Club Activities

Club membership is open to any RIT student, faculty, or staff-member in good standing.

RIT students can join our CampusGroups by clicking here.

The RIT Model Railroad Club (RITMRC) was founded in early 1996 to promote the hobby of model railroading and to preserve the history of Rochester’s railroads. Today, the club actively supports its mission with the following activities:

Model Railroading

Rochester & Irondequoit Terminal Railroad

Since 1996, our main project is the HO scale Rochester & Irondequoit Terminal, our permanent layout in room A-420 of the Student-Alumni Union. Construction began on the third version in 2025. The R&IT features NCE Digital Command Control (DCC), computerized dispatching and control, working wayside signals (coming soon), and highly detailed models and scenes inspired by the Rochester area.

RIT Tiger Tracks Train Show & Sale

As our primary fundraiser for our club activities, we have been hosting model train shows at RIT since 2000. In 2006, we expanded the show to two days, more than 300 tables, and multiple model railroad displays. We host Rochester’s largest train show right here on the RIT campus in the Gordon Field House every December!

Railroad Preservation

Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum

Many RITMRC members volunteer at the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum just minutes down the road from RIT in nearby Rush, NY. Working on the museum’s operating demonstration railroad, RITMRC members have the opportunity to be involved with equipment restoration, track maintenance, train operations, and more.

// Set the date we're counting down to var countDownDate = new Date("Dec 13, 2025 10:00:00").getTime(); // Update the count down every 1 second var x = setInterval(function() { // Get today's date and time var now = new Date().getTime(); // Find the distance between now and the count down date var distance = countDownDate - now; // Time calculations for days, hours, minutes and seconds var days = Math.floor(distance / (1000 * 60 * 60 * 24)); var hours = Math.floor((distance % (1000 * 60 * 60 * 24)) / (1000 * 60 * 60)); var minutes = Math.floor((distance % (1000 * 60 * 60)) / (1000 * 60)); var seconds = Math.floor((distance % (1000 * 60)) / 1000); // Display the result in the element with id="demo" document.getElementById("TT_Countdown").innerHTML = days + "d " + hours + "h " + minutes + "m " + seconds + "s "; // If the count down is finished, write some text if (distance < 0) { clearInterval(x); document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML = "EXPIRED"; } }, 1000);