Dates
November 24 – November 30 (Monday-Saturday 9AM-5PM; Sunday 1PM-5PM)
Closed Thanksgiving Day
**Santa visits November 29th and 30th with his sleigh!
Location
Century of Flight Hangar
Cost
FREE – Planes and Trains is free to the public.
About
For the 16th year the Middle Georgia Model Railroad Club will kick off the holiday season with one of Middle Georgia’s largest model train displays at the Museum of Aviation during Thanksgiving week. The “Planes and Trains” exhibit is free to the public November 24 – November 30. The Museum will be closed on Thanksgiving Day.
The Century of Flight Hangar will be the site of large model train displays and other railroad related exhibits. The club will have T, Z, N, HO, S, O, and G-Scale train displays that will feature up to 9 trains running continuously on 3 main lines through landscape scenes with miniature buildings, cars, bridges, rivers, buildings, and an airport. Santa will be joining the festivities this year on Friday, the 29th, and Saturday, the 30th. He will be featuring a fully restored old Santa reindeer sleigh and will invite children to join him in the sleigh for a magical experience. Santa will be ready to take Christmas toy requests, creating memorable moments for all. Some of this year’s other features will be: Christmas Village and Circus and Thomas the Tank. The MGMRC adds new modules and interest to ensure the displays are changed every year. The Museum Planes and Trains display will also include the addition of exhibits from the Southeastern Railroad Museum, Operation Lifesaver, area Welcome Centers and others. There will also be a commercial vendor with train-related items available. Raffle tickets will be sold for a model train starter set.
MGMRC members will be on hand to answer questions about model trains and the hobby of model railroading. The MGMRC has been around since the 1970s and currently has about 31 members. They hold a public meeting at the IHOP restaurant, 2710 Watson Boulevard, Warner Robins on the third Tuesday of every month (except November and December) and invite anyone interested in learning about model railroading to come and join their meeting. See their website at: MGMRC.org.
Planes and Trains began as a request by the Museum to place a train around their Christmas Tree in 2008. Joe Udemi was a volunteer in the museum restoration area, as well a member in the Middle Georgia Model Railroad Club. Through Joe, the model railroad club not only placed a G-scale train around the Christmas tree, but also setup up an 8 module HO-Scale display and a small N-scale display. This first display in the Museum of Aviation by the Middle Georgia Model Railroad Club was not named at the time or advertised. However, by word of mouth, the normal visitor count was tripled during the display. The Museum asked the MGMRC to setup again the following year. Through the coordination with the Museum, the display received the name Planes and Trains. They’ve been on display each year ever since!
