LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - Christmas and model trains go together like mistletoe and smooches.

This year, the Whitaker Center in Harrisburg is kissing up to yuletide train enthusiasts big-time, showing “The Polar Express” at its IMAX theater and offering a collection of eight new model-train gardens in its Harsco Science Center.

Put together by the folks at Strasburg Rail Road, each train layout has a theme, often matching the theme of the 7½-foot artificial tree glittering above it.

There’s an O-gauge Polar Express model train and tree, and a tiny N-gauge Strasburg Rail Road layout. Thomas the Tank Engine gets his own tree and train garden, using both O and HO rolling stock. A farm-themed layout runs a G-gauge train (think outdoor garden-size); a 1950s-vintage tree has a Plasticville town underneath; and a tree decked with angels and Santas towers over a large O-gauge layout complete with an airport and a plane in a permanent holding pattern.

“Model railroading is a very creative hobby,” said Susan Moedinger, owner/manager of Strasburg Rail Road Shops Inc. “We wanted to show people what they could do. Our layouts use buildings right out of the box, to show how easy it can be. They aren’t as detailed as those made by real model-railroading enthusiasts, but they’re lots of fun. We just wanted to evoke the feel of trains. Trains and trees are a natural fit.”

Moedinger’s husband, Linn, is president of Strasburg Rail Road. The couple live in an 18th-century farmhouse in West Lampeter Township with a 2,000-square-foot model-train building next-door to house their collection of Rio Grande Southern and East Broad Top model trains.

“Next year will be the 50th anniversary of the rebirth of the Strasburg Rail Road,” Moedinger said. “A bunch of enthusiasts came together to save it, but I think what they really wanted to do was play with a life-size train set.

“Both my dad and granddad worked for the railroad,” recalled Steve Bishop, vice president of Harsco Science Center. “Dad was a signalman. Granddad was the station manager at Sioux Falls, S.D. I had my own Lionel O-gauge train as a kid, and I remember putting on my little engineer’s suit and filling the freight cars with Lincoln Logs.”

Bishop estimates that 7,000 visitors will have “trained” their sights on the Whitaker Center’s model-railroading exhibit by the time it closes early next year. Visitors also get to ride on the Whitaker Express, a golf-cart-size re-creation of an old steam locomotive running on the carpet (no tracks) on Harsco’s lower level. It chugs (electrically) through holiday displays of snowmen, trees and gingerbread houses.

“It’s clear as I watch young visitors that they’re just as fascinated as I was as a kid,” Bishop said. “Getting a train is an iconic Christmas experience. Besides, I think trains are on their way back [as basic transportation]. There’s no more efficient way to move.”

The holiday train exhibit will be on display at the Whitaker Center, 222 N. Market St., Harrisburg, through Jan. 6. For more information, call 214-2787.