Letter from the Vets

A Thank You note from the Maine Veterans Home in Scarborough to Maine Garden Railway Society.

12/27 Tuesday.

Dear train Diary,  Today was a glad and a sad day.  Santa was gone but there were a lot of people in the Mall and we had a heavy day of conversation.  I honestly had the best three long conversations of the entire show.  Maybe I was just paying attention more, I don't know.  It could be I knew this was my last day on the schedule.  I just seemed to appreciate it more.  I saw Terry's new interactive signal sign that looked and worked great! The two big beautiful passenger trains the MEC 470 and the B&O performed perfectly.  Our Club GP38-2 enjoyed the elevated loop and Thomas's smile was a little wider as he pulled his coaches proudly.  Both interactive displays ran well. The Circus and the Lionel were both very well received and Norm and Art have put a lot of days into maintenance keeping them top notch.  I kept looking at it all and thought  " Yes, it really does look good".  Lots of people helped, 50 over all. Some came in every week, or twice a week or almost every day  or maybe just once, but it all fit together to make a great display enjoyed by everyone that saw it!  I wonder how many people actually did see it?  I wonder if they enjoyed it as much as we did?  I know I loved taking part in it.   

Merry Christmas

The day before Christmas is always special. Santa lingers as long as possible with his youthful visitors, but knows he must take an early sleigh to be ready for the night's activities. On hand to run the trains this December 24th were Carl Churchill, Mac McLaughlin, and Ben Jewitt, who are at the mall so often you expect to see them bringing sleeping bags. Also on hand were Norm Waycott, Art Handman, Dick Rubin and Ralph Luby. Dick brought along an impressive GG1, made by LGB, as well as A custom-built model of the magnificent 1934 Pioneer Zephyr, the streamliner that still holds the speed record for the Chicago-Denver run. Carl ran his B&O passenger express, as well as his crowd-pleasing Amtrak liner.
By now Santa is somewhere between the North Pole and Portage, Indiana. The rest of us are snug at home, remembering Christmas in our separate ways, but sharing our love of trains together.

Guess What Santa Brought? Maine Mall 2011 video by Bill

It is now early Christmas morning and guess what Santa brought us?   Straight from Santa's work shop and Bill & Robin's camera is a Youtube video!  Thanks Bill, nice job!
Please click here to see Bill's video.

from Maine Garden Railway Society

    I am in the process of putting together a Maine Mall Tribute video to recap this years display.  If you click here you can watch a Slideshow of what we have so far.

John. 

Victorian Christmas 2011

Here is a video from Eric on last Saturday's WW&F event.  It looked like a lot of fun.  Thanks for the video.  Click here:

Pictures from Dick & Meridel

 Thanks to  Dick & Meridel for taking such good pictures while they were in running trains.   These are from Monday Dec 19, 2011.  Excellent details, very nice!
(I love that Moxie trailer tractor car)  
 

The No. 1 watched train video on You-Tube.

It's only 50 seconds long.  Click here:

I kind of like this one also:  Click here:

Test from Mall Tues 12-20

I found some new software on my computer called Windows Movie Maker.  I experimented with a few pictures and video clips from yesterday (Dec 20, 2011) at the Mall.

After Christmas ~ Schedule change

Carl just called to let us all know that after Christmas, during the final week of the show, the PM shift will end at 7PM.  

Tuesday 12-20

Art led the way today over to Starbucks for morning coffee and got us off to a good start.  It was a very good day for the many members who stopped by as well as a good crowd of on lookers who enjoyed telling their train stories.  There looked to be lots of shoppers in the Mall today.  Keith Stone stopped by to say hi and wished us all well.  A relative of Jim Magner stopped by to talk and send us Jim's greetings from Florida. Art,  Jeff Jacobs, Paul Corbett, Jim Hinkley, Benjamin, Tiny, and John all teamed up for sections of the AM and we all had a good time running various trains and talking to people. Plus Ben was researching train topics on his very fast laptop.  Carl, Mac and Dennis came in early for the evening shift and were setting up some more big trains as I left.  It was a day of good fun and good time except for the friend I had not seen in several years who said to me "Oh hi!, I didn't recognize you with that silly hat on!" Silly Hat, What possibly could he mean by that?   Please take a look at some other pictures and  short clips from today.  Thanks, Click here:           By the way, You have to watch the little boy below in the videos. 

Holiday Train

The Canadian Pacific Holiday Train makes a stop in Buffalo Minnesota to benefit the local food shelf.
Please click here:

Frankie and Janey at the Mall

Here are a few of our photos taken at the Maine Mall.  What fun!  ~~Frankie & Janey




Thank you for sending these in!  We wish more people did.
We love your fun and enthusiasm, and hope you had a great time!
 

Awesum Take a look.

I apologize to the train buffs, this is nothing about trains.  But it is about speed, power and precision.    Click here to view:

Taking it easy.

I admit I have enjoyed taking some time off from blogging as I just wanted to rest up from all the Holiday season. Thank you Scott for helping out with your excellent post.  Today, I am really "milking it" taking full advantage of my birthday, lounging around in comfortable clothes and enjoying trying my hand at making a train video.  I am really waiting anxiously for Bill Goodrich's Mall video and that inspired me to try one at home. But I am appreciating how hard they are to make.  First, my camera tipped crooked halfway around the loop when I tried balancing it on the front of my engine.  So I tried it sideways and it did fit much better, but the picture was to narrow.  Next, I tried pushing it on a flat car but it derailed going over a switch.  My last attempt worked as I pulled the camera on a flat car at the end of the train. (But, I wanted a picture going forward)  To see it you can click here:  It only takes 2 minutes or less to make a short video but it takes a half and hour or more to upload it.  Bill's will probably take a couple of hours to upload. As I said, good luck Bill, we all hope you can make one as nice as last years!

Lego my trains

I never gave Lego the credit they deserve.  Take a look at this, it is pretty amazing: Click here:

The Conway Scenic Railroad Arrives

Dick Rubin, Ben Jewitt, and Ralph Luby were on hand today to run Dick's magnificent LGB/Aster Hudson and a set of coaches painted to match the Conway Scenic Railroad. Here are Dick, Ben and Ralph, as well as some shots of the train as it pulls in for a photo op in front of the beautiful North Conway Station, built by Carl Churchill. We had large and appreciative crowds today, and a good time was had by all.

Dec 15th

Dec 15th and Time is flying by.  Possibly,  the strange craft pictured here will also fly or hover over our layout and send some airiel photos back to the large scale Television.... Who knows, it could happen.   In any event it was definitely a good day for trains this AM as the Circus team had everything running well.  Doug will be in tonight and take over the controls this PM.  Here is just a glimps of the sights & sounds from today:

In The News

• 10th  Anniversary of the Downeaster  (12/15/2001)

            Downeaster Promotional Video - Click here:
           

•     The Iron Horse ~ Current Issue

            Now on Line - A terrific job by Scott Gould ~ Click here:

•   Rules of the Road ~ Maine Mall

            From MGRS Secretary ~ Click here:

• Maine Mall Video is in the works

              Bill Goodrich will be releasing the video soon!

Dec 14th

OK, these are old pictures (from last week)  But unlike me these folks and Mike Curry and Carl and most likely other members all made it in to the Mall today.  Tiny for example must drive about 120 miles to make a Mall trip.  We congratulate and thank everyone that puts in time, effort and expense to support the train show.  It is being very very well received and appreciated by the public and it is providing a lot of enjoyment which we can all be proud to be a part of.