UMRR at the Walter Elwood Museum
The Walter Elwood Museum is located at 100 Church St. Amsterdam, NY
The two model train layouts that you see in this room have an interesting history. Both were designed and built at Dunham studios in Schroon Lake New York. Clark Dunham who was nominated for two tony awards for set design on Broadway, retired from the theater and set up a business designing and building model train layouts. His customers want to run trains but do not want to build a layout themselves. The following is an excerpt from his email to me about the two layouts.
“The NYC Subways Exhibit was built as a portion of the "Station at the World Trade Center" which existed for only one season, then cancelled because of the first World Trade Center bombing. It then became a part of the Station Exhibit in Williamsburg, VA which existed there for several years. Subsequently, it became a part of a "Station Style" exhibit in Lancaster, PA. It finally arrived as a part of The Station at Citigroup Center as one of its "annual renovation" exhibits and remained there for several years.
The 1939 Worlds' Fair exhibit was created specifically for the Station at Citigroup Center and was featured there for many years. It later became a part of "The Station at Navy Pier" in Chicago as a copy. Both exhibits were redesigned for "Railroads on Parade" in upstate New York as separate exhibits in their present configurations. All the various versions were designed by Clarke Dunham.”
When the “Railroads on Parade” museum closed, these two layouts were donated to the Upstate Model Railroad Club in South Glens Falls NY. Clark Dunham stored the layouts for the club until the club could find a good space to exhibit them. When visiting the Walter Elwood Museum, we talked with Ann Peconie the Director. She felt that the layouts were a good fit for the museum because it also housed the Alco historical society.
Members of the Upstate Model Railroad Club are currently restoring these two layouts to operating condition. We hope to have them running for the December 10 open house at the museum.
“The NYC Subways Exhibit was built as a portion of the "Station at the World Trade Center" which existed for only one season, then cancelled because of the first World Trade Center bombing. It then became a part of the Station Exhibit in Williamsburg, VA which existed there for several years. Subsequently, it became a part of a "Station Style" exhibit in Lancaster, PA. It finally arrived as a part of The Station at Citigroup Center as one of its "annual renovation" exhibits and remained there for several years.
The 1939 Worlds' Fair exhibit was created specifically for the Station at Citigroup Center and was featured there for many years. It later became a part of "The Station at Navy Pier" in Chicago as a copy. Both exhibits were redesigned for "Railroads on Parade" in upstate New York as separate exhibits in their present configurations. All the various versions were designed by Clarke Dunham.”
When the “Railroads on Parade” museum closed, these two layouts were donated to the Upstate Model Railroad Club in South Glens Falls NY. Clark Dunham stored the layouts for the club until the club could find a good space to exhibit them. When visiting the Walter Elwood Museum, we talked with Ann Peconie the Director. She felt that the layouts were a good fit for the museum because it also housed the Alco historical society.
Members of the Upstate Model Railroad Club are currently restoring these two layouts to operating condition. We hope to have them running for the December 10 open house at the museum.
