2019 CANTIGNY PARK CHRISTMAS TRAIN SHOW
On December 14th and 15th, Brick Model Railroader members Cale Leiphart and Glenn Holland were once again invited by the Northern Illinois LEGO® Train Club to attend the annual Cantigny Park Christmas Train Show in Wheaton, Illinois .
Cantigny Park is a 500-acre park in Wheaton, Illinois, 30 miles west of Chicago. It is the former estate of Joseph Medill and his grandson Colonel Robert R. McCormick, publishers of the Chicago Tribune, and is open to the public. Cantigny includes large formal and informal gardens, two museums, a 27-hole golf course, a picnic grove, a playground, hiking paths, restaurants and a gift shop.
Each year, for the past 18 years, the Northern Illinois LEGO® Train Club has been invited to set up their train display for a special Holliday event the second weekend of December. Over the years the show has grown to include vendors and special displayers in addition to NILTC’s own ever growing display. Vendors at this year’s show included Brickstuff, Brickmania, EclipseGrafx, Citizen Brick, and Abbie Dabbles.
Trains and Christmas, A Perfect Combo
There is no better time of year for a train show than Christmas time. Ever since Lionel Cowen began persuading department stores to incorporate his toy trains as part of their Christmas tree displays, making them into popular Christmas presents, model trains and Christmas have been linked together in the childhood dreams of every train fan.
The Northern Illinois LEGO Train Club brought out an amazing display for this year. Their display featured everything from winter scenes, cityscapes, Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, a massive train yard, and a little bit of everything in between. Of course some pretty cool trains were on display as well. Cantigny Park itself was beautifully decorated for the Holliday Season, and Christmas music was playing the whole weekend.
The members of NILTC were warmly welcoming to us and made us feel right at home. It all made for a truly fun and memorable weekend, and we are thankful for the club’s hospitality.
Extracurricular Activities
Beyond attending the show for the weekend, we also had the opportunity to visit some other cool places. After set up on Friday we left Cantigny to visit the Brickmania Chicago Store, and Des Plaines Hobbies.
This was the first time either Glenn or myself had seen the Chicago Brickmania Store since moving to it’s new location earlier this year. The new store had much more space than the old store at the Woodfield Mall. All of the current Brickmania kits were on display and for sale, including many currently sold out online. Also there on display was Brickmania’s model of the World War II destroyer USS O’Hare, and Nathan Flood’s model of the German U-boat, U-505.
After leaving the Brickmania Store, we traveled to the legendary model train shop, Des Plaines Hobbies.
If you’re in the Chicago area and love trains, this hobby shop should be a must see on your list. It’s tucked away in a little shopping center, and while the store may not seem big on the outside, the inside is packed with some very cool model train treasure. Models from almost every scale can be seen in the display cases, hard to find books line the book shelves in the back corner, and a full range of modeling supplies can be found throughout the store with a friendly and helpful staff waiting to answer any of your train hobby needs. This is the old school hobby shop done right.
Another Great Show
Once again, we can not say enough about how awesome NILTC and the Cantigny Train Show was. This year was every bit as cool as last year for us, and we hope we can make the trip again for 2020. We already have an open invite to come back, and we will be making plans as soon as we can. In the meantime, here are photos from myself, and from NILTC of this year’s display.
Thank you again to the Northern Illinois LEGO Train Club and Cantigny Park for a wonderful train show experience.