Martini Junction is a model train built in the Needham Town Forest. It consists of 120 feet of track, supported in places by elaborate wooden supports, a station with a human-scale table and benches, and other random miniature pieces of scenery. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/martini-junction
I stopped here on my way to the Greenberg’s show in Wilmington a few weeks back. There were no trains running but I thought it was pretty cool. Anyone else been there?
I see the possibility of a distillery up stream and pumping either gin or vodka down to the wheel to make a proper martini! (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
Mark Hadler said:
I see the possibility of a distillery up stream and pumping either gin or vodka down to the wheel to make a proper martini! (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
Haha sure. Bully Boy Distillers is about 50 miles Northeast of there. A natural spring powers that wheel. That and the fact that it’s on public land I found most interesting.
Cool Looking, Nice Trestle
Dennis
Public land? That is unique!
Eric Mueller said:
Public land? That is unique!
Yes, So here’s an option for apartment dwellers that dream of having an outdoor layout. Evidently, It’s been there for over ten years. You would think it would be vandalized but it’s seems just the opposite. Folks have contributed little “scenes” in and around it.
Eric Mueller said:
Public land? That is unique!
Eric, the Big track where I run my Big engines is in a State Park on public land. They support the ride-on railroad as an attraction, and the club built the gauge-1 layout which I enjoy running on.
Was there about a year ago with my Manager at work. She does Geocaching and saw the RR on geocache site. We went and she was able to tag it for her 3000th location. The person who owns it lives in a house in the neighborhood that abuts the park. He’s been to a few of the Rusty Rails meetings.
No trains running that day. It was cold wet snow/rain. With a tick or two.
LAO
Looks like frost heave has taken it’s toll on the track “altitude”.
so if it’s 120 feet of track, and assuming the loops at each end about 10’ diameter, the 30’ per loop, so was the mainline about 60’ long?
It’s nice to hear that no vandals around, but from the description on the Obscura page, it’s a 20 minute walk from the parking area, so that may be part of the equation.
Also looks like you cannot run the complete loop unless he comes out and unlocks the “box” sitting on the mainline.
Greg Elmassian said:
so if it’s 120 feet of track, and assuming the loops at each end about 10’ diameter, the 30’ per loop, so was the mainline about 60’ long?
I believe the loops are actually about 4-5’ diameter
It’s nice to hear that no vandals around, but from the description on the Obscura page, it’s a 20 minute walk from the parking area, so that may be part of the equation.
The Needham town forest is in a very affluent neighborhood. The “parking area” is basically parking in front of homes on Robinwood Ave. I found another trail-head out on the main road that goes behind those homes. It may have taken about 20 mins going out as I did not realize those white birdhouses well like an inch tall but once you know the way, it’s probably half that. The railroad is in the woods but I think when the leaves are down, the area may be visible from some houses on Deerfield Rd. I believe the park is almost exclusively used but folks who can walk or bike to it.
Also looks like you cannot run the complete loop unless he comes out and unlocks the “box” sitting on the mainline.
Yes, you would not be able to bring your own train and run it continuously.
