Bachman Display at 30th Train Station, Phila.Pa.

[Ethanville]

The Christmas Model train layout looks great but I was wondering why it's was 4' above the floor where 90% of the children can't see it, until I saw a little girl try to move the trains by hand, [ she was talked to by a Amtrak employee ]
Next Year, maybe you could lower it to about 2' and continue the plastic side shields over the top to keep little hands away from it but allow more little people to enjoy it.
Nice Display,
Thanks from your traveling public.

[Jim Banner]

You bring up a valid point.  The group I model with has a large scale portable layout that is only 30" off the floor.  This is a great height for youngsters and for adults who want to watch trains while seated.  Almost every time we show it, we have parents thanking us for having our layout at a child friendly height.  At one show, we even had a large scale dealer compliment the height of our layout and then, at the end of the show, thank us by giving us a couple of large scale cars.  Apparently he had observed how long youngsters (and their parents) spent at our display compared to other displays where the parents had to hold their offspring up in the air for them to be able to see.  I am not surprised that it helped his business and I suspect it is part of the reason why we have won People's Choice awards so many times.  We have received very, very few complaints and when we do, we take the time to explain that kids love model railroads too and then offer the complainer a chair.  Almost invariably the complainer is won over and ends up thanking us before he/she leaves.

Working on our portable layout is easier at that height too.  We can work from a seated position and when we need to work on the bottom of a section, we just flip one or more of the fifty tables upside down and rest them on the other tables while we work.

The only down side of having our layout that low is the tooth marks that accumulate around the outer edge.  Excited tots, particularly ones of just the right height, express their excitement by chewing on the plywood edges of our tables.  But instead of erecting shields or barriers, we just make sure that all materials within biting distance are safe.  We sometimes have little hands touching the trains or moving some of the scenery (particularly animals) around but in 18 years we have never had anything stolen or damaged by our fans.

Jim

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

I enjoyed seeing the layout, too, while I waited for my train to spend Christmas with my dad. I'm not really familiar--yet--with the Williams line, but I was really impressed by the Amtrak train.