Members of the Train Club at Tel Hai Retirement Community in Honey Brook invite people of all ages to view their train layout during upcoming holiday open houses. The display, which features trains running through realistic miniature communities, will be open to the public from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 16, and Thursday, Dec. 28.

The train display, which is located in the StoneCroft Commons on the Tel Hai campus, features HO-, S- and O-gauge railroad cars, as well as a large G-gauge train that runs along the perimeter of the room on a platform built by members of the Tel Hai woodshop club, led by Bruce McCleary, who is also a Train Club member. "The gauges are the measure of the track size," explained train club member Lew Charnock.

One wall of the train room features a 20-foot mural depicting a scenic view of the surrounding Chester County countryside that was painted by professional artist Loretta Gable Englerth, a Tel Hai resident. Features of the mural include a pond and farm near the Tel Hai campus, grazing horses and cattle, an Amish farmer and his horse plowing a field, an Amish buggy and geese flying overhead.

The club has changed out some of the features of the layout to depict winter scenes just in time for the open houses. "We added a lot of Christmas lights, plus we have an ice skating scene in the middle that is all new," said McCleary. Also new is a Christmas train and ski area complete with a snow-covered mountain and skiers.

"The G-gauge engine and caboose have lights that flash," said Charnock, noting that some of the railcars make realistic train sounds. The display is also interactive, which allows visitors to push buttons to light up cars.

The train layout features many different scenes, including a fire scene complete with a burning building and firefighters, a Tel Hai car show, where vintage model cars are featured, an oil refinery and Amish farm. "You can spend a lot of time looking at the details," noted Weaver.

Admission is free, but donations will be accepted to help with the layout's upkeep and maintenance. Club members are currently converting the layout to Digital Command Control (DCC), which allows trains on the same electric section of track to be independently controlled. "With DCC, you can individually control things a lot better that just turning the power on and off," Charnock noted.

"They have handheld (DCC) devices that are totally portable, so you don't have to stand at one spot," added Weaver. "You can walk around and control (the trains). They also make train sounds."

Tel Hai's train room, located inside an apartment building on the campus, opened in January 2018. The display started with donated trains and was gradually built one section at time. "Five years ago, this room was empty," noted Charnock.

Train Club members meet regularly to perform track maintenance and to make upgrades to the display.

The StoneCroft Commons is located at 4000 Tree Line Drive, Honey Brook. Visitors should follow signage on campus for parking and entry instructions. For more information or directions, visit http://www.telhai.org/trains.