Harrington’s Holiday Train Gears Up for Annual Debut

The dust is being blown off of the Harrington Wine & Liquors holiday train set. A tradition for more than 25 years, the train will make its first appearance of the holiday season on Saturday, Dec. 3 at 9 a.m.

Owner John Harrington also plans to have a local company film the debut for broadcast on local cable channels.

The LGB model has three main engines running throughout the holidays, dependent on repairs. The trains cut through miniature “Harrington” neighborhoods, holiday scenery, and quirky things like a junkyard and graveyard—loyal customers can have their names painted on tiny headstones the width of a tongue depressor.

“It’s got great detail, which the kids love,” said Harrington.

Harrington first set up the train because of a loyal customer who was also a train model buff. The train set has been added to and modified several times throughout the years, though modifications have stopped recently. The reason? The railroad now runs the entire width of the store.

“We’re maxed out,” said Harrington. “There’s no more room.”

The train set itself is already assembled, though not ready for display. Harrington is waiting on a crew to install protective Plexiglas and some finishing touches.

“They’ll put the final controls so the kids can press the buttons...and we’re up and running,” said Harrington. With a single press of the controls, children can run the engines for 7 minutes before they cycle off.

The train will run for five weeks, from the first weekend of December until the first week or two of January. From there, the train cars and engines will spend time being cleaned and detailed. In all, constructing, upkeep, and dismantling is an intensive, man-hour-heavy process.

“We have to break them down and clean them, clean the wheels, clean the engines. We’ll be sending out three of our engines that we know need work on...so we do a lot of work to it,” said Harrington.

The train’s presence never really disappears from Harrington’s. After its holiday display time, the engines are broken down and presented behind glass cases above the wine racks. The train cars can be seen off-season above the beer coolers at the back of the store.

Harrington said that the store receives a lot of calls regarding the train set and that it has gathered a “very good following” over the years. Children who attended some 20 years ago are now bringing their children, he said.

Harrington just hopes that the unveiling this year goes well and that there are no derailments, caused by things as slight as a touch, or debris on the tracks.

“Derailments are a major problem,” he said. “One (train) derails and we’ve got a problem. We might be down an hour or two.”

“Hopefully it works out and things go well,” he said.