mainegardenrailwaysociety2023

 All Aboard The next trains are departing from the JACOBS' home.  Your train leaves on Jan 1 from 12 'til 4. See the Downeaster and many new Lionel Trains this year.  This layout is mostly O scale. If you don't already know the way to 300 Houghton Pond in West Bath, call for directions 729-2252.  GPS will bring you there correctly too, but please beware that the last mile is on our dirt road.  Look for the silver RR crossbucks and you have arrived ! JEFF JACOBS

 A friend was passing through South Station on a train trip down to Georgia and took these pictures of the model train display. This reminds me of an actual Gas Station that used to be in South Boston. Click here for link to article:

Hello all, Here is a video we took from the train display while we were up there this season.  See you all soon! Robin and Billy Goodrich Maine Mall Train 2013

Click to enlarge I still have some of the old catalogs from when I was a kid and I can remember how I loved searching through all the pages and studying the advertisements with great detail! I could spend hours dreaming about things in the catalog.   It was fun.  Many of us had our introduction to model trains when we were young and it has stayed with us over the years.   Jeff's open house got me thinking about my old layouts again.   If I can make it, I would love to see his trains run.  I think he said that he can run 5 or 6 at once.  It sounds like an excellent way to start off the new year.  Thanks Jeff for inviting us.  By the way, look at those prices from 1954. Wow!!  Talk about the good old days.

 We have taken lots of pictures of this years train display.  Here is a quick and easy way to scroll down and go through them quickly. Start by Clicking Here:    

hey John, did you include this person as one of the helpers today?

  I counted twenty different members who showed up early the day after Christmas to help take down the layout in Center Court at the Maine Mall  Thursday morning.  With incredible teamwork . . . Zap!!!  3 hours later I took the picture below:  Amazing! Special Thank you for following members:  Carl, Mac, Mike B, Tiny, Art, Phil, Mike T, Terry, Sue, John M, Jeff, Maurice, Dennis, Dave F, Ernie P, Scott, Norm, Paul, John J and one unrecognized man (maybe Santa Claus).

    T hank you to all the people who stopped by to see the trains run during the 2013 display.  We are sorry that we have to say goodbye for now to the many viewers who enjoyed this years show.  This was our fourth consecutive year at the Maine Mall and tomorrow we will pick up the track as the Mall needs to get ready for 2014.  So as we conclude another very successful and happy season we would like to pause and thank the public.  The MGRS members greatly enjoy taking part in this show.  But,  it is the enthusiastic response and the appreciative comments  from you, the viewers that makes it so worthwhile!     Thank you to the many people we had the chance to meet.   Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas from the  Maine Garden Railway Society.     

The News Crew was in today taping the Mall Train Display.  They told Carl it would be on tonight at 5PM and at 10PM.  

  Scott's pictures always look like Christmas Cards.  Here is an interesting one.  "  One nice thing about the Bachmann track is that the ties fit perfectly into Lionel’s No. 280 Standard Gauge bridge.  The width is also just right for g gauge cars.  Here’s a picture. " Thanks Scott!  Merry Christmas

  This appeared in the Gorham Times last week.  Spotted and sent into us by Doug Johnson.  You will need to click on the image to make it large enough to read.  Thanks! Along the same lines:  Mike told Carl that Channel 13 was in today to take a lot of pictures of the layout.  Keep a lookout on the news.  We may see something about the Mall display.

When Carl Churchill and John Jackson first tossed around the idea of a train display at Christmas time, they were thinking of days gone by when they were kids and stared wide-eyed at train displays in big Department stores.  Christmas of course has a deeper meaning than electric trains, but all of us were ourselves once Christmas kids, and what fun it was to see the Mall so full of Christmas kids watching trains today.  Here are just a few, assisted in the morning shift by Mike Cury, Dick Rubin, Ben Jewitt, Jake Brewer, Sarah Sherman, and Scott Gould.  Hunk Erskine, Terry and Sue Norton, and Carl and Pat Churchill joined the fun in the afternoon.  A wonderful time for all of us.

Carl just called and we have a confirmed winner for the Percy Train raffle.  He just spoke with the mother of a family of four.  They have two sons ages 3 and 4.  That is the perfect winner for a Thomas train!   Awesome!  The father will pick it up on Monday from Carl at the display and have it just in time for setting it up for Christmas.  That is great news!

  A large box containing thousands of raffle names hoping to win a G scale Thomas's friend "Percy" train was gathered together today by Carl, Mac, and Phil under the direction of the Mall to pick a winner.  A gentleman was chosen at random to reach in and make the selection. The winner still needs to be verified by responding to the Mall e-mail which was sent early this afternoon.  If she does then S.J. from Bath, Maine is the lucky winner. A runner-up was also picked and if necessary they will be notified.                                                                                      Today marked the 40th day of the Maine Mall train display.  After Christmas is over the layout will be taken down and returned to its owners.  Much of it will go b...

December 21:    Victorian Christmas.               Museum grounds open 9am - 5pm                         Steam and Diesel trains 11am - 4pm.                       Sleigh (or wagon) Rides 11am - 3pm.                    The Museum thanks its supporters, neighbors    ,    and community with train rides, a horse-drawn      sleigh/wagon, and Santa Claus.                             NOTE: This is a FREE event, but donations         are gratefully accepted.                                                         Eric...

Tuesday was an easy day at the Mall.  I ran the "standard" trains that are run the most.  The only thing I fixed was to replace the switch box on the Sawmill track so the little engine goes back and forth on two different routes.   I even took a ride on the escalator.  See video:   And thank you to Sue and Terry for the pictures!  

Mr Jackson is always there with a smile and a word of encouragement. Thank you.

  C arl made sure Santa was there to meet each Veteran with a special "Hello and Thank you".  Maine Mall management made sure they had hot chocolate and chairs to sit down and enjoy the train display and the concert.      MGRS presented a large screen TV with a built in Disk Player to the Veterans.  The Mall added a nice set of 48 Classic Movies and all time favorites for them to enjoy.  Brian is shown accepting on behalf of the Veterans Many MGRS members were on hand to meet and greet the Veterans who are also very familiar to us from their summer outings and trail rides at Carl's.  There was plenty of singing and laughing as everyone enjoyed the music and song. They were toe tapping and "dancing in the aisles".   There was even requests for more hot chocolate.      Don Campbell a well known local entertainer put on a great performance especially designed for the Veterans at Christmas time. Don also se...

Norm Waycott beat the storm this morning and managed to open the Mall display within one minute of the scheduled time.  Yeah, Norman.  Could be the discipline he learned from 33 years delivering the mail.  Or maybe from one of the other forty-seven jobs Norman has had since the 1950's, from handling snakes to working circuses.  In fact, the circus layout at the Mall is Norman's handiwork, including any number of circus wagons he has either kitbashed or scratchbuilt.  The wagons are especially fun to see because they are accurate models or equipment Norm has seen and used. Here he's showing two of the most intricate cars in his collection.  Thanks for being there for us, Norman.

  A t 10am Monday morning the Maine Veterans Home of Scarborough will arrive to visit MGRS at the Maine Mall .   They will be met out by the Food Court entrance and escorted down to the display where there will be a place for them to sit down and enjoy the display, receive Christmas presents from MGRS and be entertained with songs and music by Don Campbell.   There may even be a surprise guest.  Please come and join us as we hope for a good turnout of MGRS members to help wish the Veterans a Merry Christmas.

It may be to simple .  But I wanted to stress the fact it was our fourth year,  plus indicate the actual year, show the "Maine Mall sign" emblem and emphasize our own Logo.  2 pin holders would be good to hold it in place. If you feel creative, please go ahead and experiment with  "Paint" program.  You can click and copy a picture of anything to paste in as part of your design.  Andy can turn any drawing into a pin or a patch. After another successful display we need a little reminder of how good it was.  This year we were cut back to 'only' 44 days.  10 hrs a day is quite an accomplishment.  But we seem to have the secret!  

 A busy Saturday,  Bill & Robin have planned to stay overnight to ride out our first big snowstorm.  Bill was joined by Carl and Mac this morning as a big crowd was in the Mall today.    There was one special little boy who showed me exactly what needed fixing!   He was very smart and really cute to watch.  Plus he new what he was talking about!  Sharp eyed he noticed the Amtrak was running through its station stop.  And he noticed the flashing signal was not working properly!   I had to take his picture.  Then the  MGRS crew went right to work to remedy the problems and they got them all fixed!  Nice work men.  Good thing you could respond so well. In the afternoon Hunk and Sue and Terry came in and they went right to work.  It was fun to see so many people and everyone wanted to talk about the layout or trains and so many stories make the time fly by.  I think this has been one of the best ye...