The club, which was formed in 1978, has had a train display set up near Santa Claus’ area at Liberty Center for eight years during the holiday season.
“This is a great part of the whole holiday experience,” he said. “It resonates with the adults, and kids will find it interesting. So, families can have a lot of fun looking at the trains and talking about the display.”
In addition to the train display, there will be a scavenger hunt with things for visitors to find within the train layout as well as giveaways like candy canes and rubber ducks.
The trains are on display daily during regular Liberty Center hour from Dec. 16 through Dec. 27 in The Foundry, near Santa. It is free, and donation boxes are available nearby.
“This is our big show, big in the sense that we want this to be one of the biggest set-up’s we do. We want it to be one of the most special displays of the year, and lot of our members have winter or Christmas scenes as part of the layout,” said Ficker, who has been a member of the group for more than 30 years.
Guests can expect to see more than three scale miles of operating trains, including steam and diesels. Various members of the group will bring their own trains or modules to make up the display. The majority of club’s members contribute to the model train display from passenger trains to modern trains.
“The benefit to the public is there’s an infinite variety of different kinds of trains, steam, diesel, modern and older models, and no two days are going to be the same,” Ficker said. “Even if people come back a couple of times, they’re not going to see the same thing. It’s going to be different.”
The group’s members have also set up train displays at nursing homes, retirement centers and healthcare facilities for the enjoyment of the residents and the community. In August, the club had a train display at Spooky Nook in lobby of the Warehouse Hotel at Champion Mill.
Most of the members of the club have been interested in trains since they were children. It was a hobby they enjoyed with their fathers and grandfathers, or they had a model train set as a kid.
“We enjoy model trains, and we want to share that with the public, especially kids. When we were growing up, model trains were everywhere,” Ficker said.
The Greater Cincinnati Modular Railroad Association is a non-profit HO scale model train club. Currently, the group has around 22 active members.
For more information about the group, or to become a member, go to www.cincygcmra.org.
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