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Thursday, February 14, 2013

Albert Miller Model Train Display


I put together a short slideshow of the Miller Train Display, an amazing and detailed model train and city that my late grandfather built in his basement. Many of the structures and buildings were custom built by Albert and he named them after his children or grandchildren, like the Keegan Railroad company and the Weisenberger Mall.
miller train display

I believe up to four Lionel trains could race around the track on different routes at one time. The longest route makes a giant loop around the entire perimeter of the table. Another route  just inside of the outer one goes up and down a hill. The mountain contains two tunnels on two different levels. A working waterfall feature was planned for the mountain but never built. The third route circles around the residential area while the other route stays in the industrial section of the display where the train cars could be loaded with logs, ice, cows, coal, grain, and milk. The layout included 29 track switches!


The train display had a little bit of everything. One cool feature hard to see in the pictures was the monorail/skyride (not sure what you call it) that rode along a wire above the train table. As you can see in the pictures the city included an airport (complete with runway lights), campground, mall, and more.


Using a CAD system and a free railroad layout creator software I found on the internet I was able to made a recreation of the train set. Pictured is the overhead view of the train’s layout I assembled based on the pictures and my memory.


Sadly, the train display no longer exists and all the train engines, cars, buildings, track, etc. were all sold and the table disassembled. I regret that this happened before I owned a video camera so these pictures are all we have left of this amazing display. Thanks for the memories grandpa.

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