Model Trains

Model trains, not turkey, top the Thanksgiving menu for the Schumm family of Harford County. They have, for the past nine years, forgone the traditional dinner so they can treat thousands of others to a visual feast at the Kennedy Krieger Institute's Festival of Trees, which opens Friday at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium. For the past several months, the Havre de Grace residents have been building a massive train garden in a storefront space donated by the operators at the Perryville Outlet Center in Cecil County.

My model train paraded around the living room floor of our Silver Spring home when I was 7 or 8 years old. I think we could put a little pellet in the engine to create the steam. It wasn't very big and I'm pretty sure we didn't have any buildings or trees to adorn the set-up. Considering I already had a travel bug, it fed my dreams of train travel to far-off places. Apparently, lots of people in Maryland - site of one end of the first railroad line in the United States - share a fondness for old-fashioned trains and devote countless hours setting up and running train gardens for our enjoyment.

His father always set up an elaborate network of Lionel model trains late on Dec. 24, so when Frank Winner and his little brother, Jim, got up Christmas mornings, they'd find the living room of the small family home filled with moving cars, blowing whistles and flashing lights. The ritual made a deep impression. "It was awesome," says Winner, a longtime Severna Park resident. "I took [model railroading] up myself when I was a teenager. I've been playing with model trains ever since.

R. George Hopkins, a retired Anne Arundel County funeral director who filled his lawn each year at Christmas with handmade decorations he created and his basement with admirers of his model railroad empire, died Dec. 6 of cancer at Baltimore Washington Medical Center. The Crownsville resident was 61. The son of an Aberdeen Proving Ground firefighter and a homemaker, Ray George Hopkins, who was known as George Hopkins, was born in Elkton and raised in Betterton. After graduating from Chestertown High School in 1970, he enrolled at McAllister Institute of Mortuary Science in New York City, from which he graduated in 1971.

ELLICOTT CITY resident Frank Vacek fell in love with model trains before World War II.His father put up a Lionel set for him when he was 9 or 10 years old.Now Vacek works with his son, Bill, and his good friend Tom Sellers of Catonsville to create a train garden for the holidays at the B&O Railroad Station Museum in Ellicott City.This year, their display features eight trains moving on three levels.The layout, which measures 25 feet by 15 feet, fills the newly renovated car house.Vacek, his son and Sellers create a new layout each year.

Robert Ambrose Blaisdell, a retired electrician and railroad fan, died of a heart attack Thursday at his Arnold home. He was 80. Mr. Blaisdell was born and raised in Eastport and graduated from Annapolis High School. He served in the Navy at the end of World War II, according to family members. Mr. Blaisdell was a charter member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 24 in Baltimore, and worked for nearly 40 years until retiring in 1990. He was an avid collector of model trains -- in all gauges -- according to a stepson, Donald Cox of Columbia.

Donald E. Wernz Jr., a retired Bethlehem Steel Corp. foreman and avid model train collector who helped build the annual Kenilworth Mall Christmas garden, died of sepsis Wednesday at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. He was 60. Mr. Wernz - the grandson of a Baltimore & Ohio Railroad man - was born in Annapolis and moved to Loch Raven Village as a young child. He was a 1962 graduate of Towson High School and attended Dana College in Blair, Neb., before going to work at Bethlehem's Penwood Power Station.

WHEN PLANS were first being made for their backyard garden, Lois and Jack Raines struck an unusual compromise.Lois, who always dreamed of designing and planting an English garden, complete with a trellis-covered patio, agreed to share her dream with her husband's first love -- model trains.Now, when the couple sets out to spend a spring day in their garden, flowers and plants aren't the only objects they have to contend with. Entwined among the beds of marigolds, sweet alyssum and heather are 989 feet of brass train track.

Many hard-working adults see the up side of getting older: When we retire, we'll have the time to pursue our interests and passions.Ellicott City resident Lou Koehler has pursued his interest in model trains to the point that he has actually returned to the working world.Earlier in his life, 75-year-old Lou designed mechanical and electrical installations for commercial buildings in Maryland and Virginia, retiring as a senior partner in an engineering firm.He'd been interested in model trains as a child, but had set them aside to devote himself to his career and family.

CSX and Lionel trains could both be flying through Sykesville if the town where real trains already make daily runs can find a place for model trains, too.Lionel Trains Inc. of Michigan has donated $10,000 in model trains and equipment for a display to the town."

Thanks to the generosity of a friend and colleague, my son Nick and I recently came into a rather nice train set. I hesitate to refer to the railroad paraphernalia as toys, though that's exactly what it is for Nick and I, because model railroading is a serious, substantial and year round hobby for a lot of people. In other words, model trains are toys the way my fishing tackle is a collection of toys, that is to say you could argue either way, but you'd be arguing over something that's largely inconsequential.

His father always set up an elaborate network of Lionel model trains late on Dec. 24, so when Frank Winner and his little brother, Jim, got up Christmas mornings, they'd find the living room of the small family home filled with moving cars, blowing whistles and flashing lights. The ritual made a deep impression. "It was awesome," says Winner, a longtime Severna Park resident. "I took [model railroading] up myself when I was a teenager. I've been playing with model trains ever since.

Model trains, not turkey, top the Thanksgiving menu for the Schumm family of Harford County. They have, for the past nine years, forgone the traditional dinner so they can treat thousands of others to a visual feast at the Kennedy Krieger Institute's Festival of Trees, which opens Friday at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium. For the past several months, the Havre de Grace residents have been building a massive train garden in a storefront space donated by the operators at the Perryville Outlet Center in Cecil County.

Saturday is National Train Day with celebrations at multiple locations, including Washington, Philadelphia, New York and Chicago. Amtrak, which celebrates its 40 th anniversary this year, will unveil a host of attractions and a major discount: free fare for kids. For every adult passenger in coach, one child can ride free when you make reservations by Friday – and at least three days in advance – for travel through June 9. Use promo code H859. Events at Washington’s Union Station include model trains, live performances, historic cars and a 40 th Anniversary exhibit train displaying historic advertising, uniforms, photos and other memorabilia.

It's been about 50 years since smoke-blowing steam locomotives chugged along the rolling mountainside in Petersburg, W.Va. But this weekend, steam trains will be center stage at West Virginia Rails 2010, a festival that celebrates 100 years of a railway line carved into the Appalachian Mountains by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. The event will feature two steam locomotives as well as several diesel trains, similar to those that traveled the rails of the state's pastoral Eastern Panhandle in the early 1900s.

Lee Edward Goldman, deputy director of the Maryland Police and Correctional Training Commission, died Feb. 17 of complications from lung cancer at Howard County General Hospital. He was 69. Born in Baltimore and raised near Druid Hill Park, Mr. Goldman was a 1957 graduate of City College. After serving in the Navy as a weather forecaster from 1957 to 1961, he joined the Howard County Police Department. He had attained the rank of sergeant at the time of his retirement in 1996.

What is it about trains? More precisely, what is it about "toy" trains that draws grown men together amid 25,000 square feet of working train layouts, to snap photos and spend hard-earned money on everything from miniature locomotives to rail-side trees and shacks? Hundreds crowded the Great Scale Model Train Show at the Maryland State Fairgrounds yesterday to do just that. "It's not a hobby if you're not throwing money away," quipped Walt Muren. But Muren wasn't there to spend. He arrived early to help set up and run the model layout built by members of the Four County Society of Model Engineers.

Frank McDonald's Christmas this year will mark the recovery of his lost youth -- sort of.After years of searching, the 45-year-old Anne Arundel County truck driver has finally replaced examples of all the Lionel model trains he had way back when, but which he "sold for a song" when he married and moved into a small house."

Alvin H. Levin, a retired Pikesville photographer and teacher who enjoyed collecting vintage trains and toys, died Sunday from complications of Parkinson's disease at a hospice in Scottsdale, Ariz. He was 86. Mr. Levin was born in Baltimore and raised in Hollins Street, where his grandmother was a neighbor of newspaperman and author H.L. Mencken. After graduating from City College, Mr. Levin earned a bachelor's degree in 1943 from what was then Western Maryland College and a master's degree in education in 1951 from Arizona State University.

Dr. David J. Gillis, a retired Baltimore urologist and nationally known expert and collector of American Flyer model electric trains, died of cancer Oct. 2 at his Lutherville home. He was 70. Dr. Gillis, who was the son and grandson of physicians, was born in Baltimore and raised in Guilford. He was a 1956 graduate of Loyola High School and earned a bachelor's degree from Loyola College in 1960. After earning his medical degree from the University of Maryland in 1965, he completed a residency in urology at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington.