You still have time to visit the nativities and trains and decorated miniatures at the museum until Jan. 4.
When you walk into the main building you can’t help but see the beautiful Blue Comet run around the track. The Blue Comet was a deluxe excursion train that shuttled excited travelers from Jersey City and New York to the Atlantic City playground on the week-ends. Just like the real original sized train, the Blue Comet in the atrium is painted blue and each car is named for an astronomer who had discovered an actual comet in the sky- Faye, Tempel, and Westphal. Our train is one of Lionel’s finest steamers and has removable roofs to reveal the lavish details inside. There are hinged doors, swiveling seats and washrooms with toilets!
Lionel model trains run by alternating current which runs in the rails. It has a variable transformer that gives it a level of voltage to control the speed. The two trains upstairs in the Conference room are run on a direct current that runs through the rails and a throttle controls the speed.
For a long time, the prevailing thought was that boys loved trains because they were biologically drawn to anything with fast wheels- cars, trucks, trains. The reason is testosterone. Studies showed that the higher a baby’s testosterone, the more time a baby spent staring at things that roll. Of course, many girls like trains, “but if your little girl gravitates toward trains, there’s a good chance she has more testosterone than average.” That’s not a bad thing- in fact if your little girl doesn’t like trains, you might just want to get her into them. The obsession over balls and wheels helps them understand a lot of things, “the most important of which- from an evolutionary perspective- is how things rotate”. “Playing with a ball helps a child understand that things are 3-dimensional and this in turn improves their spatial reasoning.” Spatial reasoning skills “improve those all-hallowed STEM skills.” Spatial reasoning was more useful for boys when they were the ones hunting and fighting predators but today it is a skill both genders need. While a study found a small correlation for the improvement of Math skills in boys, “they found a huge one for girls”. Children with autism also like trains “because they produce a repetitive series of sounds which the children can mimic through echolalia, a common diagnostic criteria in autism”. Trains also represent “motion and motion for many children with autism is a form of self-stimulation.” It’s calming as well as energetic. The trains that are set up at KYGMC are like 3-D art forms. We even have the Disney Castle in Legos with lights! Who knew model trains could produce such dividends!
Whether these trains evoke sentimental feelings or improve your STEM skills for upcoming scholarships, you need to get to the museum soon, before they are gone!
Questions may be sent to Hixson@kygmc.org @Kentucky Gateway Museum Center, Maysville, KY 41056
