mainegardenrailwaysociety2023

May the track ahead be clear and straight  and your love for trains stay strong and great. Happy New Year! 

To view please Click Here: If you watch all of this you should have all the trains and whistles you need for a year.  Of course that begins again tomorrow.  

  Eric said "I learned how to give voice to my little steamers!  watch and listen as I run trains outside on my Winnegance and Quebec railway to the sounds of the full size thing on the WW&F railway museum."     Whisltles in the Woods

   I don't know how we do it.  I do remember contacting Doug Johnson whose name I found on some little scrap of directory of train clubs buried on the Internet back in December of 2008.  He said he was going up to South Paris to do a train display.  So I went up to meet him. He was nice and I asked him how to build an outdoor RR.  He invited me to join and I went to the Spring Meeting where our first BOD was formed. Little did I expect that 4 years later we would be hosting the longest running model train display at what I believe is the best facility we could ever find in Maine.  And, doing it for the 3rd year in a row!  Each year more people become involved and the display becomes bigger and better.  I truly don't know how we do it.   I mean we are not a large organization.  But we manage somehow to bring together enough volunteers to pull this off and we enjoy doing it!  How is that possible?  I guess we are just l...

 This is pretty cool!  I had not seen this before and so I had to post it up on YouTube.   These are never before-seen views of our train display we just completed yesterday.  Mike told me he saw the helicopter radio control operator maneuver around  get on the other side of the tree in the center of the layout which blocked the radio signal and caused him to "crash".  It landed in the soft snow blanket and no damage was done.  I would have loved to seen the actual flight.  The picture is very clear and you can hear the sound of the helicopter engine.   To see the video please click here:

Poof!  In less than 4 hours the dynamic clean up team had completely stripped and moved out everything belonging to MGRS from Center Court!  Keith was standing by ready for the Mall phase which he plans to complete in the next 48 hrs.  Yes, it is always sad to see it end but,  all the talk was about what we could do to make it better for next time.  A special thank you today to Art, Carl, Dennis, John, Mac, Mike, Norm, Paul, Scott and Tiny. And everybody else too that supported the display. Thank you from Maine Garden Railway Society. Well done.

Merry Christmas from the Mall!   The final day has arrived for the 2012 display.        Carl wants to say a 'Big Thank You' to all the members and family that helped make this year successful.  Thank you to all the gift wrappers, and family members that contributed their time to make this the best year MGRS has had at the Mall! Each year we improve and yes we are looking forward to 2013.  All-a-board!

Thank you Scott!     These are some recent pictures from Scott which he has posted on an album which we can access by clicking on the link below: Please Click here:

 Mike, Preston, James, Norm and Suzanne were enjoying the sunny day in Center Court.  The crowds were big, Santa and the gift wrappers were busy.  Keith stopped by and complimented us on the display this year.  Here is an interesting idea he told me about decorating next year.  The main deck will be grass instead of snow.  The snow will be used on the upper levels similar to Maine's higher elevations which get snow.  That is good for several reasons.  First, the public will instantly recognize  a change from prior years,   plus it is easier to decorate with and no more snow blanket in our engine and wheels!  The Mall will use an AstroTurf type product  and it opens up some more diorama possibilities.  There will still be snow in the mountains and on the ski slopes.  Mike suggested a Maine seacoast harbor scene  with lobster traps, a light house using the glass water we used this year. Maybe a tug boat at a d...

  Carl called from Mall.  They decided to pick the winner tonight.  Stefanie emptied all the slips into a big box and Norm mixed them up.  Santa picked out a winner and Stefanie notified him.  They put him on speaker phone and he was all excited to win Carl said.  He will be in to pick up his Thomas train set in time for Christmas Day! Update from Norm ~ I heard it was actually a grandfather who won the Thomas but he will give it to his grandson.  That is Great!   Merry Christmas from MGRS!

Here are some photos from Dick who is in today running trains.  Looks like another BIG crowd for the Saturday before Christmas. They all look like they are enjoying the trains!

As the display winds down thoughts of how to make next years layout better begin to simmer. 1.Replace Station Masters with our own design.    Let's build a devise that will:      A. NOT require ANY PROGRAMMING.      B. Will NOT burn up if POLARITY is reversed.      C. Is capable of working with any amperage the transformer produces.      D. Will not of itself cause a transformer to burn out. 2. Let's keep it simple.  The only adjustment MGRS Operators should make is to the individual speed of each train. 3.  Use a heavy duty master power strip with ON/OFF indicator light. We want ONE BUTTON  control of the entire layout.    With the exception of train speed no other controls should be adjusted. 4. Expand the use of ANIMATED devices that create ACTION, LIGHTS, SOUND and tie them in if possible to the Interactive Controls.        A.  Fo...

Rain & Wind Outside - But still nice and cozy inside.  Today Hunk was the man! In fact the only man. Some how it worked out that he was alone on the display today and he just took care of it all!  Nice going.  After lunch people started arriving and he did have company as he stayed on the evening shift with Paul and Terry. I think Walter is also planning to come in.  I stopped by to pick up some trains and when I left the wind was really strong outside!   After I got home the power dipped a couple of times.  But as far as I know the Mall stayed nice and bright, just the way we like it. By the way, Thank you Stefanie for arranging all the free coffee at Starbucks!  Today was a good day for it.

Here are pictures from Art on all the activity yesterday.  It was a very busy day!  Lots of people stopped by, particularly as our schedule has become condensed into its last week.  It was great to see Frank and Janey Howard stop by as well as Peter Crimonese and Hunk, Paul, Walter, James, Art, Carl and Norm!  Paul brought in his White Pass Railroad snow blower car.  See photos below: Happy Holidays everyone! Click images to enlarge size

Sent in by members Bill & Robin Goodrich. Thank you for making another great video! To view Please click here:

Railroad Mud slide video - To view click here:  

     Hard to believe we are in the last days of the Mall display. I know we cut back a few days but still the time just seemed to fly by.  So, here is a final look for this year at one of my favorite trains.  Tiny's Number 470 Maine Central passenger train.  It completed its final run of the year yesterday.

  Carl just called from the Mall with some important news.   The train show needs to be cut back 6 days.  Clean up will start right after Christmas day.  8am on Dec. 26th we will start to take down the layout.   Everything needs to be moved out of Center Court and stored out back so that the Mall will be able to take down the platforms and clean up so they can rent the area out. I am sorry to say that we had to cancel 19 people who were originally signed up from Dec 26 to Dec 31.  However, if you check the schedule there are some openings in the evening on what has now become the last week .  If possible, you are invited to re-schedule. We are sorry to have to cut back the display time but i t is also good to know that there are businesses who need the space and who are anxious to be ready to go at the start of the year!     Thank you VERY much for your participation. And by the way, we have been officially invited to return back to ...

  I enjoy looking at the birds eye view of the layout.  Tiny's bridge looks great and I noticed the way they were able to cut the snow blanket back from the track.  Painting the riser top white makes it blend in well and I think it looks good.  

THANK YOU!   To all the ladies who combined their efforts to help raise money to benefit MGRS.   You worked hard and you did a terrific job.  We really do appreciate what you have been able to achieve and we certainly know that we could never have done it without you.  Thank you!  

   Here is the video I shot last week. Hope you enjoy it. The music is original, written for the video. I'll drop a DVD at the Mall in the next day or so. It was a lot of fun to make - almost as much fun as seeing what you folks come up with each year. Best - Jim Alberty  Please Click here to see the Video!!  "A Great Video ~ Must See" Click on image above to watch.

Wow, there was a lot going on today at the Maine Mall.  I will try to keep adding to this post over the evening but to start here are some videos:    It was a very Festive Atmosphere!   There was a concert going on very near us put on by "The Boy Singers of Maine".  That lasted 2 hrs and was very good.  Plus being a Saturday, the crowds were large and Santa Claus was busy as well as lots of train viewers.  Luckily there were lots of MGRS members on hand to help out.  I know Art was in earlier and Dick, Scott, Terry and Hunk with added muscle from Jake and Ben were in the AM crew and Carl, Paul, Dave, Norm for the PM shift.  So many guys with Vests, It was Awesome! Here is an unusual "high angle" view taken from the temporary stage erected for the concert:  Plus it was MGRS Gift Wrapping Saturday.  There was at least ten generous members, family or friends that donated their time to help raise money for MGRS who came in today. ...

Also big Thanks go out to Hunk, Andy, Paul, Jim, Carl and Mac and others that I missed.  It was an excellent day to run trains. Below are some short clips of Paul's Maine Central,  Jim's  street cars stopping at the new Station master stop and Carl's beautiful sounding B&O passenger train. 

It was Gift wrappers Day-1 for MGRS.  Thank You!!  Kathy, Pat, Wanda, Suzanne,Maureen, Grac e, Rachel You were all Fantastic!  MGRS Tha nks you all so much.

 Thursday AM the Circus comes to town!  Norm and Art combined for the delight of all the on lookers.  One little fellow in particular made a point to say how good the trains are!  I bet you could spend the entire day just talking to one person after another, Continually!  Grace and Dave came in for the PM shift and Art was nice enough to stay on with them.  Santa was doing well and it is definitely taking on the holiday feel.  Remember tomorrow MGRS begins a two day gift wrapping stay.  The very best wishes to all the Volunteers! Here is one of the little guys that really loves the show.  And of course, Thomas is his favorite.  Click on the video below for a close up look at Norm's  Circus train.

 Dana and Tiny look relaxed but we were pretty busy today trying to get everything running.  Luckily Jeff stopped over with his Polar Express and applying his calm approach  and electrical knowledge got us all squared away. Thomas continued to delight the youngesters and the oldsters were equally delighted with  Tiny's sleek ME Central.  Several people said they remember riding similar trains.      I ran my little LGB "Garden Train" up high on the upper level and we enjoyed the day.  Art was in for a long time and he covered for everyone as we went to lunch.  He also explained some of the Lionel wiring tricks to remember. Our regular Tuesday Team of John and Mike came in early on the PM shift and we switched over some trains and put back some of the favorites such as Carl's Amtrak and Walters LGB "Little engine that can" Keith stopped by and said how the Mall was getting excellent feedback from everyone and this years display was very we...