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By Bill Van Tassel
AUGUSTA — Children, their parents, and grandparents enjoyed the annual Christmas model railroad display at Maine’s State Museum the weekend of Dec. 1 and 2.
The celebration was put on by the 3-Railer’s Model Railroad Club. The displays included G, HO, O and Z-gauge model trains, including a reminder of old times with Stephen Burns’ logging setup. Children got a chance to work the switches to load and unload the logs on to the flat-bed cars.
Club member Art Shean had a couple of fellow members man his large display, which included a large Christmas village and a full and richly-colored amusement park.
It is a curious coincidence that the first scheduled passenger train in the United States began on Christmas Day in 1830. Toy trains appeared before electricity was in common use and the models ran on steam power. The name 3-Railers stems from the fact that the models run on three rails, with the center rail carrying the electricity and giving more stability to the moving trains.
Trains figure prominently in the Maine State Museum’s collection, as trains played a big part in the state’s logging industry and other commercial enterprises. Part of the museum’s collection is an 1846 Lion. This steam locomotive was used in the logging industry. It is the oldest known American-built locomotive in New England and is registered on the National Register of Historic Places.
TOP PHOTO: Conner Moore, of Rockport, and his grandmother, Katherine Green, enjoy one of four display tables of the 3-Railers Model Railroad Club. “I think it’s cool. I’d have a remote control,” Connor said. (Bill Van Tassel photo)
