mainegardenrailwaysociety2023

This video was taken at the Togus VA Medical Center in May 2017. Click on the link to see the video. Military Model Train The Challenger locomotive is pulling WWII vehicles including a canvas-topped Truck, Sherman Tanks, a Half-Track, Jeeps, and a variety of military rolling stock

Veterans from the Scarborough Veterans Home came to visit the Holiday Train Display on Wednesday, December 9th. Their note says "Thank you for your kindness to the veterans at MVH-S. The train display and all the happy faces were good to see."

 Today the Maine Veterans made their first visit to MGRS for this summer.  It was great to see them again.  They were looking forward to the golf cart rides and they brought lots of food to share with us.   Tiny, Scott, Mike and Mac and Carl all provided rides for the Veterans and Scott cooked up all the hot dogs.  Lots of other members led by Dennis were preparing for the Annual Meeting.  It was a good day and enjoyed by all.

A Special 'Hello" to our Maine Veteran friends that visited us in 2010. Military Songs: Click here for Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine. Hint:  Right click and Open in a new Tab.   Then you can see the blog as the Military Anthems are playing. We do appreciate you. Thank You very much.

A dozen of our favorite visitors from the Maine Veterans Home in Scarborough had their final summer outing of the year today at MGRS in Buxton.  It was appropriately the best day of the year as they enjoyed the trains again.  Walter and Dick, Carl and Mac kept everything running smooth,  both G scale and  Golf cart scale.  Everything was looking good!  We enjoy them a lot and the veterans look forward to seeing us, in fact they said they would be out to say 'hi' to us at the Mall later this year.  Thanks, we think you are great and we wish you wellness and happiness until the next time.

August started out great as the Maine Veteran' s came out to visit MGRS.  Today the wheelchair unit visited us and they arrived in their Veterans bus along with a special truck and another van full of enthusiastic kids from Gorham Rec.  The kids were great and very helpful as they assisted the Vets and did all the heavy work. They really were great! They loved the trains, frog ponds, dogs and cart rides.  I did not know Scott could drive like a NASCAR pro.  Carl was busy with everything and Pat and Mac and John rounded out the MGRS crew.  All together it was a very good way to start out a new summer month.   Dick had 3 trains running smoothly as you can see above.  The Veterans, the Youngsters from Gorham and MGRS all had a great time together!

Thanks to the Maine Veterans Home in Scarborough and to MGRS Members Tiny, Walter, Mac, Dick, Carl, Scott, Neil and John for an excellent Outing!    Boston & Maine 1950's from Dover NH. Pictured below styled car was brought by Tiny - It ran great! 

July 13th, Tuesday about 11:00am the Maine Veterans from Scarborough will visit MGRS for a picnic lunch and special outing.   Please stop by and meet the Veterans and help run the trains.   Note:  Groups pick their own dates to visit and July is a popular month so this is the first of 3 days of special events. Following the Veterans will be:  07/14          Monarch Nursing Home         11am   (Rescheduled due to weather)  Moved to Aug 18th        07/15          Wardwell Retirement Home  10am          

Summer is officially here and the Vets were the first to arrive and visit Overlook Garden Railway today. The weather was great and considering it was the first outing of the year the trains ran great! The big Amtrak look very realistic as it passed "Gorham Station". Two Golfcarts and a People-Carrier were in operation as the full busload of veterans enjoyed the beautiful day. It's to bad they cannot carry more as there were several folks who had to stay behind that wanted to come. Thanks to Carl, Walter, Mac, Tiny, Doug and John for helping out and thanks again to the staff (Jeannine and Paul and Mary) for also doing a great job. Everyone enjoyed the trains and garden, had a nice picnic lunch and had fun playing with the dogs too. As they drove away they honked, waved and said "See you next month"!

Some more frisky Maine Veterans came by to visit at a special event at MGRS today at Carl's . They were from the Nursing Home Group and were an absolute delight! And they had 3 guides and assistants that did a great job. Kudos to the MGRS members that helped out. It took 7 of us to keep up with the Vets! Thanks to Carl, Scott, Paul, Mac, Lou, John and Dick (Richard Cosgrove from Bath, a new member that just joined Saturday.) It was a great get together and we are adding both Veteran Groups that just visited to our Newsletter Mailing List. Thanks again Veterans!

It was a lot of fun to see our friends from the Maine Veterans Home visit MGRS today. Several who visited before returned today and brought new people with them. Walter kept 5 trains running and sounding great at the same time he was answering questions. Carl had the train camera on and working perfectly. The hand held radios were " chattering commands" for trains as well as Golf Carts! Golf Cart rides from Carl and Scott were getting very popular! The sun was shining and lunch under the 'big tent' was great. The veterans enjoyed the trains and the beauty of the garden. Every one had a good time and the laughter and the stories were the best of all. Thank you Veterans!

As John Jackson reports, a good part of the fun for the veterans who visited the Overlook Railway on Tuesday was getting stuck in Carl Churchill's yard. The veterans' van sank to its hubcaps. When Carl's tractor needed assistance to extract it, Mac McLaughlin came to the rescue. You can't beat good neighbors (especially ones with tractors). Carl will host another event for a group of seniors in mid-July. If you have some spare time, come and help. It's great fun to meet the visitors, to hear their stories, and to share their pleasure in seeing Carl and Pat's magnificent railway.

A group of at least two dozen shared sun shine, trains, stories, sandwiches and adventure as some of the Maine Veterans from Scarborough came to visit MGRS at Carl’s layout in Buxton. It was an exciting start as they got stuck on the way in cutting across a wet area. Carl and Mac quickly solved that with their tractors teamed together to easily pull them across. They set up under a great open tent like structure providing shade and picnic tables and chairs. A perfect spot to watch trains go by. Walter and Paul kept all the trains operating perfectly as people looked at everything. Conversation was easy and enjoyable. I learned a lot about the Merchant Marine. The North Atlantic storms and U-boats, The Baltimore Orioles, Faneuil Hall and much more from a great guy named John and his friend another Merchant Mariner. Carl and Scott and Mac where giving great Golf Cart rides. The staff that came with them was super! The time flew by quickly and it was as much a pleasure for ...