Small train sets that operated at fairs, zoos, parks, and occasional drive-in theaters reached peak popularity during the 1950s and 1960s. Two partial train sets, consisting of two locomotives and eight passenger cars, were donated to the Southeastern Railway Museum by Ben and Joy Black. Originally purchased for use at the Birmingham Zoo, they were manufactured by the Miniature Train Company in 1957 and used there until retirement in 1976. The company’s founder, P.A. Sturtevant, was a self-professed tinkerer and successful machine shop owner who in 1928 built a 7.25-inch gauge scale model of a Chicago and Northwestern steam locomotive and installed track around his home, where it became a neighborhood attraction. A Sears executive living nearby asked to run it at a store during Christmas, and in 1932 Sturtevant leased the train set to Sears, where it quickly became a major attraction and led other store managers to request similar or larger trains. As the Electro Motive Corporation was about to introduce the E1 locomotive, the team developed a model of a Rock Island E1 and chose a 12-inch gauge to carry more passengers. World War II halted miniature train production, but by then the company was leasing 36 electric department store train sets and had sold more than 50 gasoline-powered units for carnivals and fairs. In 1946 the G-16 train set was introduced, with the G indicating a model based on a GM locomotive, formerly EMC, and 16 indicating a 16-inch track gauge, while the 12-inch train sets were renamed G-12s. On April 4, 1947, the first G-16 locomotive, number 501, began a 30-year run at Griffith Park in Los Angeles. In November 1956 the Miniature Train Company was sold to the Allan Herschell Company, which continued manufacturing G-16 trains under the MTC name until 1963 even though it had not previously made trains. As operators pressed for greater capacity, larger 24-inch gauge trains became the norm. More than 240 G-16 train sets were produced, and about 70 locomotives still exist, with 50 currently operating. They are widely remembered as the little trains generations rode at local parks and zoos. The museum’s train set underwent a complete two-year restoration, including a full teardown of the locomotive and coach set, and was restored in the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad paint scheme in which it was originally delivered.