Amherst News-Times, 1999-12-08

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Corleys will give up their all — Page 2 Trooper has hometown ties — Pa
Amherst News-Time
W"dnesday, December 8,  1999
Amherst, Ohio
**-t-_.       m,
Youth Service Librarian assistant Lisa Stanley
assists kids making gingerbread houses at the
Amherst Public Library.
Danielle Brooks, Lindsey Deitz, Randi Argenti
and Erin Barnicle from Girl Scout Troop 851 de
corated much of the old Post Office for the Christmas festivities and take time out to talk to Santa.
Holiday treats, trains big hit of the season
by STEVE BARRY
News-Times reporter
Back in the 1920s, 30s and sporadically through the decades that
followed, a young boy's dream was
to own an electric train set. Fathers
who owned model trains looked forward to passing them on to their
sons.
Today, just the engine from some
of those trains sets can bring $1,000
to $ 1,500 if sold on the right market
The rest of the cars from that set can
fetch between $80 and $100 each.
Most of the model cars had numbers on them that corresponded to
rail car numbers on real trains.
There are serious collectors who
cruise the train shows with lists of
real train car numbers and try to locate model car numbers that match,
according to Amherst's Gary
Knight.
For Knight, who displayed his
model train during the city's 'Trees
Trains and Treats" gala this
weekend, train collecting started
when his father died.
"I started when my dad passed
away in 1978, and I inherited his
train set," Knight said. His uncle
passed away some time later and
Knight inherited his uncle's standard gauge set as well. Since then
he has been adding on for his basement rail set up.
He  and  mayor John  Higgins
teamed up for the holiday exhibition, with Knight supplying the
standard gauge rail layout while the
mayor took control of his "other"
city, located inside Knight's rail
oval.
Knight has two daughters, Kristen
and Leslie, who show little interest
in the hobby, and wife Nancy only
goes along because her husband enjoys it so much.
From Knight's studies, he has
learned the first electric model trains
came out in Europe around 1896,
The standard Gauge Lionel trains
were produced from 1941 to 1944.
There are a sizable number of
American gauge sets. One of the
sets on display at the old Amherst
Post Office over the weekend was
called a "postage stamp" train set
and appeared to be smaller than the
tiny N gauge models, displayed by
Gary Verhoff and Andrew Pietch.
Vcrhoff's elaborate train set up
also graced Amherst's two day holiday kick off, Dec. 3 and 4 and was
sponsored by the city of Amherst
and the Amherst Downtown Business Association.
Francis Papay started collecting
trains 14 years ago, and his large
LGB gauge set up featured a Christmas train, literally, with all the bells
and whistles. He displayed a second
I GB train, several novelty engines,
(one being propeller driven) and
scale model buildings that had to be
CONTINUED on paga 6
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Francis and Helga Papay, with grandkids Jordan and Erin Zeitler, with their LGB gauge model Christmas set up at the old Post Office.
,«.
Donations, grants
help build play area
Harris Elementary School
has been able to put in new
playground equipment because
of community support.
While the funds to
purchase the equipment was
the result of several grants,
school fundraisers, permanent
improvement levy money and
$12,000 acquired through a
program of the Lorain County
Solid Waste Committee, the
community provided a lot of
donated materials to make the
project a success.
"I am really pleased. The
community really bought into
the project and pulled it
together," said Harris principal
David Anghilante. "The kids
really enjoy the new equipment. They line up for the
new slide in a long line like
it was Cedar.Point."
Early benefits to the equipment so far hve included
fewer injuries. The thick
wood chip mulch over the
gravel base has much more
cushion to ii and it has lessened both the seriousness
and number of injuries re
ported to date.
The equipment was purchased from Miracle Equipment Company, a company
that has been around for long
time, and all of it meets the
current safety standards required for playground
equipment
Phase III of the project is
still awaiting funds, but the
school intends to write a few
more grants, and if the community pitches in for this
next phase, they hope to
complete it by next May, or
al least have begun to install
the equipment by May.
"We would really have to
hustle to gel it done by May
— it all depends on if we
can pull the funding together
on it," Anghilante said.
In the next phase they plan
lo pour cement pads for basketball hoops and backboards, put in a handicapped
swing, improve the swings
they currently have, several
ideas still in the development
stage and install fencing that
is handicap accessible.
Youngsters enjoy peering out of a contraption installed on the Harris Elementary School playground.