Name: Peter Martens
Forum User Name: Peter_J_M
Railroad Name: The Silver Rail Club (founding chapter)
Location: Cumberland, Virginia
Scale: O-scale
Theme: A different kind of ‘music video’.
Description: Inspired by Rusty Draper’s 1956 hit song, ‘The Railroad Comes Through The Middle Of The House’, Peter J. Martens, founder of the Silver Rail Club, built this detailed scale Victorian home to show how it might have looked if it had actually been built. He finished it in time for it to be featured on his club’s O-gauge display during the annual Richmond Model Railroad Show at the Science Museum of Virginia. Pete has the song ‘cued-up’ and plays it in this video as his model trains come through the middle of the house! You can check out all his 3-rail O-scale model train videos on the SRC’s You Tube channel, and post your comments below. Visit and ‘Like’ their Facebook page too!
Forum User Name: Peter_J_M
Railroad Name: The Silver Rail Club (founding chapter)
Location: Cumberland, Virginia
Scale: O-scale
Theme: A different kind of ‘music video’.
Description: Inspired by Rusty Draper’s 1956 hit song, ‘The Railroad Comes Through The Middle Of The House’, Peter J. Martens, founder of the Silver Rail Club, built this detailed scale Victorian home to show how it might have looked if it had actually been built. He finished it in time for it to be featured on his club’s O-gauge display during the annual Richmond Model Railroad Show at the Science Museum of Virginia. Pete has the song ‘cued-up’ and plays it in this video as his model trains come through the middle of the house! You can check out all his 3-rail O-scale model train videos on the SRC’s You Tube channel, and post your comments below. Visit and ‘Like’ their Facebook page too!
Thanks, everyone, for your comments about my video. It sure was a lot of fun to make this house and film our trains running through it. The song was one of my Dad’s favorites, and he had the record which he liked playing for us on his ‘Hi-Fi’. Sadly the record broke, but now years later I was able to find it for him on CD and he’s enjoying it once more. The house came out the way I’d always imagined it would look, I just had to find the right model kit to work with. The model makes for a great conversation piece on our layout and really adds some special interest to our 3-rail, O-scale display. Thanks again for watching and subscribe to check out our other fun videos on YouTube.
Most excellent! Thanks for sharing this.
Absolutely delightful!
My mom and I loved this song when I was a kid!!!
I always liked this song since I first heard it as a child. My house was near the Pennsylvania Railroad
and when they ran a local freight train ocassionaly it was powered by a steam engine. Although my house was about a block away it felt like the train ran through the middle of the house. This video is well done and really brings the song to life. They did a great job making the custom house to accomadate the train to go through. Thanks for the link.