Carnegie Science Center's Miniature Railroad and Village getting new addition

The votes are in — the Andrew Bayne Memorial Library will be the next historical landmark to be commemorated in the Carnegie Science Center’s Miniature Railroad and Village model.

“We were very gung-ho,” said Ellen Goodman, director of the Andrew Bayne Memorial Library in Bellevue.

Nikki Wilhelm, manager for the Miniature Railroad and Village, said that it took roughly two hours and three people counting to get the final tally earlier Friday afternoon.

The library received more than 25,190 votes.

Nominated this year, in addition to the Andrew Bayne Memorial Library, were the Bethel Township High School in Bethel Park, garnering roughly 17,610 votes, and Garards Fort Post Office in Garards Fort, which received 4,994 votes.

The requirement for these nominees was historical importance from before 1940.

The model railroad is more than 100 years old and originated with a man named Charlie Bowdish, who began crafting the models in 1919. Since then, the railroad has been sold to Buhl Planetarium, which then merged with the Carnegie Science Center in 1992, as reported by TribLive.

Bellevue Director of Administrative Services Jim Kelly said that over the past few months, the Andrew Bayne Memorial Library has seen record numbers for attendance.

“It’s just amazing,” Kelly said. “Bellevue seems to be really growing and revitalized.”

Goodman, who was out of the library when the good news came in, said that she started getting lots of messages on her phone about the news.

The Andrew Bayne Memorial Library had been doing a good deal of online promotion and voting on social media for the past month.

Goodman said the online campaign was launched following a photo the library’s staff received of the in-person voting, which showed that the competition was close.

The final totals showed Bethel Township High School actually had more in-person votes than the library, according to Carnegie Science Center voting results.

Now that a decision has been made, Wilhelm said she will start looking for archived photos of the library and begin talking with the library staff about the model’s design.

Once crafted, the miniature Andrew Bayne Memorial Library will be placed in the display in the fall of 2026.