Can I Have More Information about the Orphan Train Program?

Our library book club recently read Christina Baker Kline’s Orphan Train. The title refers to a program developed by the Children’s Aid Society (with a similar program developed later by the New York Foundling Hospital) that transported orphaned and homeless children from the big cities in the East to new lives in the West. Some found loving families, but others weren’t so lucky, meeting with abuse often in the form of unscrupulous adults who saw fit to use them as unpaid labor. The orphan trains ran from 1853 until 1929.

While the back of the book provides a lot of information about the orphan train riders, one of the members of the book club was curious about the aid workers’ side of the story. Were there any primary sources available from them?

The Children’s Aid Society still exists today. They understand that people are curious about their history, and they give a phone number (212-949-4847) and an email address (archives@childrensaidsociety.org) for people to contact to learn more about the orphan train program. They also provide access to the Victor Remer Historical Archives of the Children’s Aid Society. A guide to the archives can be found online here. While you’ll need to be at the library of the New-York Historical Society to view most of the materials yourself (which include journals and memoirs of Children’s Aid Society agents and correspondence with children who were placed out), some of the material has been digitized and can be viewed here. 

We also found a book about the founder of the Children’s Aid Society, Stephen O’Connor’s Orphan Trains: The Story of Charles Loring Brace and the Children He Saved and Failed, which is available through CLEVNET.

If you’re ever in Concordia, Kansas, and want to know more about the orphan train movement, you can visit the National Orphan Train Complex. (For more information, their website is located at http://orphantraindepot.org/.)

How Do I Get Started Creating a Train Garden?

“I’m interested in putting a train garden in my back yard. Do you have anything that can help me to get started?” Seeking more information from our patron, the staff of the Newton Falls Public Library learned that this type of garden is created to feature large or G scale model trains which can be run outdoors.

First the staff checked our shared TiPL [Trumbull Independent Public Libraries] catalog. Unable to find any materials in our local collections, we did a search through the Ohio Shares More catalog [http://www.ohiolibshare.org/]. Both of these catalogs can be reached from our homepage, http://www.newtonfalls.org/. To place holds on materials from either of these locations, you need to type in the number on your Newton Falls (or TiPL) library card with no spaces, including any letters or punctuation. You also need to use the PIN [personal identification number] you have registered with the library. Be sure to select the Newton Falls Public Library as the site to pick up your selected materials. Our patron chose some items from the Ohio Shares More catalog, but wanted information to take with him.
An online search found some very useful information and websites. We discovered that many of the railway layouts are based upon once existing rail lines such as the Far North Queensland from 1940 to 1990, the Delaware and Chesapeake, the North Pacific Coast Railroad, and the Ohio River Electric Railway [http://www.orery.com/], a trolley line that served the river towns of Meigs County, Ohio from 1900 to 1929. The site allows you to view videos of this garden railroad as if you were a crew member riding the train.

We located many clubs worldwide including the Garden Railway Club, which appears to be located in the United Kingdom and has a great deal of practical information, the Northern Ohio Garden Railway Society [http://www.nogrs.org/], and the Garden Trains Association [http://www.gardentrains.org/] that has a local branch. The Riverside Railroad Club meets at the SCOPE center in Warren, Ohio. There is also The Western Reserve Model Railroad Museum [http://www.wrmrrm.org/] located in Mentor. It is the largest museum of its kind.
Online magazine articles have a wealth of information. Accessing one of Ohio Web Library’s resources, MasterFILE Premier (EBSCOhost), we found numerous articles. There was a citation for one in Better Homes and Gardens Magazine, A Railroad Garden: Engineering Togetherness by Paige Porter [www.bhg.com/home-improvement/outdoor/fences/a-railroad-garden-engineering-togetherness]. Our patron printed a copy of this article to read at home. We also discovered the Garden Railways Magazine [www.trains.com/grw].