The model trains at the Schenectady Museum always draw a crowd this time of year.
We just get thousands of people in to see the trains, said Carmel Patrick, the museum’s director of development. `It’s become a holiday tradition in the Capital Region.`
That got the staff at the museum thinking. It’d be neat, they agreed, if there were some other train-related things at the museum to complement the model trains.
So Chris Hunter, the museum’s director of archives and collections, pulled together an exhibit called `All Aboard! The Power of Locomotives,` which looks at the history of the rail industry in the Capital District. Visitors can check out both the model trains and the exhibit this weekend, Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 26 and 27. The trains will also run the following week, during school break, as well as weekends through Jan. 17, and `All Aboard` will be set up through April.
There’s more train fun on tap, too: School break week will feature a host of train-related activities, and the January Little Wonders of Science program has a train theme.
Volunteers from the Upstate Train Associates put together the O Gauge model trains in front of the main entrance to the Suits-Bueche Planetarium. It’s a 19-by-27-foot display, or, as Patrick said, `It’s huge.`
The display features several smaller themed areas, such as an amusement park where Santa is riding a roller coaster and a pond where children are skating. Patrick said children also get a kick out of the trains that load and unload their cargo of barrels and lumber.
Younger children also like the nearby Thomas the Tank Engine display, which features a working Thomas the Train.
Patrick said the display draws people from counties throughout New York and even neighboring states. It’s also a popular school program, with close to 10,000 students visiting the trains in the last academic year.
`All Aboard! The Power of Locomotives` has fans, too. Hunter said at least two people have made train-related donations to the museum after seeing the exhibit.
Highlights, Hunter said, include models created by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO), model trains that are nearly 100 years old and photographs from the museum’s GE and ALCO collections.
`There are a lot of pictures and video footage,` said Hunter, adding that in the early days of General Electric, a lot of work was done on electric locomotives in Schenectady.
Like many exhibits at the museum, this one appeals to older folks who might remember some of the things on display, as well as kinds who are fascinated with how the times have changed. There’s an original steam locomotive bell that kids are invited to ring, Hunter said.
`We’ve had a lot of good feedback from people,` he said.
The school break schedule for train activities is as follows, with all events being held from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m.:
Monday, Dec. 28: Train Whistles and the Doppler Effect Tuesday, Dec. 29: Maglev (Magnetic Levitation) Trains and Electromagnets; Liquid Nitrogen Engine Demonstrations Wednesday, Dec. 30: Friction, Mass and Velocity Thursday, Dec. 31: Sound on the Rails / Make a Hanger Clanger
Then, in January, the museum will offer the train-related Little Wonders of Science program for preschoolers on Thursday and Saturday, Jan. 14 and 16, at 10:30 a.m. Patrick said the program will focus on the book, `Puff Puff, Chugga Chugga.` For the first time, the museum will be able to offer free copies of the book to people who sign up in advance for the program.
The program, Patrick said, is not only fun for preschoolers but educational.
`It gets them thinking about reading as well as science,` she said.
The model trains run from noon to 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, Dec. 26 and 27 and Jan. 2 and 3, 9 and 10, 16 to 17; Monday to Thursday, Dec. 28 and 31, and Monday, Jan. 18. They will also on January’s Art Night Schenectady, Friday, Jan. 15, from 5 to 7 p.m.
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