New Video from Eric

A Thanksgiving video from Eric.  Please enjoy a day in the life of "Big Joe".

To view click here:

Happy Thanksgiving Day from Maine Garden Railway

    Happy Thanksgiving to all.  May you find many reasons to be thankful and appreciate all the blessings you do have.    Also this year Thanksgiving overlaps with the Festival of Lights and we wish a happy Hanukkah to our Jewish friends.

 Here is one more Train and possible a Thanksgiving day picture that I found.  I like the title "Tracks in the snow".

Wednesday at the Mall.

It was the day before Thanksgiving and all through the Mall, everyone was scouring up and down the great  Hall.
OK that was bad.  But Carl just called and he did say they were busy and it was a very good day today.  Phil, Jeff, Mike and Mac were in this morning and Scott and Walter took over for this evening.  Good for those guys, we depend on the good will of members like them.  And everyone else that has been able to help.  Big Thanks!

Tomorrow no trains are running.  Carl has invited Santa Clause over to his house to visit.  Maine Garden Railway Society wishes everyone and especially our members a wonderful Thanksgiving!  We hope you will be able to spend time with those you love.  Please, try to enjoy the day and hopefully  be thankful.

Day-16 at the Mall

 Tuesday was our first snowy day but luckily no problems.  Ernie was in early and had trains running nicely when I arrived.  We now have the Trolley line which was installed yesterday and that is running nicely.  Phil stopped by and brought in a character for the Thomas display. ( I think it was Frosty).  He also rescued
 Percy when he got stuck in a tunnel.


Dan and his wife Haley stopped in to run a train and ended up running the whole display as they took over as Ernie and I had lunch together.   That worked out great because we happened to sit next to a young man and his family who said he had an old Lionel train in his car that he didn't use but wanted us to have it.

 Here is a picture of it on the display and him presenting the engine to Ernie.

 He really was a fine young man and had a nice wife and daughter getting medical treatment here and he is in the US Navy (Submarines no less just like Ernie)  The Mall is a continuous story unfolding all the time.  We do love it.

Here are some short video clips from today.  Notice the Sawmill train switches its  self back and forth . (The guys from NHGRS liked how that worked too)   Please click here to take a look at that and some trains that Dan and I ran today:  

Grace and David came in to take over at 3 and they always do a top notch job.  They are both very good at talking to people and they really seem to enjoy it! (I guess that is the secret).  Norm also stopped in to check if anyone needed anything but everything was good.  That's the way we like to keep it!

Promotional Handout

Carl asked me to make up a Handout to have at the Maine Mall.  My thought was to keep it to one page.  Do not have a lot to read.  Describe what we do and I think pictures are the way to go.  Here is a draft of what I came up with:  If you have suggestions let me know, or let Carl know.  Please click on the image below.

Whats what?

Random stuff from the Mall.   On Friday another Automatic Reversing Unit arrived in the mail.  I believe Mac plans to install it today on the "Trolley" line, up on the middle level.   The one that ends right before the waterfall!    Tiny is in this morning because he saw it was open on the schedule.  Good for him and all the other good people who have signed up.  Still a few open slots, please try to help, we need everybody.  Thank you.

The man who works at the Apple Store had said he was coming in on Saturday to take some video of our display.  He made the one last year called "Trains at a Mall"  and wanted to do another one.

NH Garden Railway Society visited our display on Sunday.  I hope we will try to do more to encourage them to come back.  I hope we get to the point where we can have a New Hampshire Day.  I would also see that as a good thing to do with Maine-3-Railers.   What is better than inviting over some people with common interest, run trains, have lunch, make friends, and share the fun of talking to the public.   I hope the Board will consider it.
  
Note:  about 3/4 the way down the Blog I have added the link to the Maine-3-Railers.  It is right after NHGRS.   

Sunday at the Mall

Today was cold and windy!  And the back parking lot I was in was wicked bad!   But, it was worth getting inside.  Michael was in charge as he is every Sunday!   He is an Iron man, having not missed one Sunday in 4 years.   Today Preston was in to help Mike and they have always been a very good team.   Today Mike was running his Bachmann 4-6-0 Circus engine number 49 with a long consist of circus cars.  It looked very good.  It was the 14th day of our display and the crowds were growing and favorable comments abound.  We must be all over Facebook as tons of people like to take pictures.

Tiny was also in today.  He was there to meet and greet members of NHGRS who made the trip up to the Maine Mall especially to see the display.  Some prominent current and past members were among the names that made the visit.  Tiny knew them all and was as usual a great representative for MGRS.  Thank you NHGRS, I hope you will return and we can plan more time to get together.

Warning ~ If you are totally nuts about the Mall this is for you.

On the left side of the Blog under the picture of our Logo is a new Item.  "2013 Maine Mall Train Videos".  
If you click on it you will see all the videos we have made for this years train show.  And it will continue to grow as we do more.   It will just play automatically from one to another.  Perfect if you have insomnia.

Note you can "advance to the next video" anytime you want by clicking the rather small arrow at the top of each individual video.

When you need an extra dose of  "'Mall Trains"  give it a try!  I love it!

Day-12 - The 'kids' had fun.

You can see the kids were having fun today and so were the many "big kids" from MGRS.  It turned out that lots of people were in today.  In less than 3 hours I saw Carl, Mike, Phil, Jeff, Morris, Scott, Walter, Dennis and Agnes.  That's a lot!  They were all doing different things, many were talking to the people looking at the display.  (If your feeling down, go into the Mall.  It will cheer you up!)  Everyone there is enjoying watching the trains!  Today everything was running well.  Carl and I decided to work on the Sawmill switches.  Scott joined in and it was Carl who came up with the idea on how to fix them.  Worked Great!  Now the engine changes sides as it goes back and forth around the sawmill.
   It was a good day to "hang around' the layout. We all had a good time, just like those kids!

Day-12 Train Video - Pollar Express, Circus and Saw Mill

 More Pictures from Today  -  Click here:

Circus Day

Andy Hendrickson and Norman Waycott were on hand today to operate the trains, while James Boynton and Carl Churchill stopped by to help.  (Carl is the one in mufti.)   All the trains were running well, but that may change tomorrow when Gould is planning to try his hand at the controls.  There are still slots available, so you can come and take a turn.

Veterans visit to the Mall Train Display will be on Monday December the 16th

  Carl has been busy and has coordinated with the Maine Veterans, the Mall and entertainer Don Campbell to schedule December 16, 2013 for their annual Christmas visit to the MGRS Train Display.   They are planning to arrive that morning at 10:00am down by the Food Court entrance.   We plan to greet them and present them with some Christmas presents similar to last year.   Don Campbell will be there to help entertain with music and songs.  Please try to mark the day on your calendar and join in on the celebration.

Sad news from our friend Doug Johnson

MGRS received an email dated November 19th from Doug Johnson regarding his loved one Marsha Hardy.  We are very sorry to share his sadness with you.  Doug founded MGRS and is a good friend and well known by many members.
 "Will you please inform the MGRS that Marsha died this morning at home with two sons and me present. She suffered the ravages of ALS for two years."
Douglas R. Johnson

Thank you Dick and Meridel

It is Day-10 at the Maine Mall!  Carl can't go in until late today and my car is still broken and the dog eat Dan's homework!  (OK, I made that last one up). But,  Dan our newest member was in last night and had to leave early because he is down here going to school.  I met him and his very nice wife when he dropped off his membership.  Good luck in your studies!  They are a very nice young couple.  

Speaking of nice couples, here is one we know very well!   Thank you Dick and Meridel for coming in today to run the trains.  We apologize for leaving them on their own, especially on their first day.  But we thank them very much and hope they were able to settle in comfortably and had a very enjoyable day.  

Maine Mall Day-9

Tiny and John had the morning shift.  To get everything going there were 3 things to do:  

1.  Plug the main cord into the Orange 3-way plug in the MGRS Control Area.  That turns on all the transformers.
2.  The Column almost touching the main deck has a Power strip plugged into it.  Turn it on, it turns on the water fall and the interactive signs for Thomas and Circus.
3.  Plug in the TV set and the Thomas Give-a-way Desk into the other Column. (Try to find the remote to turn on the TV).   The "Give-a-way" desk just showed up today and people started putting in entries for a free giveaway.   Tiny took charge and cut up the slips.  The Mall had given us pages with 3 to a page and then someone found a box to collect the slips.   And with that the MGRS free train raffle was underway!  The plan is to add a display case where the train set will be kept.


Getting back to trains, Tiny brought in his beautiful MEC 470 passenger train,  his Candian National steam train and his RDC Car.
In the afternoon Carl, Mac and our newest member Dan came in to run trains and take over the operation.
Dan brought in a nice looking Maine freight train and seemed to be right at home.  Thanks Dan we all welcome you to MGRS!  Carl and I fiddled around with the Sawmill reversing line and we did get that running again.  This time we used a small steam engine that looks right at home and fits nicely with the sawmill.   The train is on a timer that shuts down 15 minutes every hour so please don't worry if you happen to see it not running.  It has to go 10 hours a day and we want it and the reversing unit to last.

To see a video of the trains that ran today:  Click here:  

Dan





  The "Hood man"  stopped by to see Carl and leave his truck as part of this years display.

Video from Jake Brewer

 Saturday Jake was in to run trains and he did something very nice while he was there.  He is one of our very talented and creative members.  He took all kinds of interesting video shots of the layout and made them into a You-Tube movie.
Thank you Jake,  Well done!
Please click here to view:

Maine Mall Trains

I googled "Maine Mall Trains" for the fun of it and came up with this page.  My guess is that Stefanie did that and as part of MGRS I thank her for the nice write-up.  Click on the link below:

 http://www.mainemall.com/events/fourth-annual-maine-mall-train-show

                                                             

Ooops, Crash, Bang, Thump!

I would make a lousy witness! I was there but don't know what happened.   Driving home yesterday on 295 from the Mall my car had problems.  I though I might have had a flat tire.  I pulled over and got out to look around. I couldn't see anything so I tried driving very slowly and I made it to the next exit. Almost to my daughter's house and then my rear wheel locked up.  I am waiting to hear from the garage who is very familiar with my old car.  Maybe it's your other wheel bearing the guy said last night!  I haven't heard yet.

Anyway it is unlikely that I will get it fixed in time to take pictures today at the Mall.  And that is fine, but it reminds me to invite everybody to snap a couple of their own pictures.  Your own interest of the day when you are in at the Mall.  That would be much more interesting and varied then mine.  I will take pictures when I can.  But if you are able to that would really be great.

I have gotten braver this year and even asked a couple of times if I could take a picture of a small child's delight watching the trains.   The hard part is getting the pictures  to me.  If you can email, send them to   mgrsadmin@gmail.com then I can post them on the Blog for all of us to enjoy.  Thanks, John

  

Maine Mall Day-7

 Day 7 of the Maine Garden Railway Society train show was Sunday Nov 17, 2013.    The crowds were growing in the Mall as the Holiday Season gets underway.   Mike, Hunk, and Phil were manning the controls as on Sundays we run one longer shift.   Mike has been in to run trains every Sunday that we have been at the Maine Mall!

Mike belongs to the Circus Division and featured a terrific looking nice long Circus train today.



There were many viewers stopping by to watch the trains and here is one little girl who loved to wave to every train that went bye!




Hear are a few still Pictures and a Short Video Clip of Day-7.

Maine Mall Day-6

Day-6  and the first Saturday of our Display the Mall was busy with a good amount of viewers.  

Barry   Jake   Hunk  and Walter were in this morning.

They had everything running well. Doc Barry spotted an electrical problem on a reversing line and pulled out the volt meter to confirm his diagnose. He was correct,  I noticed the timer I setup was not shutting down to rest, and fixing that may help.  The unit had been running non-stop for days!

Jake took some very creative video's on his I-Phone and he is very technically oriented so we may see some of his results soon.  That will be fun to see.



Carl and Mac relieved the morning crew for the 3 to 8 shift..
Carl was talking to George Small of Smalls Train Repair and giving him the tour of the layout when I left.   Both men love trains and are experienced builders in real life so I imagine they had a good visit.

Hunk is good with answering questions and helping out the public.    People come up with all kinds of different things to ask us about.

The Train Show is a very interesting place to be and we really love the whole environment the Mall has to offer!

Some more picture from Day-6: Click here to view:


One of the crowds favorite ~ Amtrak station stop.

Click on link above  to see the video of the Amtrak making a brief stop at the No. Conway Station as it travels the mainline loop.  
Note:  Originally from Day-1 but a much clearer picture.

Thanks M.G.R.S

Thank You MGRS Members for 
your Support!

You are making our Fourth Year
the best one ever!





The layout is great this year.  It is full of action and color.  But what makes this such a success with the public is the good feeling that you have when you come and visit.  Come and be a part of that.

Maine Mall Day-5

Day number Five featured Grace and David in the AM followed by Agnes and Dennis on the PM side of the schedule.  We could not have been in better hands!

I believe the ladies are a calming factor,  things just seem to go well when they are there. Carl was in early but I think he missed the lady who brought in some Lionel trains from her husband to give to the Club.  Phil was also there in the morning and Hunk dropped by this afternoon.  So did Scott as he brought in the Lionel shanty he repaired from last year.  It was a good day at the display.

Dennis brought in more trees that he had purchased (I think forty!)  Wow, and they look terrific.  When I left he was directing Agnes who was nimbly scampering around the main deck planting trees!  There were also many many interesting stories from viewers!!
 To see some more pictures from today please Click here:

Maine Mall Day-4

 Day-4 at the Maine Mall was headlined by Andy and Norm in the AM and by John M and Art in the PM.

The whole day went nice and smooooth!  But then these guys are excellent at fixing things and talking to people.

We also had a new member bring back his completed application and join right on the spot.  He will be "spot on" himself, ready to help on the display plus he knows his trains like being the engineer at Boothbay Railway Museum. Welcome Danny to MGRS.

Plus we had special pictures dropped off by a viewer for Carl.  We had a nice picture in Press Herald of train display with Stefanie and related story.

John brought in two nice special trains to run today.
A cute Bachman coal car train and a GP9 NY Central with excellent consist.

Please take a look at Slideshow Pictures of the Day Click here:
and also Train Videos of the Day Click here:

Toy Train Auction Calalog

Here is the link to the catalog:   Click here

Here is the link to see the pictures  Click here:

I show item #39 as an example.
Enjoy it!
Sent in by Tiny

39. G gauge, USA Trains, #R-16215 REA-New Haven reefer car, nib

Day-3 at the Mall

Today was Carl  Mac and Philip's turn to run Morning shift.  Stefanie was also busy working on  the display for the Mall.  For sure, the display is looking sharper and sharper every day! The Trees that Dennis and Mike added last night look terrific.  Keith has the waterfall working and plans to make more changes to enhance it even further.   I met a man from Falmouth who has two sons that want to come back every day!  The Mall had senior management stop by for a look at the display.  We expect the review was excellent and we feel this year is the best so far!

 Lowering the Thomas area, changing to the grass covering, adding the pond, the sawmill line and the Trolley line, a new Amtrak and other new engines are making the display look and sound great.  The Circus and Lionel are looking and running top notch!  Please try your best to fill up the openings we do not want to leave one person by themselves.  This afternoon Mike came in early and got  a quick course in how to operate.  Mac has simplified shut off to pulling one plug!   Excellent!   Walter is coming in to join Mike tonight.  Thank's Walter!


Take a look at a slideshow of  pictures from today,  Please click here:

To see a video of trains running today Please Click here:
 

Day-2 Maine Mall

 (right click and open in new tab or window)

  Today we had Tiny, Ernie, John on the Morning shift with help from Phil and James.  Our name & Logo is up on the Marquee and looks very good!  Tiny brought in his B&M RDC and a beautiful little steam train all decorated with CN Logo.
They looked very nice.  We ran the Amtrack and several other trains.  Things are settling down  and we and the Mall are happy with our start up.  We expect the Mall to do some more decorating tonight.  Speaking of decorating Dennis brought back 36 real nice looking artificial trees!  They looked so good we thought they were real!  Dennis and Mike came in for the second shift and we thank them very much for filling in the empty space on the schedule.  I thought I had taken some train videos but they did not come out, sorry.  The man from the Apple Store stopped over and he wants to take some pictures of the Layout.   Today we spent a lot of time talking to many of the interested viewers.  They seem ready to tell us lots of stories this year and they enjoy watching the layout with great interest.  Many people noticed changes in the layout and we are seeing lots of parents with young children stopping by. The interactive buttons seem to be working out very well this year.

Train Videos from 2013

Here are the videos from this years train show:

Mall Video by James Alberty

 Robin and Billy 
 Maine Mall Video 
 from December 2013

Westbrook Festival of Trees    
Paul and Walter

Day-27  Featuring Penn GG1
Electric Locmotive by Dick Rubin

 Day-25 Thomas and Percy






Day-24  Amtrak Station stop and 
Waterfall view.  





Day-23  MTA Trolley,  MEC Passenger
B&M RDC (Budliner)  Lionel No. 2025.  

Day-16  Sawmill switching,  Amtrak headlight, Dan&Haley, John trains.

Day-12  Highlights Polar Express O-Gauge,  Norm's Circus train,  Sawmill Engine. 

 

  Day-9  Highlights trains of Denneth Lee

 

                     

 Jake Brewers -  Creative Video edited and produced by Jake  

  Day-7   Highlights Mike Tarbox Circus train

 




 Day-4  Highlights trains by John Middleton and Scott Gould  

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Special Link to YouTube that will play ALL train videos for 2013 Train display


Approx 30 trains in the same number of minutes. 
Thanks to members support over this 44 day event.

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