Make the Main Library a stop on your holiday rounds this season: Once again, the Library presents All Aboard: San
Francisco Public Library Holiday Train, an electric toy train display featuring the Polar Express, featured in Chris Van
Allsburg’s beloved children’s book.
A Lionel O scale replica of a steam locomotive pulls several coaches through more than 35 feet of track, around
a wintry landscape and through a village comprised of Department 56 holiday buildings. New additions to this
year’s scene include two pagoda-style buildings, a Russian Tea House and a pizzeria. Visitors can activate the train,
gondola and village lights by pushing buttons on this interactive exhibit. The display continues in front of the
Fisher Children’s Center through Jan. 11, 2008.
Van Allsburg’s 1985 The Polar Express, tells of a
young boy whose belief in Santa Claus wavers—
until he boards the Polar Express to the North Pole.
The holiday train display is an annual labor of Roberto
Lombardi, the Main Library’s director of facilities,
and his staff from the Facilities Engineering Unit. An
avid train collector, Lombardi got the idea when he
saw how children swarmed to a similar display at his
neighborhood Noe Valley Bakery & Bread Co.
A display of model trains and publications on
model railroading is also on view near the exhibit.
And young train engineers can check out the collection
of train books available in the Children’s Center.
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