The Mo-Ark Regional Railroad Museum will be open Saturday during the 13th annual Iron Horse Festival in Downtown Poplar Bluff.
The museum will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. It is located in the historic 1928 Frisco Depot across Fifth Street from the Black River Coliseum. Admission is free.
Volunteers are in the process of creating an expanded and greatly improved American HO scale model train layout, according to organizers. The new layout is 12 feet longer and 3 feet wider than the old one, part of which was started 40 years ago.
The new layout will feature four tracks when completed, an operational turn table and roundhouse, a subway train for small children, train storage tracks under the layout and new scenery along with some old scenes, according to a press release from the museum.
Volunteers have installed new lighting and remodeled the large layout room to enhance viewing of the trains and improve movement of visitors. A closet was removed and three viewing openings created in a wall. Visitors will walk southbound on the west side of the layout and northbound on the east side through two new wall openings to return toward the entrance.
Visitors also will see a new double-track overhead O scale layout with two American trains traveling on it in the main layout room, an unusual English HO scale train layout in the south room and a G scale overhead train in the history display room.
Outside, visitors can walk through a newly painted Missouri Pacific caboose and view a signal tower, crossing lights, switches and a whistle sign. They also can walk around a Frisco caboose and an 81-foot Union Pacific mail/baggage car, which is used for storage.
A steam operated car and calliope may also be viewed, along with a Poplar Bluff History Museum memorial to the 86 victims of the 1927 tornado which destroyed Downtown Poplar Bluff, including the 1901 Frisco Depot.
Saturday is also a good time for early Christmas shopping in the Train Shop, organizers said, which is fully stocked with train T-shirts, trains, track, buildings and scenery for layouts.
Donations and merchandise sales are used to maintain the museum which is an all volunteer operation. More volunteers and members are needed. Please apply Saturday or call 573-785-4539 or 573-686-2241 and leave a message.
This year, the museum is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the first train arriving in Poplar Bluff and the 160th anniversary of the Union Pacific Railroad, which has been operating in Poplar Bluff for 40 years. Banners in the south room display dates for Iron Mountain, Missouri Pacific and Union Pacific railroads.
The museum is open 1-4 p.m. Saturdays except on a Christmas weekend. Private tours by individuals, organizations or schools may be arranged by calling 573-785-4539 or 573-686-2241 and leaving a message.