Union's Railroad Museum Closes for the Season This Weekend. It Opens Once More, the Sunday After Thanksgiving.
October 15, 2026
October 15, 2026
Heritage Park on Chapel Street in Union opened for the season on June 27, with afternoon hours on Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 4. Its last regular day is this Sunday, October 11, 2026. After that the freight house stays dark for seven weeks. It opens one more time on Sunday, November 29, as a stop on Tour de Chooch, the model railroad open house held every year on the weekend after Thanksgiving since 1994.
The seven weeks in between have their own schedule. Most of the town's local-history programming this fall happens at the Gafney Library on High Street in Sanbornville, with several nights run jointly with the Wakefield-Brookfield Historical Society. A Wakefield resident who wants to keep up with the town's past from October to Thanksgiving will follow it from Union to Sanbornville and back to Union.
The Wakefield Heritage Commission owns and maintains three buildings on Chapel Street: the 1912 Union Train Station, the freight house, and a blacksmith shop. The Commission bought the Boston and Maine station and the freight house property next to it in 2006, using money from the sale of the Garvin Building. The new space gave a home to artifacts that had been stored in the Garvin Building.
Volunteers and donors restored the station's waiting room and station master's office, and the train order boards were reinstalled and work again. Other displays include an original wooden Bangor and Aroostook snowplow last used by the Wolfeboro Railroad, a caboose, ice-cutting tools, and railroad tools. The restored Boston and Maine water tower just outside the station came from the Lake Shore Park Club in Gilford.
The main draw is in the freight house. It's an HO-scale model of the Boston & Maine Railroad around 1909, built with the buildings that stood along the line through Wakefield's villages. Following the track from end to end, the stops are:
Model steam engines, freight cars, and passenger cars run past trackside and village buildings built to show early 20th-century life. Most model railroads show a made-up place. This one shows the villages where Wakefield residents shop, pick up their mail, and drive through every day, as the railroad tied them together more than a century ago.
The public gets limited time with it. The 2026 season ran only on weekend afternoons, four hours a day, from late June to mid-October. A busy summer of boating, guests, and lake chores can go by without a visit. The November 29 opening is a second chance, and it has longer hours than the summer schedule.
Once Heritage Park closes, the Gafney Library at 14 High Street takes over. Its October 2026 Gazette includes two programs the library is running with the Wakefield-Brookfield Historical Society, a genealogy talk, and several programs built around the season.
| Date | Program | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Tue., Oct. 13, 7 p.m. | "Brewing in NH" with Glenn Knoblock | Historical Society meeting held jointly with the library; NH Humanities grant |
| Wed., Oct. 14, 6–7 p.m. | "Three Men and a One-Shilling Knife" | New Hampshire Society of Genealogists |
| Thu., Oct. 22, 2–4 p.m. | Fall watercolor cards with Jeanne Loughan | Limited to 10, sign-up required |
| Tue., Oct. 27, 5:30–6:30 p.m. | "Granite State Gallery" | Historical Society joint program; NH Humanities grant |
| Wed., Oct. 28, 4–5:30 p.m. | Monthly book group | The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson |
The brewing talk is the Historical Society's October meeting, and it's open to everyone. Knoblock follows New Hampshire brewing from colonial days, when it was done at home and in taverns, to today's breweries and brewpubs. He'll show rare photographs and advertisements and cover brewers from Frank Jones to the only woman known to have owned and run a New Hampshire brewery before the modern era.
The genealogy program the next night begins with a 1788 tavern killing in nearby New Durham. It follows the linked lives of three Revolutionary War veterans through newspapers, court records, military records, and petitions. On October 27, the second joint program covers art made in New Hampshire, from itinerant and folk painters to landscape artists to Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Childe Hassam, and Maxfield Parrish.
The Gazette lists smaller monthly items too. October's Spice of the Month Club features sumac. Registration opens on the first Tuesday of the month, and kits can be picked up at the main desk after the 15th while supplies last.
The library's family-friendly Halloween maze, with twists, turns, and playful scares, is open Thursday, October 29, from 4 to 6 p.m., and again Friday and Saturday, October 30 and 31, from 10:30 a.m. to noon. Since the Saturday session ends at noon, families can walk the maze in the morning and still go out for the town's trick-or-treating that evening.
According to the Town of Wakefield, trick-or-treating is Saturday, October 31, from 5 to 8 p.m. The St. Anthony's parking lot will be closed from 3 to 5 p.m. that afternoon during a service.
The library's fall fundraiser connects October to the end of November. Since October 6, the Gafney has taken orders for 24-inch, double-sided balsam wreaths with bows, at $30 each. Order forms are at the library, payment is by cash or check made out to Gafney Library, and all proceeds go to the library.
Pickup is Saturday, November 21, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. It isn't at the library. It's at the former Myers building next to Tumbledown Cafe on Meadow Street in Sanbornville, and the library has no cool storage for wreaths after that date.
That location puts lunch next door. Tumbledown is a farm-to-table restaurant at 21 Meadow Street. Its posted hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and 11 to 8 on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. It's closed Tuesdays. The juice bar and ice cream shop is closed for the season until summer.
If you're clearing out bookshelves before the holidays, plan ahead. The Friends of the Wakefield Libraries thanked everyone who supported this season's book sales and are not taking donations over the winter. Donations start again May 1, 2027.
The town's December calendar lists meetings and checklist sessions but no tree lighting, holiday parade, or Santa visit. Parks & Recreation's calendar shows no November events, and its upcoming-events page lists none at all. As of early October, the wreath pickup and the Chapel Street open house are the two dated events on the late-November calendar.
Tour de Chooch is a free, self-guided open house at model railroads across Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The organizers describe it as a train show that displays only model railroads. The 2026 tour runs Friday through Sunday, November 27 to 29, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day. Union is on the Sunday list, where the Heritage Park Railroad Museum shows its HO-scale "Boston & Maine - 1909" layout at 1 Chapel Street. The tour site marks the stop as wheelchair accessible.
That Sunday also has two other Lakes Region stops near Wakefield:
The tour's hours run from 9 to 4 instead of the summer's noon start, so you could see the Union layout in the morning, drive to Railroad Avenue in Wolfeboro, and decide whether there's time to continue to Meredith before closing.
If you search for the tour online, watch the town name. The Saturday list includes a different stop, the North Shore Model Railroad Club's "The Chesapeake System" at 404 Main Street in Wakefield, Massachusetts. Union's stop is on Sunday only.
After November 29, the Heritage Park website lists no further public dates for the freight house this year. Until the 2027 season begins, the November 29 open house is the last scheduled chance to see the model of Union, Sanbornville, Wakefield Corner, Burleyville, and Mathews Station running.
Over many years in the Lakes Region, I've found that some of the best local knowledge is in places like the Union freight house and the Gafney Library's meeting room. If you'd like to talk about Wakefield, its villages, or the history behind a property you're considering, Martha Trepanier is always glad to hear from you. Let's Connect.
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