Sad news for Railroads on Parade

Great article despite the unfortunate circumstances. This is an obvious labor of love for these people. Layouts like these perform such a service for the model railroad / toy train community by introducing so many people to these hobbies. It's always unfortunate to see something like this meet its demise. I wish I would have had the opportunity to visit. Thanks for posting.

That is sad news -- a threat clubs and museums constantly live under.

Back in the late 1980's, my former Corporate America life brought me into Manhattan quite often.  And whenever I went in during the Christmas Season, I ALWAYS spent time at Citibank Station.

I always hate to hear when bean-counters get in the way of these things living indefinitely, but nobody likes to lose money in the process either.  In this case it seems the old adage "location... location... location..." couldn't have been more true. 

Keeping my fingers crossed for them!!! 

David

My wife and I had the opportunity to visit Parade of Trains this summer and we both enjoyed it very much. The lady that was there told us that it would be closing in the fall unless they could have found a buyer. I felt bad because they are some real nice layouts especially the Citibank layout.The reason it was located there in the first place was it was just down the road from Dunham's shop. I hope it finds a good home. I should start buying Lotto tickets.

Any details on the auction? If the specifics were mentioned in the NY Times article, I missed them.

Seems like an opportunity for some larger enterprise.

For instance, I believe there is a large layout at/near the Cincinnati Union Terminal, a beautiful restored icon of the Deco Era.  Perhaps the Parade of Trains might find a more appropriate home in/near such an edifice.  If a city/town has celebrated its railroad station through restoration and repurposing, then Parade of Trains might be a nice complement should space be available.

This might be an opportunity for OGR forumites to bring this situation to the attention of your local administrators/preservators?

Or....Strasburg/Lancaster area?  At/near the TCA museum?  Lots of folks in that area with the skills and know-how of managing/maintaining show layouts, I would expect.

Amtrak has a milestone celebration coming up.....perhaps an opportunity lurks within?

Time to make some 'lemonade', folks!

Just MHO, of course....

KD

I was thinking the exact same thing, maybe CitiCorp should reconsider or someone else with a large presents in NYC. 

Art

That's really too bad but it's hard to overcome a debt of $750,000.00

Sure hope they find a new sponsor. The Dunhams have been a terrific asset to our hobby and I sure wish them the best.

This is really sad to hear.  We have been visiting a few times every summer since they opened 3 years ago.

Even though it is 3 hours south of Montreal, my wife and I would sometimes use Railroads on Parade as an excuse to drive down to the Lake George region.

Every visit would aways result in discovering something new, or something we had not noticed in previous visits to the exhibit.

The staff were great.  Barbara was always a pleasure, and so excited to talk about the trains and the various layouts.

If you want an sample of their wonderful display, just search youtube for "Railroads on Parade Pottersville New York"

Gary