Every year I leave the celebrity filled world of New York City and head over to The Bergen County Model Railroad Club. They have one of the more spectacular displays of toy trains held in the nation, once a year in the United Methodist Church in Pearl River, New York. It will be open weekends until March 1. This is this shows 20th year.Electric trains were invented by Joshua Lionel Cowen in 1906. The first electric toy train, actually an electric table on a track, was designed to go in a shop window to display goods. It was an instant hit, not with shop keepers, but with boys and their fathers. Shopkeepers reported to Cowen that no one wanted the goods displayed on the rolling table, they wanted the electric "flat car." Thus, the Lionel Train was born. From shortly after that date until the mid 1950s the electric train was the ultimate Christmas gift, displaced more recently by computer games of various kinds. The Bergen County based club is made up largely of the boys who received those trains from Santa Clause before mid 20th Century. Unlike modern toys, electric trains were built to sustain the rough handling of boys and to last for generations. The ones on display accomplished that goal and are now owned and operated by grandfathers.One large display is of Standard Gauge trains which Lionel stopped making in 1939. One train made by Ives, which went out of business during the Depression, was new shortly after the end of World War I. Unlike the flat tables of boyhood, these huge toys run up hill over two plaster mountains and then back down again.There is a substantial representation of subway and elevated trains and a large display of scale model trains. And of course, Thomas the Tank Engine and many of his friends have their own display. Located two full blocks east on John Street from the Pearl River railroad station, the show is easy to reach from New York City by public transportation. Trains leave both Hoboken and Penn Station. If you leave from Penn Station you must change at Secaucus Junction. The show is open form 10-5 Saturdays and 1-5 Sundays. Trains leave Penn Station at 10:07 AM; 12:14 and 2:14, Hoboken at 8:15, and 10:15 AM 12:20, 2:20 PM. Return trains leave Pearl River at 12:28, 2:25, 4:25 and 6:19. Pearl River is located on New Jersey Transit's Pascack Valley Line. There are numerous restaurants near the station to fill time or to have lunch, although lunch is available at the train show.
Every year I leave the celebrity filled world of New York City and head over to The Bergen County Model Railroad Club. They have one of the more spectacular displays of toy trains held in the nation, once a year in the United Methodist Church in Pearl River, New York. It will be open weekends until March 1. This is this shows 20th year.Electric trains were invented by Joshua Lionel Cowen in 1906. The first electric toy train, actually an electric table on a track, was designed to go in a shop window to display goods. It was an instant hit, not with shop keepers, but with boys and their fathers. Shopkeepers reported to Cowen that no one wanted the goods displayed on the rolling table, they wanted the electric "flat car." Thus, the Lionel Train was born. From shortly after that date until the mid 1950s the electric train was the ultimate Christmas gift, displaced more recently by computer games of various kinds. The Bergen County based club is made up largely of the boys who received those trains from Santa Clause before mid 20th Century. Unlike modern toys, electric trains were built to sustain the rough handling of boys and to last for generations. The ones on display accomplished that goal and are now owned and operated by grandfathers.One large display is of Standard Gauge trains which Lionel stopped making in 1939. One train made by Ives, which went out of business during the Depression, was new shortly after the end of World War I. Unlike the flat tables of boyhood, these huge toys run up hill over two plaster mountains and then back down again.There is a substantial representation of subway and elevated trains and a large display of scale model trains. And of course, Thomas the Tank Engine and many of his friends have their own display. Located two full blocks east on John Street from the Pearl River railroad station, the show is easy to reach from New York City by public transportation. Trains leave both Hoboken and Penn Station. If you leave from Penn Station you must change at Secaucus Junction. The show is open form 10-5 Saturdays and 1-5 Sundays. Trains leave Penn Station at 10:07 AM; 12:14 and 2:14, Hoboken at 8:15, and 10:15 AM 12:20, 2:20 PM. Return trains leave Pearl River at 12:28, 2:25, 4:25 and 6:19. Pearl River is located on New Jersey Transit's Pascack Valley Line. There are numerous restaurants near the station to fill time or to have lunch, although lunch is available at the train show.
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