The 27th Annual Train and Merchant Show is coming this weekend to the Southern Ohio Medical Center’s Friends Center, on 18th Street in Portsmouth. This year’s show is part of SOMC’s Winter Wonderland program of Christmas activities.

“There’s going to be 14 large (train display) layouts and about five or six small-scale, table-top layouts,” said Mark Harris, of Market Street Hardware. “About seven or eight different gauges of train will be on display, from Z-scale up to G-scale.”

Harris said most of last year’s train displays will return this year, and

some of them have gotten

even bigger.

“Trains have been a Christmas tradition for years. My grandfather had a big setup in the 1940s, and it seems like everyone back then had a train around their Christmas tree. So the train show every year kicks off our train selling season at Market Street Hardware,” he said.

One of his favorite parts of the show is seeing the look on childrens’ faces as they watch the trains run around the tracks. One train even has a camera that films at it goes by, and shows the video on a nearby television for all to see.

“If anybody’s got some old trains sitting around the house that they haven’t run for years and would like to see them run, they’re welcome to bring them down. We’ll put them on the track and run them for them, and oil them, and it won’t cost them a thing,” Harris said.

Also in the Life Center gymnasium — just down the hall from the train show — local merchants will be set up to display and sell their crafts.

The Slocum Garden Club is selling homemade “Garden Pal” dolls at the merchant show.

“Our Garden Club is a member of the Ohio Association of Garden Clubs, and the club has actually been in existence for over 50 years. I think since 1952. What we do is a lot of emphasis on education of ourselves about nature and beautifying our community,” said Mary Beaumont, vice president of the Slocum Garden Club.

The club is selling homemade dolls at the merchant show to raise money for local garden therapy programs.

“Right now, we are involved with Best Care’s Adult Daily Living program in Wheelersburg. We are hoping to raise money to build some raised garden beds that the participants can very actively become involved in the planting and growing of flowers and vegetables,” she said. “Another thing we’re hoping to initiate is a garden therapy program with SOMC’s women’s cancer program. We hope to be able to provide lavender sashays or packets for each new patient.”

Beaumont said the Garden Club was getting ready for a big show in Minford next week.

The SOMC Train and Merchant Show is today from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m., and Sunday from noon until 4 p.m. Admission is $2.00 at the door, and children under 5 are free. The SOMC Winter Wonderland celebration ends with more train excitement, at the Polar Express Pajama Party from 6 to 9 p.m., Monday, at the SOMC Friends Center.

RYAN SCOTT OTTNEY can be reached at (740) 353-3101, ext. 235, or rottney@heartlandpublications.com.