Happy New Years Eve ~ MGRS is "Smoking"

    Dick Cosgrove,  George & Joanne Medel (who stayed overnight to come back again today), Carl Churchill, Mac McLaughlin, Sue & Terry Norton and Betty Norton & Hunk Erskine  all helped to ring, toot, chug and whistle out the old year of 2010 at the Maine Mall Train Display.  Carl said the Mall was crowded today and people are still saying "This is great, how much longer will you be here?  I want to tell (and they name some relation) to come and see the trains".  It has been great! Stay safe and a very happy New Year to all!           

Finishing Strong

  We had plenty of members coming in to help run trains today.  Joining Norm, Tiny, Paul, Walter, Scott and John were George and Joanne Medel who drove over from NH, She said "It looks good in pictures, but even better in person".  They were happy for the extension because having the week off gave them a chance to come over.  Same for Tice Leonard who was just in the other day.

  We are going to miss the Mall, there is no doubt about it.  But, that is good, I am glad that is the way we feel as we wind up a perfect event.  A Win-Win for everyone who was part of it.  MGRS, The Mall and most of all the Public.  There are way too many examples to give, but today a man came in and asked if he could take some pictures.  He said he was in yesterday and took pictures on his phone but he wanted better quality.  So he made a special trip back in today just to get pictures.  Many, many people have stopped just to say they appreciate what we have done.

Commemorative Patch

Click on Images to Enlarge Picture

I have put together some samples of what the patch to commemorate the Maine Mall Train Display could look like.  If you see one that you like please vote on the Poll on the left side of the Blog.   You can vote for more than one if you want to.  If you would rather see a different design just leave a comment so that I can contact you and we will come up with something better.  Thank you.   

The Southern Crescent stops at the Mall

The famous Southern Crescent made an appearance today at the Maine Mall along with some other well know people.  We know them as Art, Andy, Carl, Mac and Dave.   Famous because they will make the last Wednesday run of 2010 at the very well celebrated MGRS Maine Mall Train Display.

People still ask "How long will you be here?" indicating they want to know if they have time to tell someone else to come see the display.  Some people are return visitors but for the most part we are attracting a steady audience of new visitors each day.  I do not know if we will ever get an accurate estimate of how many people have seen the display but I guess it does not matter.  It has been a great success and as we close out the remaining days we are still meeting new people and we are still running new trains!
Listen to the sound of Southern Crescent and see some other pictures from today.   Click here:

MGRS Official Mall Video

 Member Bill Goodrich made a special trip up from Middleboro Mass with his wife to run trains at the Mall with Dick Rubin and Rich Young,  While he was here he took some excellent video and sent me a DVD disk.  Bill has some good clips of the layout taken from the train view.  The speed is nice and slow and gives you a great view of the layout details.  The 'snow' looks like it is 15 feet deep in places.  Thanks Bill,  Great Video:

Please click here to see video:
  

Maine Mall Video by a Passerby ~ Thank you!

  Walking through the Maine Mall on my way to lunch in the Food Court (guilty! guilty!) I discovered the massive G-Scale (Garden) train installation of the Maine Garden Railway Society. They were kind enough to put my iPhone 4 on the front of the Rio Grande engine and this video - with a little help from the Mannheim Steamroller - is the result - I don't do a regular Christmas - this video suits me just fine. Love to you all - Jim

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5BLfB1VJGw&feature=related

Sunday after Christmas

Sounds like an old math problem:  Tiny and John went to the Mall to run trains. They each were there for 5 hrs. They overlapped half of their time with each other.  How long did they run trains?
A.  Don't know
B.  Don't care
C.  Don't ask
D. 7 1/2 hours
Actually  that worked out good for both of us and the Mall got more train time than expected.  Today  there were a lot of people looking at trains, I thought maybe it would drop off but not today at least.  Santa was gone but we had as many people and kids as before.  He is a terrific Santa by the way.  I have not seen it but Tiny said he saw our videos on the GGP website.  One of  the videos was of Santa with the Veterans.  I will have to try and find it.  Today was a fun day running trains.  I would put on an egg liner on the mainline and see how many laps it took to catch up with our GP38-2 train.  All of our Applications were gone, I folded up some more and put then out in the holders.  The supply of people seems steady and continuous.  There is probably no better place where we could set up a display in a nice atmosphere and be able to attract such a good audience.  There is no doubt that we have educated the public greatly about G Scale trains.  Most conversations begin with the question "What Gauge are these?"  and it goes from there.    Many people take pictures of the display too.    I have observed we have a large following with a thirty year plus span of ages and then drop down to the Thomas crowd with not a lot in between.  I don't want to volunteer to do one, but I bet if we had a Facebook page it would be attracting a lot of those followers. For example, Channel 6 just said "If you have storm pictures" go to our Facebook Page and paste them on it.   
Take a look at pictures/video from today.

Merry Christmas to all our members and friends from Maine Garden Railway Society

Good bye Santa ~ See you later

 

Click on Image to Enlarge

This is the real Santa Claus

Thank you from our hearts ~MGRS

The Night before Christmas Eve

  This would have been our last full day at  the Mall  (tomorrow we close at 6pm) if we were closing on the original schedule. But Carl was able to give us something extra to celebrate up until Jan 3rd!
  Today, Norm and Jim started up the action. Santa Claus bought coffee for all the MGRS crew and Norm's big Circus train lead the action over the main line.  Jim was there most of the day and it is too bad we did not write down in a ledger all the stories we have been told,  they would fill a book.  Mike  Curry came in early (I missed getting his picture). Mike and Paul and Jim were all going strong in different conversations with on-lookers when I left. People seem to be eager to talk to us and we are certainly all putting forth a good impression about model trains and MGRS.  Norm said he passed out several applications to interested people today. I think Walter has been re-supplying the handouts that we have available (Thank you very much) and we have passed out a lot of material.  Several people have signed up to receive emails from us next year.
  This afternoon  Paul had three good looking LGB Trolleys all running in the inner loop at the same time.  A local freight train, a Santa hand car, Thomas and Annie and Double EggLiners completed the display to the large crowd of parents and Children that were there today getting in that last request to Santa Claus.

Please click here to see more from today:

It is amazing what we buy!

Here is a picture of 60 percent off.  I know you all know this but Lowe's is a great store to buy G scale figures from right after Christmas.   I usually buy myself one little item each year.  Yesterday I wandered into Lowes and "Had to buy"  a Santa Claus on a hot air Balloon ride.  Doesn't everybody want one of those?  Well maybe NOT. Certainly not at $29.99 but, when the nice man said you can have this for $12  my lusty greed for absurd G scale novelties got the best of me.  Especially because it was the "last one" (Yes, I fell for that also). Actually, I think it was.  Anyway, Good luck to all the other crazy shoppers.  I know I am not alone.

I added a couple short video clips from my indoor layout.  It's small but gives me a chance to run trains during the winter.  Click to view: 

Thank you to my nice wife and to Carl

Gigi decided to get me a box car for my birthday and she contacted Carl.  He found a very nice one that is perfect for my 'military' train.  Our grandson is in the Army 32nd Transportation Unit now back in Ft Carson, CO.  I love the car and you can see it is right at home with some of my decal cars that I have made up as a salute to the 32nd.

Big Day and Night for Diesels.

Tuesday at the Mall 12/21 ~  Jim and Paul Started off the day.  Paul ran his nice looking PA-1 A-B-A Unit Green & White Southern pulling a long freight consist.  Jim had just left and I heard was headed for Florida.  He has helped a lot to make the Mall display come out well and we wish him and his wife a great winter and looking forward to them returning.   Ralph had all ready been there about 3 hours and had his big beautiful and very long Santa Fe 'Super Chief' diesel with 14 (I think) passenger cars .  The big Vista Dome silver cars similar to the California Zephyr.  He was pulling them with a F3 A-B-B-A Unit that required his 20 Amp transformer. Ralph said his passenger cars have over 200 people in them and they are all lighted and each car is close to 3 feet long!  The big transformer was pretty warm by the end of the night.  I ran my GP9 Maine Central train with all Maine cars.  I like that train and the sound car works good in that.  Scott loves the sound of the LGB Amtrak Carl has.  So we switched that over to pull my Maine cars near the end of the night.  I took quite a f ew videos including a train wreck (You hear the crowd go Oooohhh) in the background.   I took one where I walked around all 4 sides of the layout.
Scott, Ralph and I spent most of the time talking to people.  The Press Herald Article drew in people just to see the trains.  We all had a good evening and the popularity of the display seems to be spreading all over the Mall.  People down in the Food Court see our vest and come up and start talking to you about trains. I was just standing at Arbey's waiting for my order and the man next to me says " I just saw you guys, You are having to much fun",  Hey, We love it!  I can't believe it's only 3 days to Christmas!  The time flew by fast, just like a Super Chief.
Please see video from today: Click here:  

Maine Central Monday

   MEC Monday ~ At least on the AM shift it was pretty much all Maine Central Day.  We have had so many people stop by the display and tell us they used to work on MEC that I decided to bring in my MEC GP9 and run that and Tiny did better than that, he brought back his MEC No.  470 Passenger Train.   Here is a picture of the man who used to be the engineer on the real No. 470!   He is now 91 years young and he knows all about the famous engine that he used to operate.  He talked to Denneth Lee for at least half and hour.  He memory was great and he is very sharp indeed.  Denneth also brought in his son with him named Bill Lee who himself knows a whole lot about trains and Maine and NH railroads.  He is a member of the North Conway Railroad Club and Bill worked on the crew that helped flag the "Transformer Train" through Crawford Notch.

Click to see video of trains from today:

Victorian Christmas Excursion

The Winnegance and Quebec Railway ran its annual Victorian Christmas train over the weekend. there was a good turn out and extra cars were added.

Likewise, the WW&F railway Museum had a good crowd for their Victorian Christmas Train.

I put together a little video showing some highlights:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPk7bGSQR_k

By the way this engine started life as Carl's Red Ruby.

Word of the Day

Today I received a birthday present from Beverley my sister in law. It was a jersy with a strange word printed on it and what I immediately took to be railroad track.  Take a look. The word is "FERROEQUINOLOGIST"   Great for the next time you play Hangman.  My wife tells me that the Latin root of the three basic words are "IRON" and "HORSE" and "One who studies a SUBJECT".  I thought it was pretty cool but I think Scott should have one on his desk nameplate.

Maine Garden Railway Society ~ In the News

To read the full article and see video please click here

This story highlights how our display has impacted some of the people who see it.  Please note that Bill Nemitz is THE feature columnist and the most widely read columnist on the Press Herald’s staff.  Thank you very much, we appreciate the excellent article and all the assistance the Maine Mall has provided to help us.

Nolvety engines and Circus trains take Center Court

Doug and Dan started off the day and they ran lots of the popular Egg-liners plus  The Christmas Tree Train.  Doug had a nice Maine Central train running when I came in late in their tour and added another Maine Eastern GP9 to the mix.  Then Norm and Mike took over and featured the big circus train. When I left they were both busy answering questions from the display watchers.  It is amazing the draw that the trains have I heard more than one parent say their youngster was more interested in the trains than Santa Claus!  And it is not always men either, a women with her daughter said how great the trains were and that she still had her Lionel from when she was a child.  A couple children even noticed that Thomas was only pulling one coach.  They may be young but they know their trains!

It is Official ~ Display extended 1 week

  Carl has announced that the Maine Mall has officially invited us to stay after Christmas and continue to operate the train display in Center Court for one more week!  The popularity of the trains has been higher than was ever expected.  Plus the enthusiastic support of MGRS Members has made the event a huge success. We accepted and view the extension as a "Celebration Week" for all the members who have truly enjoyed this experience.       Please click here to view the latest schedule:

Wed PM ~ Ralph, Art and John

Tues and Wed morning  was pretty much Carl, Mac, Walter, Jim, Art and James.  I rested up to get ready for the  PM shift on Wednesday.   Ralph Luby and Art Handman were my partners today.     Ralph arrived with a dolly full of containers full of trains.  I mean FULL of trains.  Ralph brought in a Santa Fe F3 A-B-B-A unit with  twenty special carrier cars.  (I have to look up  the name) but they have a drop down center designed for carrying very heavy loads.  Ralph had them each carrying a die cast metal model of heavy construction equipment and some others had heavy duty military equipment.  The train looked like it was about 50 feet long as it maneuvered through our layout.  It was a mighty impressive sight.   Art and I had fun trying to help Ralph keep the long train running smoothly.  We had some operational challenges to overcome  and we did very well! Excellent teamwork!  Thanks guys it was a lot of fun, and we had a lot of interested on-lookers. Plus many new and interesting stories from people we have not seen before!

Take a look at the web album for this evening:  Click here

One of the best days at the Mall so far ~ Thanks to Maine Veterans and to Santa Claus

  Tiny and I were scheduled to run trains this morning and we picked a great day!  Severall  other members joined with us including Carl, Mac, Terry & Sue, Paul & Rachel, Dick Cosgrove, Scott, Hunk& Betty plus Symon & Keith representing GGP Mall Management and James our associate member all to welcome the Maine Veterans Home of Scarborough residents to our layout at the Mall.  The Veterans have visited us 4 times over the summer at Carl's.  Today they watched our trains and then they met Santa Clause (who is also a member) and he presented them a gift from MGRS. A ready to run  G scale train set for their Game Room to add a little fun and decoration around their tree and as a reminder that MGRS appreciates them and is looking forward to seeing them again next year.  Santa Claus made a very sincere and excellent presentation.  They loved him and they all got there picture taken and hugs from Santa.  It was a very heart warming display of affection.  If you watch all the small video clips, together they cover the full ceremony.  There are also some pictures of  today's trains and MGRS members.  Please click here to view: 

 Our day concluded with lots of conversation with on-lookers.  Some very interesting and knowledgeable train buffs.  Lots of Lionel remembrances out there,  and it is where most of us got our start in trains.  Maybe next year we can add a loop of  O27 track.  Tiny and I left  around 3pm as we turned over the controls to  Carl, Mac and Mike.  Hope you have a super evening of trains and people!   Yes, it was a very good day.

Tiny gets help from Lou, Carl, Mac, Walter and John

OK, maybe it was not a fancy Club Car from  "the good olde days" with plush leather chairs,  but we were just as happy as we had a great time on our own trip down memory lane as we enjoyed each others company and stories today at the Mall.  Driving conditions were bad but that did not deter any of the guys who showed up to replace Rich "just in case".  It turned out we had 6 people in there to run 5 trains!  Actually we had 7, remember to count Cole (Lou's grandson).  We all stayed most of the day and kept Tiny company as we enjoyed our new found "Club House at the Mall".  It was a very good day and time well spent  together reminiscing, learning and joking about our adventures of the past as we enjoyed the trains which were running great today and a large crowd was lined up around our layout.  I had a camera problem so no pictures, but we did have a large enthusiastic crowd.  I heard Santa Photo sales were up 30 percent from last year.  I do know one thing for sure the people are in a much better mood when they get to Santa because the waiting line goes right around our display.

Bill, Dick, Richard, Rich and Carl meet at the layout at the Mall.

All-a-board!  for a busy Saturday at the Mall.  The Santa line stretched around our layout and little eyes and big eyes followed the trains with intense interest.  There was a lot to look at also.  Dick Rubin brought in some beautiful engines to run.  One was a serial numbered edition of LGB's famous Hudson Steam Locomotive and tender.  I just missed seeing it perform as I came in late in the day but heard it was "smoking" plus it was producing a beautiful sound.  But as prestigious as this engine is,  it still is Thomas that steals the hearts of the Santa Claus waiting line.  Thomas's cars arrived today but we can only hook up one at a time (the combination of tight curves and tight couplers)  Maybe next time we will change the 4 foot curves to 5 foot curves.   (That is not an official announcement but it is fair to say that both the Mall and MGRS  are very happy with the way this has gone.)
     Last night Bill Goodrich and his wife arrived from Massachusetts.  They drove from the South Shore area up to Portland last night and stayed over for what will be 2  days.  Bill is a great guy that loves trains and he met Grace and Dave last night and Carl and a bunch of the guys today.  He was having a good time today and it was great to meet him.  Plus he was dressed for the part today and looked great. Way to go Bill!  He took some great videos from track level and I hope we will be able to show then to you later on.
We had fun today with Circus trains, Novelty cars and by the way I did run 2 engines in opposite directions on the same track by using the polarity switch on the Thomas engine.  To me, that opens up a whole new type of track plan possibilities.  To others, that may be old hat.  Anyhow, that is the fun of hanging around the 'club house' at the Mall. I will not tell you why  Dick came back he said "I can't leave you guys alone for  a minute".  But, remembering these stories is why we are having so much fun together.   We are lucky to have a great group of people and this event is giving us a great chance to get together.

Remember to help out Paul Corbett, Saturday Noon if you can.

It is now late on Friday night.  Tomorrow Paul finishes up the Westbrook Festival of Trees display at noon time, Saturday Dec 11th.     I honestly do not know what his plans are but  I think that Paul would appreciate some help to break down his display right after it is completed.   Here is a map to where he will be located:
If you are close by and available,  I hope you can stop in and help him out.

Carl & Mac and Grace & David take over the Controls on Mall Friday

  Friday at the Mall.  Today's News was "Big News" but that is all I am going to say.  Carl will make the announcement a little later.  Perhaps Monday when the Maine Veteran Home of Scarborough visit us at the Mall when the display opens up.   There will be a brief presentation by Carl or possibly even from Santa Claus to the Veterans as they receive a Christmas gift from MGRS.

  Today the big trains ran solidly and sounded strong,  meanwhile Thomas proudly pulled three Disney Coaches as he winded through the elevated line.  (Note:  Thomas is exceptional ~ he has a "polarity switch" on his engine).  Now I think that means that he can run "head to head" with another engine.  If so, that opens up some new operating track plan options! There was once when Mac had to rescue Thomas (see today's pictures)

Click here to see pictures from today.

maine narrow gauge in small scale

here is a video from Model railroader...Maine Narrow Gauge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fEEpO0Ybdo&feature=player_embedded

Stand back ~ Here comes Norm, Ernie, Andy, Jim, Doug and Dan ~

The Circus guys aided and abetted by Jim followed by the Mexican Hat Doodlebug crew ruled Center Court today.   And they were all reported having a great time entertaining the very appreciative and attentive audience.

A long Circus train plus Thomas and other engines including Doug's approximately one dozen eggs, I mean egg-liners delighted the kids both big and small.  Dan had a very nice lighted Christmas tree car that he made featured in a elevated Holiday train.  No doubt it was a fun day "topped" of by a very large sombrero mystery man identified only by his vest of many honors.  

OK,  You know that when we kid each other it is because we are all relaxed and happy that this display is turning out to be so good. It is absolutely true, we are having as much of a good time as the folks that are coming to watch,  and they all tell us that "this is great"!  Little kids and parents still love trains and older people remember them fondly.  And lucky for us,  lots of them travel to the Maine Mall.  Like Ernie said today "It is great to see the look on people's faces as they enjoy the trains".


Not a lot,  but watch a little video from today. 

Dick & Meridel and Ralph get to "do their stuff" at the Maine Mall.

I only did get one picture of Dick and Meridel and they look great and they said that they had a good time and everything went well. 

    I shared the late shift with Ralph and he is a "natural"  talking to people and  he is especially good with the kids.  Dick & Meridel handled the morning shift all alone and they did a great job, Meridel said "this is the place to be if you are a people person".  That is true!  Carl,Mac and I all showed up for the afternoon shift and each thought the other was coming in that morning. Ooops! my mistake. So Carl and Mac ran some awesome big locomotives and Ralph and I gabbed to folks.     On some other news Santa Claus left on a medical emergency but we are happy to report he is fine.  He has been working 10 hour days since we began and needs a little rest and will be back in another day.
  As I said it was a pleasure to see Ralph interact with the kids and the adults, he is a great ambassador for model railroading and for MGRS.   In fact he signed up to come back again next week and he was generous with his praise for both what the Club has done and what the Mall has done.  Thank you, we return the complement to EVERY member that has joined in and supported this event, it took that many people working together to accomplish what we have done so far. So lets keep up the good work and join together for a strong finish. 
  Again today we met so many people who worked on trains, or love trains and relate to what we are there for, it is fantastic! It is an under statement to say we have made a lot of new friends and I have to say that I believe no one has taken part and shared the experiences of this event and has left feeling disappointed.  It has been a plus for us all!
Please click here for more pictures and video clips:

Tiny and John at the Mall ~

 We had a good day!  The time went by fast.  Tiny brought in his Maine Central Number 470 Steam Engine with some very nicely decorated Maine Central passenger cars. They got lots of compliments!  We ran my new RS3 Canadian Pacific and my old B&A sound car on  the upper level with the clubs GP 38-2 on the "inner loop".  Our new Thomas ran great and is an instant hit with people.  We generally run it "on request" by putting it on the big outer loop along with what ever else is running.  One or two times around the layout is usually enough.  He is fast!  Today Paul stopped by and help Tiny clean one of his novelty cars.  Walter comes in almost every day and he is very helpful.  Carl and Mac came in early for the PM shift and that gave us a chance to all get together.  Last evening must have been a riot!  For a couple of hours it was "Pet day ~ take a picture of your pet with Santa Claus"   There were dogs and cats lined up to get their picture taken!    We get to see everything and we are having fun.  New applications are coming in,  lots of people are meeting us and learning about G scale.  Members from way up north are coming down to visit.  Today it was Keith Knowlton who we had a good talk with and saw pictures of his layout which is very good indeed.  Click here to see a few snips and shots from today:

WW&F Victorian Christmas

   If you are near the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway Museum on Dec 18th,  be sure to stop in and help them celebrate an old fashioned "Victorian Christmas".   It sounds like a very good event!  Here are the details and directions:  Please click here to view.

MGRS member Eric Schade is a volunteer there and works hard to support the museum.  Stop by and visit Eric and enjoy all the events of the day.  Maybe there will be just the right amount of snow.  Speaking of Eric and snow take a look at this video:  I know you will enjoy it and remember in G scale a half inch of snow would equal a foot of snow!  Click here to view:

Monday Night Quiz

A Rio Grande Alco PA and Baltimore & Ohio Express meet at the Gorham Station on Monday evening. What's wrong with this picture?

a. Rio Grande never came to Gorham
b. The B&O never came to Gorham
c. Poinsettias don't grow to tree height
d. Alco PA's never pulled freight trains (because P stands for passenger)

Answer
1. All of the above
2. None of the above
3. a, b, and c, but not d
4. a, b, and d, but not c

Monday 12/6 ~ AM Jim & Scott, PM Carl & Mac plus Walter and Hunk

  Monday was a great day to run trains at the Maine Mall.  Everything from Jim's Dockside Switcher which got him started in G scale to Carl's mighty Mallet, including Scott's PA-1 Rio-Grande which he saw in real life almost every day as a youngster in Colorado and the Club's new Thomas were just a few of the engines that entertained the crowd today. We met several interesting people today.  One man is an engineer who operates the Polar Express train now running at the Maine Narrow Gauge in Portland.  Many people have historic railroad documents of one type or another and other memorabilia.   I have not met any person near my age that does not remember Lionel, American Flyer or Marx as a kid and the big train layouts that we are honoring from the past.
 Click here for more pictures and video's