Emlenton’s well-known model train display making last holiday appearance
EMLENTON — The model trains at Donaldson Motors in Emlenton are reaching the end of the line this year.
After 30 years of serving as a tourist attraction to Emlenton for train lovers of all ages, Bruce Donaldson’s elaborate model train set is making its last holiday season appearance in town.
Donaldson, who runs the eponymous repair shop on River Avenue, plans to retire, sell the shop, and move to North Carolina.
And he’s taking the model trains with him.
“My sister wants me to move to the Carolinas, sell the building, and retire,” Donaldson said. “I’m thinking about opening a museum down there, because I have the train stuff. I own over 2,000 model cars and thousands of toys.”
2023 marks the 30th year of the Emlenton model train display. It would have been the 31st, except Donaldson had to take the 2008 season off to tend to his father, Bob, who was suffering from health problems.
The display came into existence in 1992 as part of a project for Emlenton’s Boy Scout Troop 41, of which Donaldson was the Scoutmaster.
“They had an ‘Old-Fashioned Christmas’ in town,” Donaldson said. “One of the parents said all the kids had trains, so bring all the trains together.”
For the first two years, the display stood in what was then Emlenton’s municipal building, which is now Hickman’s Lumber. Afterward, Bruce’s father suggested the display be moved to the Donaldson Motors building on River Avenue, which once served as an auto dealership showroom.
There was plenty of space by this point, as Donaldson Motors — once an AMC/Jeep dealer — hadn’t sold new cars in years.
The move to the former showroom allowed Donaldson to expand on his original vision. Each year, bit by bit, Donaldson added to the display. For this year, one of the new additions is a miniature-scale bowling alley, which he received one year as a Christmas present from his brother.
Today, the numbers are staggering. Donaldson estimates his display now consists of more than 200 model locomotives, 200 model cars and trucks, 200 model buildings, 500 feet of track, and 200 feet of wire.
In recent years, Donaldson created a “signature book” to keep track of the number of visitors to the display. So far, he’s counted 10,300 visitors from all 50 U.S. states and every continent except Antarctica.
The display has been around long enough for people to bring their children to visit, decades after they themselves visited as children.
“I have people that come back every year. It’s like a tradition in their family,” Donaldson said. “I have a girl who was in here just last weekend. She's in her 30s and she came in when she was a kid, and now she has kids.”
The display is so intricate and detailed that Donaldson supplies younger visitors with a “scavenger hunt” list of items to look for. This year, there are 32 items on the list, including Mater from the movie “Cars,” Woody from “Toy Story,” and the Looney Tunes character Wile E. Coyote.
Despite the popularity of the attraction, Donaldson has never charged a penny for visitors to see it. Although he does place a donation can in the store, donations are not mandatory.
“I just don’t feel like standing at the door and charging people,” Donaldson said.
Donaldson credited members of Troop 41 with providing invaluable assistance for the display, such as wiring the track and putting together the miniature landscaping. However, in the years since Donaldson put together the original model with the Boy Scout troop, this has largely been a solo project.
“It's just me today. The Scouts have been long gone,” Donaldson said.
Even outside of the model train display, the rest of the Donaldson Motors building is practically a museum of automotive history. The walls are covered with vintage oil cans and bottles and a decades-old RCA tube TV, as well as logos for automotive marques which have long since passed into memory.
The business has been operating from the same building on River Avenue since 1947, when Donaldson’s grandfather, J.A. Donaldson, moved his previous business away from a farm north of town.
The Donaldsons started out selling farm equipment before the business evolved into a dealership for Nash automobiles. Eventually, Nash merged into Nash-Kelvinator, which itself merged with Hudson Motors to form American Motors Corporation. By the early 1980s, Donaldson Motors quit selling new cars.
“We dropped out when Renault bought into (AMC) in ’83,” Donaldson said.
Today, Donaldson Motors still performs general motor repairs as well as inspections.
Donaldson said the train display will probably make one more appearance at Emlenton’s summer festival, but this is most likely its last holiday season in the Keystone State.
The display is open to visitors from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.
