How to go
What: Ned Hoelzer’s Christmas Train Display
Where: Park at Marshall Elementary School, 3260 Oxford-Millville Road, and take a shuttle to the display.
When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Dec. 3-4
Cost: Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for children ages 3 to 12, and free for ages 2 and younger.
Train enthusiast, sports buff or art aficionado – there is something for everyone at Ned Hoelzer’s Christmas Train Display.
For the fourth year, Hoelzer will open his home to the public Dec. 3-4 to raise money for the Oxford Christian Cooperative Nursery School and for local people living with multiple sclerosis.
Hoelzer’s train display, started in 2003, now spans more than a mile of track, includes 1,100 illuminated buildings and has more than a ton of mud drywall forming miniature mountains.
“This is for all ages. It is an amazing display,” said Verda Johnson, of the nursery school. “It’s hard to describe.”
The display, which is housed above Hoelzer’s 21 car garage, includes a variety of intricate buildings. Motorized displays make up a circus with a Ferris wheel, a series of haunted houses, ski slopes and riverside cities.
The display is larger than the Duke Energy/CSX Holiday Model Train Display, Johnson said.
“At a certain point every few minutes they turn out all the lights, so there are only the lights from the trains and the houses,” Johnson said. “That’s the awe moment... the word at the top of the stairs is ‘wow.’”
Last year more than 2,300 visited the display, raising $15,000 for the charities in two days.
“It makes you feel good. It makes no sense building something if no one can see it,” said Hoelzer, a retired Miami University statistics professor.
After viewing the train display, attendees can tour Hoelzer’s home to view his sports memorabilia and art he has collected over the years. Works from Rembrandt, Picasso and Dali are included in the art display.
In Hoelzer’s basement, visitors can walk through three different rooms that are dedicated to the Cincinnati Bengals, Ohio State Buckeyes and Pittsburgh Steelers football teams. The rooms include memorabilia such as sporting cards, jerseys and posters. Some of the autographed items include a Jim Tressel football and Muhammad Ali boxing robe. Also in the basement is a room filled with arcade games, such as pinball or car racing, which can be played for free.
Those who attend the display are stamped and can walk through the display as many times as they like, Johnson said.
The display is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days, and shuttle service runs from Marshall Elementary School, 3260 Oxford-Millville Road.
Tickets can be purchased at the event or before by calling the nursey school at (513) 523-6364. Those who buy tickets before the event can bypass the line at the display. Hot cocoa and Christmas cookies will also be sold.
“As you age, you tend not to buy into all the sales pitches and things, but when you walk in, it’s the joy of Christmas,” Johnson said. “It takes you back to your youth and what Christmas is all about. It’s magical.”
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