Did you ever look at the National Christmas Tree in Washington, DC and wonder who is responsible for something like that?
Did you ever get past all the lights and ornaments and notice that for at least the past eight years there have been some pretty big trains running under the tree? If you have only seen the tree on television, you may have never even noticed the trains. These trains run every day from 10AM to 10PM in sleet, snow, rain, and high winds.
Do you wonder who takes the time to do something like that? Well if you have ever met Bill Frank at the Aristo Craft Display at a convention or train show, or with one of the modular train groups at the East Coast Large Scale Train show, you have met the guy who is largely responsible for the trains under the National Christmas Tree.
Every year work starts well ahead of the Christmas season. Bill starts early in the summer working with the National Park Service, the folks responsible for the display, to coordinate efforts for the train display under the National Christmas Tree. Then early in November, Bill starts making trips to the Aristo Craft warehouse and headquarters in Irvington, New Jersey. Trains, accessories and other items have to be selected. Bill then brings the trains, accessories and other items to his home in Charles Town, WV, where everything is staged. Several members of the Shenandoah and Potomac Valley Garden Railway club get together and clean the track, tighten connections and rail joiners, and look for other little things that can go wrong during the days of uninterrupted operation.
The week after Thanksgiving things shift into high gear. Bill starts making what usually turns out to be as many as five trips a week, sometimes two a day from Charles Town to Washington to get things in place. Deliveries of scenic materials have to be scheduled. Volunteers need to be lined up and scheduled. The list goes on and on.
Then after the National Park Service gives the go ahead, volunteers start out early on a December morning, sometimes before first light. They arrive on the Ellipse by car, pickup, and Metro Rail from the District of Columbia, northern Virginia, the Maryland suburbs, and West Virginia. For two to three intense days they put in long hard hours building a garden railroad display in the nation’s front yard.
Who are the volunteers? Folks who love large scale model trains, kids and Christmas. Their mission, construct an outdoor large scale model train display under the Nation’s National Christmas Tree, a part of the Pageant of Peace on the Ellipse in front of the White House.
Many of the volunteers are retired military personnel or government workers. Others are still working and take a day or two off from work. Some of the volunteers will not get back to the display again until time to tear down the trains. Some will never see the trains running other than to test them and ensure that all is right. Others will be there twice a day in the morning and evening to put the trains on and off the track. There are others who do some of the background work and never make it to the tree at all.
Bill has to schedule and coordinate the whole show. The volunteers are mostly members of several of the metropolitan Baltimore/Washington area’s model railroad clubs. They represent just about every garden railway club and model railroad club in the area, and include a few folks who are not affiliated with any. All of the volunteers gather together under Bill’s direction.
Bill is a retired Air Force photographer and jet mechanic. He has lived and worked all over the world both with the Air Force and several aircraft manufactures. Bill lays no claim to modesty. He will tell you he loves what he is doing and is a first class train nut (rail fan). When Bill and his late wife Edie resettled in West Virginia to be near children of their combined families, they bought a home in a development that was between the Norfolk Southern and CSX tracks. At the time they were looking for a place to call home on the weekends when they could get away. Bill was the Customer Service Representative at Aristo Craft Trains. Edie was the Aristo Craft Fan Club coordinator and general all around handy person.
While employed by Aristo Craft, Bill suggested putting the trains under the National Christmas Tree. At first this was met with some skepticism. Nothing like it had ever been done before. The Late Nathan Polk, founder of Polk's Model Hobby Crafts and one of the pioneers in hobby retailing, saw a lot of merit in the Idea. After all Aristo-Craft’s trains were made to run outdoors. The Polks agreed that Bill could do it. Aristo-Craft would furnish the trains and all the required support materials with the provision that Bill would have to do it with volunteer labor. They approached the National Park Service and made a case for the model train display under the National Christmas Tree. A Christmas Tree is not a Christmas Tree unless it has trains around it.
The rest has more or less been history. Bill left his full time employment with Aristo Craft in 1997 to retire for the third time and spend more time with Edie. Sadly Edie suddenly took ill last year and passed away. Some of her last instructions to Bill were that the trains under the Christmas Tree continue. Last year the train display was done in memory of Edie Frank. I am sure the rest of the train displays to come will be as long as Bill is involved.
Now you would think that if everything is being donated that is all there is too it. Not so, Aristo Craft pays a fee for putting trains under the National Christmas Tree. Most of the time if they are lucky the get a one line mention in the program for the Pageant of Peace Tree Lighting Ceremony. Don’t ask Lewis about it either. For those of you who know Lewis, he is not the type of individual to go around sounding his horn on something like this. In fact he will play it down if you ask. He does it for the kids and adults who come to see the tree.
If you get a chance, go by the display and have a look. Take time to appreciate what these folks do for the love of trains and the season.
Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah
For the past 4 years I have had the pleasure of working with this display in one way or another. The first year I was just there to tear down the display and help truck much of the trains back to where it came from. The next year I was semi laid up with some medical problems. Last year my work schedule kept me from doing what I wanted to do with the display. I was able to be around to clean track before the set up or be in the back ground doing the few emergency repairs required for the locomotives and cars that are run 12 hours a day in winter weather going. If you ever doubt that Aristo Craft makes a quality product then bring yourself to the Mall in Washington. Observe the trains running in rain, snow, sleet, and high winds that whip in off the Potomac River. This year my wife Sue and I are going to be there for the set up, tree lighting and hopefully tear down.