Fisher Steinson, 10, operates a model train in the atrium of Harrington Centennial Hall as his brother Bayler, 9, watches Thursday afternoon. Several model trains, complete with miniature villages, are set up for the Sitka Historical Society and Museum's Model Train Holiday Village display. An opening event, featuring a Gingerbread House Decorating Contest, is set for noon to 4 p.m. Saturday. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
An automatic gate man with a lantern pops out of a tiny station as a model locomotive goes by.
Then he pops out again as a steam locomotive pulling passenger cars – all lit up inside – passes on a separate track in the other direction.
It’s hard not to be mesmerized by the sight and sounds of Blake Conaway’s Lionel model train sets, and three other vintage trains running through snowy miniature villages in the Sitka History Museum and the atrium of Harrigan Centennial Hall.
“It kind of recalls Christmases of the past for many of us, and we want to bring that wonder to the children today,” said Hal Spackman, executive director of the Sitka Historical Society and Museum. “Many of us from my generation grew up with electric trains and it was one of the major gifts you got.”
The trains will be featured at the Sitka Historical Society & Museum’s Model Train Holiday Village and Gingerbread House Decorating Contest is noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, December 18, at Centennial Hall. Santa, Mrs. Claus and the Grinch will be available for photos at the free event.
Also at the event, AC Lakeside is hosting a “cookie corral” with cookies and hot chocolate. Lakeside and First National Bank Alaska donated prizes for winners of the gingerbread house decorating contest. Entries are welcome at any time before the event.
The five different train sets and villages will be on display – with the trains running – through January 3.
Michael and Jackie LaGuire and Blake Conaway loaned Lionel train sets; the family of Walt Dangel offered their trains and models collected over the years for the display; and Walt Pasternak provided an antique train and streetcar toy set that will be on exhibit. The Pasternak train set and streetcar belonged to his late grandfather, and are about 140 years old, the family said.
A similar event was a hit in 2019 with Sitkans young and old popping in to watch the trains go around their loops, Spackman said.
Conaway stopped by Centennial Hall earlier this week to continue working on the two O-gauge Lionel trains he brought in: a 1950 Union Pacific Celebration Set, and a 736 Berkshire Lionel post-war steam engine, probably manufactured between 1952 and 1958.
Conaway’s items in the display are pre-1960 Lionel accessories and tracks. “It has this kind of vintage, Christmas-y train feel to it.”
He pointed to the analog controls, the sounds of the train over the tracks, the air whistle in the steam engine tender, and a football-shaped ZW transformer with two handles to control the speed of the train.
Conaway, 33, received his first train from his grandfather for Christmas when he was 4 years old.
“I had a layout in my grandparents’ basement pretty much up until the time I graduated from high school,” he said. “Then things went into storage and I moved around and moved to Alaska, worked at different jobs.”
Buying a house two years ago and making renovations opened up possibilities of bringing the trains out again. He has two boys, ages 3 and 5, both budding model train enthusiasts.
“They love it – it’s a great thing for the three of us to do together,” he said. “There’s also a lot of aspects to model railroading: there’s electrical work, there’s repair work, all of those kinds of things that go along with it.”
Spackman said he enjoyed watching the kids and adults show up to watch the trains and check out the villages two years ago. Model trains may not be common gifts today, but the appeal is still there, he said.
“When you’re here, when the kids come in, I think you’ll see kind of that fascination with these kinds of locomotives, pulling these trains around,” he said. “And it’s kind of fun. There’s just something about it.”
The LaGuires’ train is a Lionel Nutcracker O-scale; the Dangel trains are HO-scale.
While the trains are the main attraction, visitors to the display should also enjoy checking out the dozens of other features in the villages. Stations and other train-related items are surrounded by model homes, a few skating rinks, schools, trees and businesses made of metal and porcelain.
Jackie LaGuire, a Department 56 Snow Village model collector, said she used to set up the 1950s-60s village for their trains in their home until it got too big, with the collection growing to more than 50 different items. It included such features as a Christmas tree lot, a McDonald’s drive-in, and a pub that said “LaGuires”. Then it was put up in the window of her husband’s real estate office, where Aspen Suites is now located.
“You could push a button and the train would start,” she said. It was an attraction to passersby, especially kids. “The window would become smudged from all the kids’ faces.”
Although that tradition stopped when the business moved – and the models went into storage – she said she was glad to see Tyler Eddy carry on a similar tradition with Legos at Harry Race Pharmacy, and with trains at Centennial Hall.
Spackman and curator Nicole Fiorino are organizing a scavenger hunt that challenges kids to find the various features around the three displays.
Fiorino said the gingerbread house contest is open to all ages, and the houses don’t have to be gingerbread. Those with questions may call Spackman at 738-3766.
