06/18/2026
Since 1973 the Chesapeake Bay and Western Model Railroad Club has brought entertainment and community involvement to Grafton and the surrounding 757 area as Virginia's Largest Model Railroad Layout. Since then, the CB&W has relied solely on monetary donations, physical item donations, and club member monthly dues. Since the mid 2000's we have been a registered 501c3 Non Profit organization.
In 2026, the future of the Chesapeake Bay and Western Model Railroad Club is very uncertain. We may lose our current Clubhouse. As many know, we moved into our current location back in 1982, and have been a local staple ever since. Our layout is completely permanent. There is nothing mobile about custom benchwork, glued track, scenery, and miles of electrical wiring that have been in daily use for well over 40+ years.
Unlike most businesses and organizations, we have rented this Clubhouse since 1982. If we lose the Clubhouse, there will be no more CB&W. We do not have the available members, the reusable resources, and we simply do not have the finances to start all over from scratch like we did in 1982. We MUST purchase this building.
We are looking for donations of any kind to help us raise the money to save our Clubhouse from being suddenly sold. We have set up a donation link connected to our PayPal profile. If you feel inclined to help us preserve Virginia's Largest Model Railroad Layout, please consider a donation.
EDIT: To answer the numerous questions of “How much money do you need to raise?”, and others like it:
We on the Public Relations team are not at liberty to publish the exact number just yet. Once that number is provided to us by our Board of Directors, we will publish it on a new post across our various social media channels. Rest assured, the donated money from the link below is directly deposited into our Building Fund. If the current Clubhouse cannot be purchased or saved, the allocated funds will be used to move the CB&W to a new location.
Click here to donate: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=2C6UJKGSRACD6
