes north of the City of Reading, but the stone driveway that leads to the grassy parking area feels like a world away from downtown. 

Arriving shortly after the event began at noon, we followed the driveway up to the pavilion to purchase our tickets. Admission was $10 for adults and $5 for kids ages 4-13 so we paid $25 for our family (with our youngest getting in free). 

We decided to start by heading inside the clubhouse to see the two floors of model exhibits. The lower level features an HO-scale layout, the smallest of the scales with two trains pulling around a U-shaped layout.

A second layout, this in the larger O-scale, is also on the first floor. It wasn’t running at the time, but we have seen trains running on the simple oval-shaped track on previous visits.

Up the steep stairs on the second floor is the more intricate layout. Stepping up the last stair you are in the middle of a 360-degree experience with four or five trains running through the exhibit at any given time. 

The scenery has been meticulously crafted with the buildings representing local industries and landscapes that would have been seen along the rails of the Reading and Pennsylvania Railroads. We stayed and watched for 10 or 15 minutes, but I think our boys could have been there even longer if we let them. (We did pop in one more time before we left). 

Outside, there are two ride-on railroads. The larger of the two is the 15-inch scale Laurel Run Railroad which boards behind the clubhouse. We lined up for our ride behind the scale-model diesel train, but unfortunately it had to be taken out of commission on our visit. Instead, a replica steam engine took its place with a smaller diesel to help push. 

The steamer is a beautiful engine painted black with gold trim with the number 20 on the headlight box and on the side of the cab. The matching tender car carries the coal used for this authentic, albeit miniature, locomotive. 

We started downhill from the clubhouse before dead-ending a few feet past a switch in the track. Previously, trains would continue on through a lower loop. However, everything below has been closed since July 2023 when torrential rains and subsequent floods washed out many of the tracks and infrastructure. 

The club is still working to repair this track, but the upper loop is open and we steamed up the hill into the forest and back around to the clubhouse. The short ride is highlighted by a trip through a tunnel that elicits a mini scream from the riders. 

Two other lines, collectively known as the light rail, are located up a small set up of stairs from the Laurel Run. At 4.75” and 7.25”, both are significantly narrower than the Laurel Run. The larger of the two featured swivel seats on the passenger cars, but only ran a short out-and-back line. 

The smaller gauge is a longer ride, looping out into the woods in a modified figure-eight. The Laurel Run’s tunnel passes underneath the light rail as it winds around on its journey back to the platform. 

On past visits, there have been multiple trains running on the upper loops, but we still enjoyed our little ride, as well as our visit overall. 

After another quick peek inside the clubhouse, we had reached the end of our journey. 

When You Go

More PA Trains…