Bridgeport Charter Township, Michigan

Junction Valley Railroad

A quarter-scale locomotive wonderland built by one man and his family.

As family-friendly roadside attractions go, you can’t get much more wholesome than the scaled-down trains at the Junction Valley Railroad.

Built and operated by the Stenger family who owns and lives on the site, the miniature railroad may seem adorably small but actually features a number of sophisticated and complicated feats of railway engineering. The complex contains over four miles of laid track for their diminutive trains, with a number of to-scale features such as trestle bridges, a 100-foot tunnel, a working roundhouse with operating turntable, and over 60 rail switches to plot out the riders’ journey. To accommodate the large number of visitors to the attraction, the Junction Valley Railroad has built a fleet of nine engines and 70 cars for visitors to ride the mini-rails in.

If visitors get tired of riding like giant hobos in the tiny cargo cars, the site also features playgrounds, a picnic area and a hobby shop for model train enthusiasts who are interested in building their own (even-smaller) locomotive paradise. Most of the train rides cover two or so miles of the elaborate rail system. However, as both adults and children tower over the 1/4-sized train cars of the Junction Valley Railroad, the journey seems much longer.

Update October 2017: The family will be closing the train shop on October 31.