Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, December 4, 1994                   TAG: 9412050069
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                                 LENGTH: Medium

COUPLE TO SHARE VALUABLE TOY TRAINS

``It's a godsend,'' William B. Spong Jr., chairman of the Portsmouth Museum Foundation that is building the new facility, said Thursday in announcing the gift.

The children's museum will open Saturday. Spong said the collection signed over by A.J. and Millie Lancaster could spur donations to add another floor to the museum, where the trains will be displayed.

Until that work is completed, the foundation will maintain the trains and toys at their present location in Suffolk, next to a nursery founded by the Lancasters.

The Lancaster collection is valued at close to $1 million. The number of trains and toys in the collection isn't known, but an inventory book of single-spaced type runs about 125 pages.

``It's a massive collection,'' said Andrew Hook, the couple's attorney.

According to a letter from an appraiser, ``It is without a doubt one of the finest collections in the country and one of the most diverse. All eras are represented, most all manufacturers and gauges from 1900 to the present day.''

The appraiser also wrote that he had no idea the inventory ``would take this long and be such a formidable task.''

A.J. Lancaster's passion for trains began when he worked in the office of the Virginia Railway after graduating from high school, his wife said. He and she have traveled all over the country to auctions and gatherings of collectors.

Lancaster, 73, who has Parkinson's disease and has trouble speaking, enjoys watching visitors who come to see the trains, his wife said.

``We feel good that adults and children can enjoy it,'' Millie Lancaster said. ``We think it will have a good home, and we will be able to go see it.''