Susan Werner
A model of the Monessen Steel Works was made by Tom Crespo, formerly of Donora and now of Westview. The extensive train display also includes a model of the Donora Steel Works.
Susan Werner of the Mid-Mon Valley Model Railroad Club arranges some of the buildings on the lower level of the two-level track that displays the group’s many model trains. The display will be open to the public during the holiday season on weekends from Nov. 30 to Jan. 5. Werner has been a train enthusiast since childhood.
Susan Werner, the only woman member of the Mid-Mon Valley Model Railroad Club, enjoys seeing an HO scale model train circle the four tiers in the room that takes the trains from one level to the other. The group hosts its holiday train display each year on the second floor of the New Eagle Borough building.
Robin Richards/Observer-Reporter Model train enthusiast Susan Warner sets an HO Scale Model train engine on the track in the tiered room that takes the model trains from one level to another. She is the only female member of the Mid-Mon Valley Model Railroad Club. The public is invited to see the large model train holiday display every weekend from November 30 to January 5. The display is on the second floor of the New Eagle Borough Building, 159 Main Street.
It’s the Christmas season, and the model train display at the Mid-Mon Valley Model Railroad Club’s annual holiday open house in New Eagle has delighted visitors young and old for years. Few things, it seems, stir the holiday spirit like a model train set chugging along tracks through replicas of Mon Valley towns decorated with scenery including the old steel mills. Founded in 1986, the club holds the open house for the public to enjoy the festive train layout, but the dozen members of the club enjoy it just as much. Susan Werner, secretary of the MMVMRC since the club started, talked about model trains and how geared up (no pun intended) members get for the open house.
Q. Why do people seem to enjoy model trains at Christmas time?
A. For people my age – I’m in my 60s – we look back to childhood where there was a train set up around the tree at Christmas. Back then, we didn’t have 110 presents each. The train going around the tree made it look busy and sparkly and pretty. Christmas brings back nostalgia, and trains go together with that. Today, trains are sleek and fast, and they just don’t have the romance of a steam engine. We look back at steam engines, and go, “Oh, yeah.” And stories like “The Polar Express” are coming out and touching adults and children, and that makes a difference.
Q. What makes the MMVMRC train display special?
A. It evokes memories of the Mon Valley in a past era. We’ve got everything from old coke ovens to the steel mills before their demise. We have rolling mills, strip mines and a big railroad yard reminiscent of Shire Oaks, which still exists, but not the way it used to. It used to be a very busy yard, and it used to have a roundhouse that was almost a complete circle. (The display) is not exact, but we tried that one time, and everybody was fearful of doing anything because we might get it wrong. Something else that’s interesting is that we have a camera mounted on one of the engines, and it broadcasts to a TV set so you can see the same thing an HO engineer would see. It’s very interesting to see the track from that point of view.
Q. The MMVMRC included an airplane in the train display. Can you explain why?
A. I’ve hidden some things in there, like an old plastic model of a B-52 airplane, even though I know it was a B-25 that went down in the Mon River in the ’50s. I’ve set it up to look like the plane is going down. People have tried for years to get cameras underwater to look for it; scuba divers have looked for the plane.
Q. How many visitors attend the holiday open house?
A. It runs on weekends, and we get 500 to 600 people through the door. I enjoy the looks of the faces of adults as much as I like watching the kids.
Q. You’re currently the only female member of the MMVMRC. How did you get interested in model trains?
A. I remember being 12 years old thinking, “I really want a train set.” I asked my father; he was in the Army, and he said, no, we can’t afford that. There’s a weight limit assigned to rank, and he didn’t want to risk the weight going over when we moved – and we moved a lot. Besides, he said girls don’t play with trains. He also blamed a train for burning down his grandmother’s house in New York when he was younger. A spark from a passing steam engine landed on her roof and lit the pine needles that were on her roof and burned the house down.
Q. When did you get your own train set?
A. When I was in my 20s, I discovered trains. My husband at the time and I were in a hobby shop, and he said, “You’ve got to see this.” I just about died when I saw the train set. He loved trains, too. I started with collecting handmade brass trains in HO scale. They’re covered with a lacquer so they don’t get dingy. They were the best running engines on the market at the time. I still have several.
Q. The train display winds along four levels and through different rooms on the second floor of the New Eagle Borough Building. It includes a more high-tech feature called DCC. What is that?
A. The operating system we use at the club is called DCC, and it allows us to operate the engines independent of one another. We can stop the trains, start trains or run them in opposite directions on the same piece of track, which makes it far more realistic.
Q. What train do you want that you don’t have?
A. If I could have one, I would like a Shay engine with sound. That’s what they run at the Cass Scenic Railroad in West Virginia. It’s a steam engine.
Note: An online toy store listed a new brass HO Shay engine for $735.
The MMVMRC Holiday Open House runs every weekend from noon to 5:30 p.m. Nov. 30 to Jan. 5 at the New Eagle Borough Building, 159 Main St., New Eagle.