News Release

Kicking off the holiday season, the Library presents All Aboard: San Francisco Public Library Holiday Train, an interactive display featuring the Polar Express train. The electric toy train layout, which measures 5 feet by 10 feet and consists of 35 feet of track, will be on display in front of the Fisher Children’s Center Nov. 19, 2007–Jan. 11, 2008.

Kids—and adults—will delight in pushing buttons that activate the Polar Express and Thomas the Tank Engine trains, a ski gondola, animated sledders and the village lights. Large buttons, with easy-to-read signage, make the display readily accessible to young children.

A Lionel O scale replica of the Polar Express, which starred in Chris Van Allsburg’s 1985 holiday classic and in a subsequent 2004 movie adaptation of the same name, is the highlight of the display. The story tells of a young boy whose belief in Santa Claus wavers—until he boards the Polar Express to the North Pole. In the Library’s display, the steam locomotive pulls six coaches through a wintry landscape and a village comprised of Department 56 holiday buildings.

The holiday train display is an annual labor of Roberto Lombardi, the Main Library’s director of facilities, and his staff from the Facilities Engineering Unit. An avid train collector, Lombardi got the idea when he saw how children swarmed to a similar display at his neighborhood Noe Valley Bakery & Bread Co.

“Last year’s display was a big hit with staff and patrons alike,” says Lombardi, who, along with his crew, spent many volunteer hours building the train layout. “By September, people were already asking me when we were going to set up again!”

A display of model trains and publications on model railroading is also on view near the exhibit. And young train engineers can check out the collection of train books available in the Children’s Center.

This exhibit is free and open to the public. For more information, please call (415) 557-4277.