For generations in many families, model railroading brought untold enjoyment during the Christmas season. Setting up a train platform under the Christmas tree with Lionel or HO scale trains, villages of homes and businesses, tunnels and bridges, lichen greenery and to-scale cars and trucks still brings families together.

For those model railroading enthusiasts who can’t find the time or just aren’t inclined to build a model train layout, the Lehigh and Keystone Valley Model Railroad Museum at 705 Linden St. in Bethlehem offers a wonderful alternative.

Museum president Bob Gombosi says there is 8,800 feet of track in the museum’s layout, which includes the personal equipment of members that totals over 100 engines and 1,500 to 1,600 cars of rolling stock.

The layout includes scale model reproductions of locations like the Bethlehem Steel blast furnaces, Central Railroad of New Jersey diesel engine shop and roundhouse, the Huber Breaker in Ashley, Ludlowville Power Plant near Sayre, the Lackawanna cut-off and much more. The geographic area covered stretches from West Portal, New Jersey west to Harrisburg, and Lansdale north to Sayre.

Organizers achieved museum status about 10 years ago and have been at the current location for 22 years and, according to Gombosi, “we’re still building.”

The 2018 Christmas Open House continues through Jan. 6 on weekends from 1 to 5 p.m., Dec. 26, 27 and 28 from 5 to 9 p.m. Admission is $7 per adult and children 12 and under are free. Call 610-868-7101 or visit www.lkvmodelrailroad.com for a more detailed schedule.