Model Trains at the Nixon Library

My wife visited the Nixon Library last week for an event, but I've never gone up there. Don't know why, just haven't done it. It's a lot closer than the Reagan Library that I visited a few years ago.

Well, now I've got a reason to go:

On the first page of his post-presidential memoirs, RN recalled his days as a young boy in Yorba Linda: “In the daytime I could see the smoke from the steam engines. Sometimes at night I was awakened by the whistle of a train, and then I dreamed of the far-off places I wanted to visit someday. My brothers and I played railroad games, taking the parts of engineers and conductors.”


RN also remembered the thrill of talking to Everett Barnum, the Santa Fe Railroad Engineer and dreamed of the day when, he too, would work on trains.

On Monday, the engines rolled again in Yorba Linda, with the opening of A Holiday Festival of Trains, a magical exhibit at the Nixon Library featuring one of the largest miniature train collections ever assembled.

The exhibit includes a Lego display with hundreds of thousands of colorful blocks that make up a breathtaking city with trains running through high-rise downtowns; a scenic multilevel “Mountain of Trains” with over a dozen trains passing through villages, hills, and snow-capped mountains; an interactive 8 by 8 ft. display where kids can play conductor; a Santa Claus village with sets from Department 56; and the “Chloe,” a full size sugar plantation previously owned by Disney animator Ward Kimball.

A Holiday Festival of Trains is built in conjunction with volunteers from the Western Division of the Train Collectors Association, who labored for weeks to unveil the trains and their stunning landscapes.

Gonna have to head up to Yorba Linda sometime during the holidays. I'll have to see if they have any of the antique Lionel trains that I have.