Caboose

The oldest railroad station in America will soon receive a face lift.Plans to restore the Ellicott City B&O Railroad Station Museum -- at Maryland Avenue and Main Street in the historic district -- to the way it looked when it opened in 1831 were approved recently by the Howard County Historic District Commission.The commission governs development and architectural standards in the county's historic districts in Ellicott City and Elkridge.If the restoration project -- which could begin in May -- receives approval from the Maryland Historic Trust, the museum could receive up to $410,000 in federal, state and private funds, enough to pay for the project, said Ed Williams, the museum's director.

B&O Railroad Museum officials had no idea that Adele Gutman Nathan, who died at age 96 in 1986, stipulated in her will that part of her estate be given to their institution. She wanted to ensure the preservation of her railroad artifacts collection and other materials, as well as to finance the B&O's new exhibit, "America's Great Road."Long active in theater, Mrs. Nathan was a founder of the Vagabond Players and directed the Fair of the Iron Horse, the B&O's elaborate outdoor centennial pageant staged in Halethorpe in the fall of 1927.

A celebration of the newly released book "Columbia Maryland: A Celebration" will be held at 7 p.m. Sunday at Cover To Cover Cafe and Bookstore in the Village of Owen Brown.The book, by photographer David Hobby and his wife, Susan Thornton Hobby, features 75 color photographs illustrating the town's people, institutions, commerce and landscapes. Essaysexplain the concept of "The Next America" as well as its industry, neighborhood plan, worship centers and recreation amenities.Archival black-and-white photographs accompany a historical time line featuring dates and facts.

SYKESVILLE — The town of Sykesville has obtained a $256,000 state grant for improvements to South Branch Park, which is on land on the south side of Patapsco River that the town leases from Howard County. The grant, which the town applied for in August, is a Maryland Department of Natural Resources Community Parks and Playgrounds grant. "We've had a master plan in place for (developing) South Branch Park for several years," said Ivy Wells, Sykesville's Main Street manager and director of economic development.

SANTA CLAUS will arrive in Sykesville Friday as the Sykesville Business Association holds its annual Christmas open house with activities for the family.The business association will hold its open house from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. in downtown Sykesville.Santa will arrive atop a firetruck at 6: 15 p.m. and will visit shoppers along Main Street before taking up residence in the town caboose. Photos with Santa will be available for $2; proceeds benefit the Neighbors in Need holiday campaign.There will be plenty of music throughout the evening from students at Liberty High School, Bill and Brenda Sims and a children's choir.

AMTRAK HAS GOOD reason to look overseas with envy. The nation's passenger rail network has never received the subsidies it needs -- or that other nations expect -- since Congress created the system 30 years ago. In the United States, the system scrambles for funds while the European Community plans to link key cities by a 12,000-mile, high-speed rail system. The system's cost: $100 billion. Indeed, nations that want good rail systems must pay for them, as Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, chairman of the Amtrak Reform Board, pointed out in congressional testimony in July.

SINCE May 1, Amtrak has banned smoking on all of its short- and medium-range routes (although, interestingly, it hasn't banned drinking). As a result, the nation's passenger train service has learned something of the Law of Unintended Consequences: It is stranding hundreds of smokers on station platforms.Smokers who board trains with time to spare are wont to step out on the platform for a few last precious puffs. (After all, most train rides are longer than most plane rides.) But Amtrak conductors years ago abandoned the practice of yelling "All 'board!"

When Western Maryland Railway Historical Society signed a contract to buy the Union Bridge train station a few weeks ago, it was a dream come true for the 1,100-member organization."

Celebrating its railroad past, Sykesville will hold the first Sykesville Model Railroad Festival from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. tomorrow. The festival features model railroad layouts, food, entertainment and train vendors along Main Street. A trolley car will provide free shuttle service to the festival from the Warfield Complex off Route 32. "For years, people in Sykesville have been fascinated about trains and models," said Margaret Spurlock, Sykesville tourism director. "The idea of the festival has been incubating for years."

HAMPSTEAD - The combination of railroad tracks and a busy Route 30 proved fatal for the second time in less than two years, when a woman was killed Friday afternoon after the car she was driving collided with a CSX freight train.The 4:51 p.m. accident occurred less than a mile south of where a 35-year-old Washington truck driver was killed in a collision with an empty 29-car CSX freight train in February 1989.State police in Westminster said late Friday that the woman was found dead at the scene, several hundred feet from the entrance to the Black & Decker Inc. plant in the south part of town.