The Piedmont Division of the National Model Railroad Association (NMRA) celebrates National Model Railroad Month every November with public “tours” of many of our great model railroads in Atlanta, Georgia, and the surrounding area.
The Piedmont Division remembers the late Bob McIntyre, who originated the concept of the “Piedmont Pilgrimage” way back in 2003. Along with Howard Goodwin, Bob helped launch the inaugural Piedmont Pilgrimage that year with 12 model railroad layouts on tour. Since then, the Piedmont Division has continued recognizing National Model Railroad Month every year with this event, which featured as many as 70 layouts back in 2019.
In 2020, we honored and remembered the late Gary Jarabek, who so capably and faithfully served as the Chairperson of this event from 2014 through 2019. We also had to adapt to the realities of the Covid-19 pandemic by taking all of our layout tours “virtual” that year. After an all-video program in 2020, we returned to mostly in-person, open house tours in 2021. Many of our video productions from these two prior years are still available for your viewing pleasure on YouTube.
Open House Layout Tours
We are happy to be offering a full schedule of in-person “open house” layout tours for 2022. But because of continuing COVID-19 concerns, some of our hosts may have specific health & safety requirements, such as mask-wearing. Please check this website for each tour before going to visit.
The goal of the NMRA is to promote the fantastic hobby of model railroading, and a great way to learn about the hobby is to see for yourself the wonderful work of the Atlanta area’s experts. We are fortunate here in Northern Georgia to have an incredibly large collection of outstanding model train craftsmen. All of them are very friendly and glad to invite you in to look at their work.
We will not be producing a printed “Tour Booklet” for the Pilgrimage this year. But you will find the complete event schedule and other details posted here on our Piedmont Pilgrimage website as they become available. Please check here again for any updates before heading out on any of our tours.
