’Tis the season for model train museum’s holiday display in Richland

The holiday tradition of model railroad displays helped get Ray Mueser hooked on the hobby.

“My dad had two Lionels he put around the Christmas tree, and he had houses. One time they went out,” Mueser recalled about his parents, “and when they came home, I had all the houses lit up. So he said, ‘It’s all yours.’”

Today, he serves as president of the Western Pennsylvania Model Railroad Museum in Richland, which is hosting its 36th Holiday Train Display through Jan. 12.

Visitors can marvel at the 40-by-100-foot showcase on the museum’s upper floor depicting life along the tracks seven decades ago, an ongoing project since 1988 with a high degree of historical accuracy.

“All the buildings are exactly what was done in that time, in 1953,” Mueser said. “We took pictures of buildings. If they weren’t there, we went to historical societies and museums, and got pictures of them and built them in HO scale,” or 1/87th of actual size.

The time frame of the early ’50s represents a peak for transporting passengers and freight by train, and railroads were starting to transition from steam to diesel power, allowing for both to be used in the museum display.

Elements of three long-defunct lines — Pittsburgh & Lake Erie, Pennsylvania Railroad and Western Maryland Railway — are incorporated along 6,500-plus feet of track featuring scenes from the Boulevard of the Allies through towns such as McKeesport and Ohiopyle on the way to the terminus in Cumberland, Md.

“I was upstairs one day and this lady says to her husband, ‘Do you recognize that church in Cumberland?’ And he stood there with a dumb look on his face, and she says, ‘You’d better remember it. We were married in that church!’” Mueser said.

Another woman from Cumberland pointed at one of the buildings and told him, “That’s my mother’s house, and she still lives there today.”

Young guests have the opportunity for a history lesson by participating in a “scavenger hunt,” checking off items as they find various points of interest within the display.

On the museum’s lower floor is a smaller exhibit featuring Lionel-brand trains, which children can control by pushing buttons on the sides of the display case. And for the very young are tables with wooden BRIO railcars to be pushed along sturdy miniature tracks.

The museum, a nonprofit completely run by volunteers, has its origins as the Pittsburgh HO Railroad Club, founded in 1938 and originally based at the 11th Avenue Freight House Office Building, now the site of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.

Holiday shows started shortly after the current location, near the intersection of Route 910 and Hardt Road, was built in 1986. Last year, the event drew more than 10,700 visitors.

This year’s requested donation is $10 for adults and $5 for children under 12. For hours of operation and more information, visit wpmrm.org.