It was fairly magical.  A happy, plucky piano tinkles a little tune as a toy trolley whisks your imagination through a city scene.  The camera slowly zooms in on one particular house towards the back then cuts to a man entering the house, hangs up his coat in exchange for a nice sweater, and changes his shoes for some sneakers.  “Won’t you be my neighbor?”

Mr. Fred McFeely Rogers (Yes, that is his actual middle name.) has been entertaining and teaching us (I’d say "our children", but most of us were children once ourselves.) since February 18, 1968.  That’s when the show as we know it with the Neighborhood of Make Believe and the other trademarks first premiered.  Of course he did other things before then, including working for NBC (Employee ID #2429), Canada’s CBC network, and being one of the founders of  public television station WQED in Pittsburgh, PA. 

The man is a giant in the world of children’s television.  As a parent; as a person who works in the television business; as a model railroader, I will mourn his passing. 

Did I just hear a collective “Huh?”  What’s the model railroader connection?  The trolley of course.  It is almost impossible to think of that show without bringing to mind Trolley.

Trolley I, as it came to be known in the studio, is the original Trolley that makes the journey to the Neighborhood of Make Believe.  It can best be described as a handmade, near G scale model.  Not much is known about it, but it was built in 1967 by Bill Ferguson of Toronto, Canada.

Trolley II debuted on November 16, 1981.  This is the one that is seen in the show’s credits.  If you look closely, you can tell exactly what it is, which is a slightly modified, kit-bashed, HO scale trolley popularly sold by the Bachman Co.  The trolley, and the model town, too, were created by Tom Vitolo and Paul Lally.  Paul had received the Bachman model as a gift from his brother Pat.  They essentially built a 4 foot module of a city scene, including hand laying the code 100, nickel-silver track.  As the camera moves through the scene, the trolley moves exactly 29 inches using the old pull-it-with-fishing-line trick.  Crude, but simple.  How many of our models and modules have been immortalized like this one has?

             Fred was ordained as a Presbyterian Minister, given charge to do his children’s educational TV shows, and he did it very well.  I give thanks to Tom, Paul and Bill for helping Fred create his magic.  Incidentally, most of those sweaters, including the one that was donated to the Smithsonian, were made by his mom. 

Thanks Fred.