This Just In – Mebane really is “positively charming.”
Last weekend we celebrated my son Brian’s birthday. Last year, he and his young family moved to Mebane, now located about 20 minutes from me instead of the convenient five minutes that we’ve enjoyed for many years.
During some emergencies that we’ve had in our family, that five minutes was much appreciated, but the search for a house that better suited the family led them to Mebane. When you enter the town from almost any direction, you’re greeted with their tagline: Mebane – Positively Charming.
Over the course of living in Chapel Hill for 40+ years, I’ve been to Mebane many times. When my brother relocated here from Chicago last year, we found him a new home in Mebane. I have an affection for the place and always found part of its charm to be the fact that the downtown area is oriented completely around the train tracks that run through it.
In my family, trains are a big thing. My father and his brother were deeply in love with model railroading as young people and they handed that down to us. Although they built some large layouts where they went to school (and in the basements of our homes), their real claim to fame is in the model railroads that are located inside of a coffee table. One of these creations is in my living room today. If you have a minute, you can click here and enjoy the YouTube video my uncle posted of his masterpiece. Amazing.
Looking for a fun activity for the kids of all ages celebrating Brian’s birthday, we ventured over to the Mebane Train Display located on Jackson Street, near downtown. As you might guess, I have (over the years) seen many model railroads – some large and some quite small. The Mebane Train Display is among the best I’ve ever seen.
At the center of the layout is a model of (roughly) 1950s downtown Mebane, with many of its iconic buildings, like White Furniture and (formerly) Roses 5 & 10 cent store. The story of the train display is a testament to this small town.
Tommy Long, a lifetime resident of Mebane, Long went to school at UNC and Duke Law School and taught Business Law at Alamance Community College. He worked as an Assistant City Attorney for nearby Burlington for a while, but soon returned to the classroom.
Throughout his life, he was an avid model train enthusiast (a Ferroequinologist) and developed an enormous collection of Lionel trains. At the time of his death (in 2002), he willed this extensive collection (valued at more than $250,000) to the town he so loved.
In 2010, Mebane’s Train Group got approval from the town to build this beautiful … positively charming … permanent display, which has six or seven trains running at any given moment as well as other features that can be activated with the push of a button by children watching on surrounding platforms. A Ferris wheel, the lights on a newsstand, a carousel … these all come to life.
The volunteers who run this operation are just as delightful as the trains themselves. I can only imagine the number of hours it takes to maintain the locomotives, clean the tracks and replace tiny light bulbs. The Tommy Long collection of trains takes up many display cases around the display as well as a separate room where we find another set of trains running throughout a large holiday tree. Any holiday, any month, the tree is redecorated to suit.
The train display at 209 Jackson Street in Mebane is open one Saturday each month (three Saturdays in December) and the Train Group holds a train show each year at that location. Many vendors, door prizes and for a $5 admission, you’ll make many new friends in the world of model railroading. The next train show is March 11th and you can visit the permanent display on February 11th. Although there’s no admission to visit the permanent exhibit, you can drop a few bucks in the donations box to help keep the trains running.
(photos via Jean Bolduc)
Jean Bolduc is a freelance writer and the host of the Weekend Watercooler on 97.9 The Hill. She is the author of “African Americans of Durham & Orange Counties: An Oral History” (History Press, 2016) and has served on Orange County’s Human Relations Commission, The Alliance of AIDS Services-Carolina, the Orange County Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, and the Orange County Schools’ Equity Task Force. She was a featured columnist and reporter for the Chapel Hill Herald and the News & Observer.
Readers can reach Jean via email – jean@penandinc.com and via Twitter @JeanBolduc
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