Bradford Ohio Railroad Museum
Bradford Railroad Museum to construct a model of the yards 

The Bradford Ohio Railroad Museum is happy to announce that the Board of Trustees have approved the construction a model of the yards at their January meeting. 

The museum has planned a model of the yards for many years and it is now becoming a reality. 

Mike Desch and Rick Miller of Precision Metal Fabrication located at 191 Heid Avenue, Dayton, Ohio will be constructing and installing the layout. The goal is to have the project completed in the next year. 

The N-Scale model size was decided to keep it within the limits of the museum space. The Dayton N- trak group has also agreed to help with maintenance. These were main factors in choosing the scale for the model. 

The layout will demonstrate the massive size of the railroad operation at Bradford, Ohio. It is hard to image that 60 miles of track once occupied the center of town. 

The time period will reflect the height of the rail road operation. The United States government took over the railroads during the first World War and did a complete renovation of the yards. The model will reflect this period in Bradford’s 130 years of active railroad operations. 

The layout will consist of track and structures and scenery to recreate the Bradford Yards. 

Many people have forgotten that Bradford was a railroad town since there are no tracks left in town after Conrail took up the tracks in 1985. The museum is keeping this part of railroad history alive. 

The structures will include switching towers as there were  once 4 that controlled movement through the yards. A railway YMCA was the main center of social activity in the railroad town and served as a hotel for away from home railroaders and out of town guests. The roundhouse remained active for many years after the junction was closed and the turntable was used to redirect the direction of trains until it was dismantled and moved. The Depot stood and was used for passenger travel into the late 1950’s. 

There will be crossing shanty’s and support structures like the power plant and oil house to name a few. 

Mike and Rick plan on documenting the progress of their work through pictures that will be posted on the museum’s website atwww.bradfordrrmuseum.org. 

Donations toward the project are welcome and can be made to the project to supply the needed rolling stock to complete the layout. 

The museum is located at 200 N Miami Avenue Bradford, Ohio 45308 P.O. Box 101. 

The museum is closed for the winter and will re-open on April 6. 2013. The museum is open Saturday from 10 am- 1 pm and Sunday from 1- 4 pm. The museum will be featuring Penn Central for the 2013 season. Plan on visiting the museum this year and watch the progress. Questions can be directed to Marilyn Kosier at mkosier@rrohio.com