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Renovation on Kids Center at Broadway Library to Include Model Train Set

 The kids' reading room boasts new carpeting, furniture, computers and other upgrades.
Broadway Branch Library Renovations
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ASTORIA — Queens Library's Broadway branch reopened its children's room Wednesday — with a host of new amenities including plans for an elevated model train — after nearly five months of renovations.

The second floor reading room got a $300,000 makeover that started in September, and the library still has more in store for the space, with plans to install a model train set that will circle part of the room on tracks suspended overhead, officials said.

Upgrades that have been completed already include new shelves, lighting and furniture, including tables and chairs and brightly-colored foam seats that kids can pick up and move around the room.

"The place looks amazing," said Celio Salgueiro, whose 3-year-old daughter Isabella has been coming to the library for programs since she was just 6 months old.

"When Isabella walked in the first thing she said was 'Wow.'"

The room's old linoleum floors were replaced with bright carpeting, while a book-sorting area was removed and a set of new computers added, officials said.

"It let us reclaim this area," said Nick Buron, vice president of public library services for Queens Library, who said the Broadway branch is a particularly popular one.

"This library gets very, very busy."

The renovations were paid for with funding from City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, who allocated $740,000 to the library, which will also be used to help renovate the lower level.

Van Bramer, a former Queens Library employee, said he grew up going to the Broadway branch, which was where he got his first library card.

"I would come up here all the time," he said. "This is where I fell in love with reading."