Dec 27, 2018 By Harry Funk staff Writer hfunk@thealmanac.Net 4 min read

PBS estimates that the Neighborhood Trolley featured on episodes of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” traveled 5,000 miles per year.

Mr. Baldwin’s Trolley might not end up going quite that far, but Mt. Lebanon Public Library patrons will have fun making it roll.

A track situated high on a wall in the children’s library allows for the model trolley, named for the late Wilmer Baldwin, to proceed forward and then return to its starting point.

“There’s no guarantee that’s going to work, because there are a whole lot of people watching,” Dave Bodnar, the South Hills Model Railroad Club who primarily was responsible for the setup, joked prior to the trolley’s Dec. 19 maiden voyage.

“The other thing is a little box here that controls the trolley going back and forth,” he explained. “And again, with a little bit of luck, it’ll send it down to the other end, slow down, pause for a few seconds and then come back up again.”

With that, Baldwin’s grandson Alexander Baldwin Konitsky, pushed the red button inside the box to activate the car, which made its appointed round without any complications.

Preceding the journey was a dedication ceremony paying tribute to Baldwin, a former Mt. Lebanon municipal manager, model railroad enthusiast and major supporter of the library who died Dec. 23, 2017, at age 82.

“When we started receiving donations in Bill’s memory last year, we were overwhelmed with the amount,” library director Robyn Vittek said, using the name by which everyone knew him. “And you can only buy so many books about trains. So we were trying to figure out: What is the best way that we could remember this man and really memorialize the impact he’s had on our library.”

Up stepped members of the South Hills Model Railroad Club, of which Baldwin was a founding member. They came up with a trolley that closely resembles the “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” version, complete with figures painted by member Rich Aubel to resemble Baldwin and his family members.

The project will have a finishing touch with a painting by Michele Ambrozic, an artist who has done other work in the children’s library.

“She has a concept for a mural that’s going to go behind the trolley. It’s going to include the Baldwin home, the library, the municipal building and some of the things that make Mt. Lebanon special,” Vittek said. “We’re trying to raise funds for that now, and we’re hoping to have it completed in 2019.”

Jeff Graybill, the model railroad club’s president and a Mt. Lebanon resident, spoke fondly of Baldwin and his impact on the group.

“From his experience as the municipal manager here in Mt. Lebanon, he always had a contact,” Graybill said. “Whenever we had a problem, it was always, hey, I think I know a guy. And if he doesn’t know that guy, I know another guy who knows a guy who knows a lady who knows this.”

Baldwin also was a member of organizations including the Mt. Lebanon Lions Club and Historical Society of Mount Lebanon.

“In the Lions Club, he was a leader when he wasn’t officially titled a leader, but he was also somebody who stepped in as the president of the club when we needed somebody to do that,” fellow member Alex Parrish said. “And that’s the kind of guy he was. He got things done, whether he got credit for it or not.”

Jean Baldwin spoke about her husband’s dedication to the community.

“Mt. Lebanon was so important to him,” she said. “He believed that it was a great place to live because it had a strong local government as a basis and wonderful children for the future. But he really, truly believed that this library was the heart of the community, and he would be so honored, and we are all honored, with this tribute.”