Local man’s love of locomotives lives on

HO trains layout featured in holiday display will be on permanent display

The HO scale layout featured at the Holiday Train Show will become a permanent fixture at the Bedford Hills Historical Museum. NEAL RENTZ PHOTOS

By NEAL RENTZ

Bedford Hills Historical Museum President Ellen Cohen said model railroads have been a part of the museum’s programs in the past but the recently ended second annual Holiday Train Show had “a special story.”

The exhibition, which concluded Dec. 28 at the museum on the lower level of the Bedford Town House, showcased the train layout that was owned by the late Katonah resident, Dr. Robert Bibi, and donated to the exhibition by his wife, Maria.

“Model trains have appeared at the Bedford Hills train station in the past, but this layout has a special story,” Cohen said last week. “The entire layout was carefully taken apart and then rebuilt in its new home at the museum with help from board member Rick Carmichael and members of the Olde Newburgh Model Railroad Company.”

Bibi was a plastic and reconstructive surgeon with a lifelong love of trains, Cohen said. He started building the HO scale model trains in his Katonah home when his daughter, Katherine, was 3 years old.

“Over time it became a true passion project,” Cohen said.

Rail service arrived in Bedford Hills in 1847, Cohen noted. “It completely changed the hamlet,” she said. 

All buildings in the exhibit were handmade from balsa wood, and nothing came from a kit, Cohen noted.

“Train lovers especially enjoy hearing the steam engine as it makes its way around the track,” Cohen said, adding the exhibition featured a photo of a steam engine train coming through Bedford Hills in the 1930s. 

New features for the 2025 show included holiday music and festive lighting “to make it feel even more seasonal and fun,” Cohen said.

There’s good news for those who wanted to attend the 2025 train show but could not. Cohen said the Bibi train show had become a permanent part of the museum, so museum volunteers would no longer take the exhibit apart and put it back together every Christmas season. 

Cohen said residents are encouraged to explore the museum. Some popular items include the original Bedford Hills station sign and benches, a 1909 commuter ticket, mid-19th century maps, Civil War-era letters written to the town’s first supervisor, and old milk bottles from local dairy farms, she said.

Cohen said the train show appeals to everyone.

“Kids love watching the trains in motion and adults often feel a strong sense of nostalgia,” Cohen said. “The craftsmanship, the sounds and the history all come together to create something special, especially during the holidays.”

The museum program also had, for young children, train-themed stickers and a hands-on Thomas the Tank Engine, Cohen said.

The train show did not have financial sponsors, but the museum welcomes support from the community, through volunteering or financial donations, Cohen said. In 2026 the museum board will seek ways to preserve its collection and make it more accessible, Cohen said. 

The museum’s next event, scheduled for March 8 at the Bedford Hills Community House, will feature readings from the memoirs of the Jim Wood family going back eight generations in Bedford, Cohen noted. 

Cohen explained what she enjoyed about the museum’s train shows. “I love that it brings in families and visitors from all over Westchester and Connecticut and that many people discover the museum for the first time through the train show.”

Cohen gave her opinion on why train shows are especially popular around Christmas.

“They’re free, family-friendly and have such broad appeal,” she said. “So many people grew up with train sets and that sense of nostalgia really resonates during the holidays.”

Bedford Hills Historical Museum is located at 321 Bedford Road, Lower Level, Bedford Hills.

The HO scale layout featured at the Holiday Train Show will become a permanent fixture at the Bedford Hills Historical Museum. NEAL RENTZ PHOTOS