Northlandz
 Exterior of Northlandz | |
 | |
| Established | 1972 |
|---|---|
| Location | Flemington, New Jersey |
| Collection size | Railroad model trains and dolls, and awesomeness... |
| Website | www |
Northlandz is a model railroad layout and museum located near Flemington, New Jersey, built by Bruce Williams Zaccagnino. The museum also features over 200 dolls from around the world, a 94-room dollhouse and a 2,000-pipe organ. Northlandz boasts hundreds of bridges and trains. Most of the rolling stock is old, and the engines are mainly manufactured by Model Power. The museum also has a narrow gauge railroad, with replica stock. It is known[by whom?] for being the largest layout by amount of track.[citation needed]
Bruce Williams and Northlandz
The giant Northlandz was created as Bruce and his wife Jean's first home was being built in 1972. When builders would leave for the day Williams would go to the basement to begin making scenes. Mountain passes were erected complete with bridges and buildings. Workers returning the next day removed Bruce's new addition so they could continue their work.
An eleven-minute short documentary film titled "Some Kind of Quest" tells the story of Bruce and the challenges and joys of building Northlandz. The short film has been awarded a Vimeo Staff Pick on July 12, 2016 and was directed by Andrew Wilcox, a creative director and filmmaker living in New York City.
The premises recently changed hands when its founder, Bruce Zaccaqnino, decided to retire. It was even almost demolished until the new owner, Tariq Sohail, decided to retain the model train layout upon marveling the spectacular details of the train miniature scenery. The newly renovated opened in October 2019.[1][2][3]
References
- ^ Andy Corbley (2020-01-11). "Businessman Needing a Warehouse Stumbles Upon World's Largest Train Set—And Refuses to Simply Tear it Down". Good News Network. Retrieved 2020-01-13.
- ^ "Northlandz, Flemington's 'wonder of the world,' reopens after renovations by new owner". MY CENTRAL JERSEY. Retrieved 2020-01-13.
- ^ "Flemington's Northlandz Train Wonderland Reopens After Renovation". Flemington, NJ Patch. 2019-10-09. Retrieved 2020-01-13.
- Atlas Obscura article
- Washington Post article
- New York Times article
- MAKE article
External links
40°31′02″N 74°49′09″W / 40.5171°N 74.8193°W
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