Boys and girls are given a challenge when they come to see the log village Christmas display in the Harmony Museum annex.

The snow-covered 19th-century community is populated by dozens of painted metal figures, including a small black "kitty" with a white strip down its back

"We invite the children to try to find the skunk," John Ruch explained.

Mr. Ruch is president of Historic Harmony, the nonprofit organization that operates and maintains the museum and related buildings.

To keep things interesting for adults, they can try to locate a tiny pair of out-of-place flamingos that also reside on the 5-foot-by-8-foot platform.

The Yobp-Eckstein village and railroad has been a feature of the museum's holiday display since 2006. That was when Ronald Eckstein, who lives in the Renfrew section of Forward, donated the structures and two Lionel trains to Historic Harmony.

It is not a giant layout like the train display at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Science Center. It is, instead, the kind of railroad layout many families would put up each year around their Christmas trees.

The late William E. Yobp, of New Kensington, began constructing the buildings in 1936 for a Christmas village he set up in his home. He usually built one or two structures each year.

In the 1950s, he gave some of his hand-made buildings to Mr. Eckstein, who had married Mr. Yobp's daughter, Lyda Lee. Mr. Eckstein used them as part of a train display he set up at Christmas for almost 50 years. It featured both a trolley and a Western & Atlantic Railroad train, pulled by a locomotive known as "The General." Both model trains were made in the late 1950s.

During those years, Mr. Eckstein added small structures, accessories and some additional figures to the layout, Mr. Ruch said. They include a community Christmas tree, rail fencing and an often overlooked part of life before indoor plumbing: several small outhouses.

While the village is imaginary, it shares a few characteristics with the Butler County community where it is on display.

One of miniature structures is a Pennsylvania forebay barn, similar to one built by the Harmonists, who first settled the borough. The "forebay" refers to the portion of the barn's second level that extends out beyond the first floor.

Like the tiny village, Harmony, too, was home to trolley service. Between 1908 and 1931, it was a stop on a passenger rail system that linked Pittsburgh with several communities in Lawrence and Butler counties.

This year the train display has been set up next to the museum gift shop. It is in the same room with a small exhibit on the railroad, trolley and bus companies that have served Harmony over the decades.

While the lighted buildings remain in the same places each year, the display changes in subtle ways, Mr. Ruch said. Figures switch places and new materials are used to replicate the look of chimney smoke, snow and ice.

A small bear and a herd of deer, for example, are all gathered on the hillside outside of town this year, he said. In the past, the animals have been spotted wandering among the houses or peeking in at the small congregation worshipping in the log church.

Historic Harmony was glad to accept the display as part of its effort to provide more exhibits of interest to children, Mr. Ruch said.

Mr. Eckstein, 81, said he was pleased when the museum took over responsibility for the layout. Back trouble had made it difficult for him to assemble and take down the display, he said.

"I wanted more people to see the handiwork that [Mr. Yobp] put into that project," Mr. Eckstein said.Miniature

Mr. Yobp died in 1973 and Mr. Eckstein's wife passed away the following year. Mr. Yobp's widow Edith now lives in the East Deer Personal Care Home. "She agreed that the museum was a wonderful spot for the display," Mr. Eckstein said.

He said he also had a practical reason for donating the small trains, cabins, church, barn and mill.

He and his late wife were the parents of eight. "You can't divide something like that up among eight children," he said. "This way it will be intact and visible for a long time after I am gone."