Each piece of the layout is five feet long and two feet wide. Each one has folding legs that set the track 44 inches off the floor. Each one belongs to the club member who built it, who also keeps it in good repair and stores it between shows. When late November comes, those sections leave members' homes, get fitted together into one miniature Europe, and fill a storefront at Alamo Plaza.
The European Train Enthusiasts holiday exhibit opens again on Friday, Nov. 27, the day after Thanksgiving, and runs through Jan. 3, 2027. A lot of Alamo families now treat it as their own tradition, and since 2022 it has been. Its roots are on the far side of Danville, though. The show ran in Blackhawk for most of two decades before it came to Alamo Plaza, and the way those modules are built is what let it move.
Built to Fit Whatever Room It Gets
The layout comes from the Modular Group of the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of European Train Enthusiasts. Danville resident Stretch Andersen started the group in 1992. Alamo Today reported in December 2022 that the group had about 35 members by then and had refined a system for sizing the layout to whatever space an event offers.
The sections are interchangeable and fit together in many combinations. Curved corner pieces let the group shape the display in different ways, and it can be set up quickly. Under that system, the layout can cover anywhere from 900 to 2,100 square feet. A show built this way has no permanent home, so it doesn't depend on any one building.
The models are HO scale, a size that leaves room for a lot of detail. Visitors see working locomotives, freight trains, and passenger trains from many European countries. The trains run through detailed villages, towns, and countryside. The Modular Group's own page lists mountains, bridges, farms, stations, lakes, and industries, and says the group has been showing the layout around the Bay Area since 1992.
The national organization dates to 1973. Its Bay Area chapter says it has more than 130 members across the South Bay, Peninsula, East Bay, and North Bay. It meets monthly and also holds a summer event called EuroWest. Every train and module in the exhibit is owned and run by chapter members.
The Blackhawk Years
The tradition many Alamo families now associate with Alamo Plaza started inside the Blackhawk Museum. In late 2005, the East Bay Times reported that the "All Aboard 2005" exhibit had opened at the museum on Nov. 25 and called it "the exhibit's fourth year at the museum." The museum's marketing director at the time, Jon Hart, told the paper why the holidays mattered to the museum:
"We find that our numbers jump during the holidays. A lot of people tend to take visitors and relatives who are from out of town."
He also told the East Bay Times that "a lot of people have come to expect the exhibit." That expectation held through more than one change of venue.
- Early 2000s, Blackhawk Museum. The 2005 run was the fourth there.
- December 2014, Blackhawk Museum. The chapter's media archive still lists the exhibit at the museum.
- 2017, Blackhawk Plaza Shopping Center. In a Patch post he wrote himself, Andersen announced "the 16th year" of the ETE layout in Blackhawk, this time "inside the Blackhawk Plaza Shopping Center adjacent to Draeger's Market."
- December 2018, Blackhawk Plaza Shopping Center. The chapter recorded another holiday display at the center.
- 2019 to 2020 season, Blackhawk Plaza Shopping Center. The run lasted from Nov. 23 to Jan. 5.
- 2022, Alamo Plaza, Unit 170-A. This was the first Alamo season, Nov. 25 through Dec. 31.
The two Blackhawk counts agree with each other. Fourth year in 2005 and 16th year in 2017 both point to a first season in 2002. With the documented runs in 2018 and 2019, that adds up to about eighteen holiday seasons in Blackhawk before the trains were ever set up in Alamo.
The Alamo Chapter
From the first Alamo season, the Alamo Improvement Association co-sponsored the display, and it opened in Unit 170-A on Nov. 25, 2022. Alamo Today's coverage that December noted that besides the usual Wednesday-through-Sunday hours, it was also open Monday, Dec. 26, and Tuesday, Dec. 27. The 2023 season ran Nov. 24 through Dec. 31 in the same space.
By November 2025, Alamo Today was calling it a "popular family tradition." It placed the show at 170A Alamo Plaza Shopping Center, near the post office and Orange Theory, and listed the season as Nov. 28 through Jan. 4, 2026, under the title "A Trip to Europe in Miniature!" The schedule had also grown to reach past New Year's.
The beneficiary changed along the way. The chapter's 2022 and 2023 Alamo listings say proceeds went to the American Cancer Society. In 2025, the Contra Costa and Solano Food Bank listed the show as a fundraiser for its own work. The 2026 season continues that arrangement. Each $5 ticket in Alamo now goes to food assistance in Contra Costa and Solano counties.
This Season's Schedule
EDENS, the owner of Alamo Plaza, has announced the 2026 season. The show is hosted by European Train Enthusiasts in partnership with the Alamo Improvement Association.
- Dates: Nov. 27, 2026, through Jan. 3, 2027
- Regular hours: Wednesdays through Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Extra open days: Dec. 22, 23, 29 and 30
- Closed: Christmas Day and New Year's Day
- Admission: $5, with proceeds going to the Contra Costa and Solano Food Bank; children under 6 get in free
- Location: Unit 170-A, near the post office and Orange Theory, based on past seasons
The extra days bracket Christmas, two just before it and two in the week leading to New Year's. The final weekend also ends on a Sunday, so families who wait until after the holidays still get one more weekend to go.
Fitting It Into an Alamo Sunday
The show is open on Sundays, and so is the Alamo Farmers' Market, which EDENS lists at Alamo Plaza every Sunday in the parking lot near Bank of America. The market runs year-round. A Patch listing for the Nov. 1 market named two new vendors, House of Tek and Zaya Thai Pantry. The trains start running at 10 a.m., so one Sunday morning at the plaza can cover produce, a few pantry items from the new vendors, and a ride through miniature Europe.
The Alamo Plaza visit also fits the reason Blackhawk valued the show twenty years ago. Jon Hart told the East Bay Times in 2005 that the museum's holiday crowds included people bringing out-of-town visitors and relatives. The same club's modules now set up at Alamo Plaza, in the shopping center that also hosts the town's weekly farmers' market.
Elsewhere in town, Contra Costa County scheduled tree pruning at Andrew H. Young Park, at Danville Boulevard and Jackson Way, for Oct. 23 to prepare for upcoming Holiday Tree Lighting festivities. The train show opens the day after Thanksgiving, Friday, Nov. 27, at 10 a.m.
If the train show is on your list for visiting family this year, and a conversation about your own Alamo home is on your list for the new year, the Dana Weiler Team is just down the boulevard. Request a complimentary home consultation, and we'll talk through your plans over coffee after the trains.
