WEST CARROLLTON — Part of a 40-year-old miniature railroad that was among the first to be run like the real thing is moving out of the basement and into a museum.

        Allen McClelland, 67, is moving out of his Cape Cod-style home in this Dayton suburb where, in his basement, he created a remarkably accurate railway system in miniature known among model railroaders as the Virginian and Ohio, or simply the V&O.

Allen McClelland looks over a section of his model railroad layout in his West Carrollton, Ohio, home. (Associated Press photo) | ZOOM |

        The layout is being dismantled piece by piece, and a section of it will be enshrined in the National Model Railroad Association Museum in Chattanooga, Tenn.

        The V&O is one of the few model railroads to have had a book — The V&O Story — written about it and had its growth and change documented by its own historical society.

        “It's actually operated as a miniature of the real thing as opposed to just laying down track and building super-realistic scenery,” Allen Pollock, president of the National Model Railroad Association, said Wednesday. “That's not real unusual. It's just that he was one of the first to do it.”

        Mr. Pollock said Mr. McClelland's layout is among the top five or 10 best-known in the country.

        “Most model railroaders know that Allen McClelland has the Virginian & Ohio in his basement,” Mr. Pollock said. “It's held in real high esteem.”

        The 1,700-square-foot layout has a main line of 338 feet of track that curls through lush mountain greenery, past aging factories and small-town junctions, and more than a dozen creeks and valleys.

        “I can come down here and live in my own little world and relax,” Mr. McClelland said. “It's always sunshiny and happy here.”

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