THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 2, 1994 TAG: 9412020553
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JANIE BRYANT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Long : 117 lines
Santa Claus came early this year, putting one of the finest train collections in the country under the city's Christmas tree.
A.J. ``Junie'' Lancaster never had children of his own, but he has been a father figure to many. And when it came to Christmas, the much-loved nurseryman made an art out of playing Santa Claus to an entire community.
On Thursday, the former president of Coleman Nursery and the originator of its Christmas Wonderland did it again.
Lancaster and his wife, Millie, signed over their lifelong collection of model trains and antique toys - valued at close to $1 million - to the Children's Museum of Virginia.
In doing so, the 75-year-old philanthropist and his wife satisfied themselves that their collection of trains would run the tracks for generations, thrilling children of all ages.
``It's a godsend,'' William B. Spong Jr., chairman of the Portsmouth Museum Foundation, said at a news conference announcingthe gift.
The collection could take up as much as half the second floor of the Children's Museum. That phase of construction is scheduled for completion in two years. However, Spong said, the collection could spur new donations and speed up the second phase.
The new museum opens Dec. 10 at 221 High St.
The Lancasters have no idea how many trains and toys there are, but an inventory book of single-spaced type runs about 125 pages.
``It's a massive collection,'' said the Lancasters' attorney, Andrew Hook. An appraiser wrote that he had no idea ``it would take this long and be such a formidable task'' when he was asked to estimate the worth of the collection, Hook said.
``It is without a doubt one of the finest collections in the country and one of the most diverse,'' Hook read from the appraiser's letter. ``All eras are represented, most all manufacturers and gauges from 1900 to the present day.''
Until the second phase of the museum is completed, the foundation will operate the train and toy museum at its present location adjoining Mike's Trainland on Shoulders Hill Road.
The location is near Bennett's Creek Wholesale Nursery, which Lancaster founded after selling Coleman's.
Lancaster, who has Parkinson's disease and has trouble speaking, beamed during the announcement but referred questions to his wife and to his close friend and accountant, William Old.
Earlier in the afternoon, the Lancasters had led the way through the collection in Suffolk, pointing out some of their favorites.
They passed model carousels, turn-of-the-century trolleys, and miniature circuses and cities on their way to Lancaster's favorite - a model of the world's largest steam locomotive called the Big Boy.
Around them, trains whistled and chugged, and cows mooed from tiny cattle cars. The scenes that the trains wind around are a history of America in themselves - tiny mountain hamlets and other nostalgic images of the past. On one roadside near a train tunnel, there's even a miniature lighted billboard of Jane Russell, leaning back seductively in a promotional shot of ``The Outlaw.''
Millie Lancaster leaned her ear down to her husband, who was sitting in a wheelchair, when he was asked how he felt an hour before giving it all away. Then she smiled.
``We feel good that adults and children can enjoy it,'' she said. ``We think it will have a good home and we will be able to go see it.''
Once moved to the second floor of the museum, it will continue to be called the Lancaster Train & Old Toy Museum, and a portrait of Junie Lancaster will hang in the Children's Museum.
Lancaster's passion for trains began when he worked in the office of the Virginian Railway right after he graduated from high school, Millie Lancaster said.
The couple have shared that love for almost half a century, traveling all over the country to auctions and train-collector gatherings to trade and buy.
But filling their own home with the collection wasn't enough. Sharing the joy of trains and toys has been as important as collecting them. And the collection has continued to outgrow whatever space Lancaster has found for it.
Old has been instrumental in working out the details of the exhibit's new and permanent home.
``He was very excited about it, and he kept pushing me and pushing me to do it quicker,'' Old said. ``He's like that. He's . . . very pleased that it's going to be connected there with the Portsmouth children's museum.
``I think he will regard it as one of the nicest Christmas gifts he ever had,'' Old said. ``He wants to do that for the children and for the people of Portsmouth.''
Lancaster has always loved going to his train museum to watch and listen to visitors, especially children.
Lancaster's wife said he often tells her the things he hears.
One little boy told him he didn't want to go home, she recalled.
``He wanted to live there,'' she said.
``One of the little fellows said, `Mister . . . I just love (your trains). They make me happy.' ''
``He said, `If they make you happy, they make me happy, too,' '' she said.
It definitely makes Portsmouth supporters happy.
Lancaster's train collection, which represents the largest train museum on the East Coast, already is on a map of things to see in Virginia, Millie Lancaster said.
So it's the perfect gift for a city hoping its new Children's Museum will be the cornerstone of everything from a new image to a downtown revival.
As Lydia P. Patton, the city's leisure services director, put it:
``This proves that there's still a Santa Claus.'' MEMO: Staff writer Ida Kay Jordan contributed to this story. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
MARK MITCHELL/Staff
Bryant Price, 3, checks out part of the $3 million train collection,
now in Suffolk but destined for the Children's Museum in
Portsmouth.
Donor A.J. ``Junie'' Lancaster, 75, is the former president of
Coleman Nursery.
by CNB