The History of the ACWRRHS
It All began March 5th, 2003…
On March 5th, 2003, President and society leader DC Cebula officially established the American Civil War Rail Roads Historical Society.
Initially established as an internet based group to allow friends to easily exchange information, The ACWRRHS was developed into a well organized group to share the love of Civil War railroading.
Later that year, we held our 1st unofficial meeting at the Great Scale Train Show in Timonium, Maryland.
To date, we have had our annual meets in far flung places from Memphis to the Jersey Shore!
Eventually it turned into something bigger than just a friend group.
Pictured: The 2023 ACWRRHS Annual convention meeting in Memphis, Tennessee
NMRA Partnership
In 2012, we lobbied to become an independent affiliate with the NMRA as a SIG (Special Interest Group).
The ACWRRHS is a proud registered NMRA Special Interest Group (SIG). as an NMRA SIG, we are an independent non-profit group organized to provide a forum for the exchange and collection of railroad prototypes and model railroad information about specific topics.
We occasionally tour NMRA shows with our own N-Scale layout for everyone’s pleasure.
Pictured: Members Joel & Roger
at the Railroad Prototype modelers in 2025
Outreach
On January 21, 2018, we migrated from our former Yahoo groups to our current hub at our groups.io.
Eventually in October, 2020, VP of the society, Thom Radice came up with the idea of virtual meetings using Zoom as method of broader outreach.
This was deemed a success, and Thom has since led our monthly virtual meets, which he also records and posts to our YouTube Channel.
Currently we have transitioned our outreach to new spaces like Facebook and Discord so that we can reach as many people as we can.
Today
As the ACWRRHS broadens it’s outreach, we ensure that a new generation of individuals has the same shared goals with which we started.
As of 2026 we have reached a milestone of being over decades. As it stands, our current membership is close to 600 members.
Currently we have members from over the world, from places like Germany, Portugal, Spain, Italy, France, Brazil, England, Australia, Canada, and all over the US.
All dedicated to the knowledge and preservation of railroads during
the Civil War.