Railroad Forums 

  • Have you ever been to Northlandz?

  • Discussion related to everything about model railroading, from layout design and planning, to reviews of related model tools and equipment. Discussion includes O, S, HO, N and Z, as well as narrow gauge topics. Also includes discussion of traditional "toy train" and "collector" topics such as Lionel, American Flyer, Marx, and others. Also includes discussion of outdoor garden railways and live steamers.
Discussion related to everything about model railroading, from layout design and planning, to reviews of related model tools and equipment. Discussion includes O, S, HO, N and Z, as well as narrow gauge topics. Also includes discussion of traditional "toy train" and "collector" topics such as Lionel, American Flyer, Marx, and others. Also includes discussion of outdoor garden railways and live steamers.

Moderators: 3rdrail, stilson4283, Otto Vondrak

 #1453731  by Benjamin Maggi
 
Rabid Transit wrote: Interestingly I think I found the crew at Roadside America (which I had visited earlier in this summer's trip) to be a bunch friendlier than the ETJ crew. Could just be me.
Odd, as when we were recently at Roadside America we saw several issues with the layout. Most dramatically, the "Strausburg Train" which was supposed to go back and forth with automation to have the engine run around the train didn't work all the time, frequently leaving the train pushing the wrong car or derailing something. I would kindly point this out to the staff but they were grumpy and didn't seem to care about the issue. Oh well.

Never been to Northlandz but based on threads like this I doubt I will. I remember watching a clip on the news about it years ago and it sounded so cool. I would hate to go and be disapponitned.

Re:

 #1535495  by johnthefireman
 
Camelback wrote: Thu Jul 07, 2005 7:54 pm Northlandz is great for kids and non-model railroaders to visit. But for those of us who are model railroaders there are more impressive club layouts... where trains are operated in more of a prototypical manner...
I visited Northlandz two or three years ago when I was in the USA, and I agree with Camelback's assessment. I was impressed by the huge size of the layout, and by the scenery - mountains, valleys, canyons, bridges... especially the bridges. But there were very few trains running, and there was nothing prototypical about it. It looked a bit dilapidated. I imagine it's a full time job trying to keep a layout that size clean and in a good state of repair.
Last edited by johnthefireman on Mon Mar 02, 2020 11:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 #1535540  by Backshophoss
 
Most of the "Staff" are not model Railroaders or scale modelers of any sort.
They are there to run the "GIFT SHOP" and keep people from touching the display.
They are there for the "Paycheck" nothing else.
 #1625134  by Bracdude181
 
@Backshotbass We used to have a place like this in Ocean County named CB Huntingtons. It was a restaurant with several HO model railroads next to the tables encased in glass covers. Similar situation. They only had one guy to maintain all the layouts and the one other train that ran back and fourth carrying drinks. Everyone else was there to serve/cook food and get paid. There were at least 4 large layouts in this place. All had trains and other stuff that lit up and moved around. I can’t imagine what maintenance was like. I can’t recall a visit when everything was working properly.

They also had a gift shop, arcade, and a small theme park in the back. Shame it’s all gone now. During my final visit which was a school trip we didn’t even see the trains. We just went to the theme park and marathoned the dragon coaster. Good times.

Kind of a shame to hear this place seems to be in a constant state of disrepair.
 #1625194  by umtrr-author
 
I was to Northlandz many, many years ago... I can't say how many but I suspect it was when my kids were quite young. I did buy a Northlandz boxcar which is somewhere around here.

My impression back then was that it was a Highly Theatrical Display which was big on mountain scenery and very small on trains. Having a building sized layout with train set sized consists just wasn't impressive at all. I would think that even non-railroad tourists would be more interested in a 25 to 30 car train versus a 5 car train.

It appears that things haven't changed much since then... except to deteriorate.

Thanks for the review of Entertrainment Junction... for my taste that seems skippable.

And Roadside America is gone, sold off piecemeal in an auction if I recall correctly. That was quite a display when I first saw in in August 1988.