Train Station

Getting stuck at the train station might become a bit more tolerable for laptop owners later this year when six Amtrak stations from Baltimore to Boston start offering wireless Internet connections. AT&T Wireless will begin installing fiber-optic cable and teacup-saucer-size antennas this spring in six stations along the Northeast Corridor, Amtrak officials announced yesterday. WiFi - short for wireless fidelity - service should be available to passengers by summer. Kathy Pettit, wheeling around a Sony Vaio laptop at Baltimore's Penn Station yesterday, could have found a lot of use for an Internet connection, having missed the 1:30 p.m. MARC train to Washington by minutes.

Barrett Rudd sat in an upholstered wing chair in a kitchen corner of his unusual house as two Siamese cats snoozed together in the chair beside him. Across the room, a gas stove's black-pipe chimney climbs exactly 10 feet, 3 inches to the ceiling. Behind the stove, cast-iron pots and pans hang from the molding that caps yellow-painted wainscoting on the lower half of the walls. Above the molding, iron trivets are displayed alongside old washboards. A shelf along two walls contains hundreds of antique pottery, glassware, farm lamps and railroad lamps.

Native Americans, Civil War soldiers, stagecoaches and lots of trains have crisscrossed the Carroll County crossroads of Patapsco, where a combination train station, post office and general store long known as the Whistle Stop has perched by the tracks since about 1850. Among the visitors in its 150-plus years was a young Robert Pierson, who grew up across Route 140 in Finksburg. "As a kid I came here and bought penny candy en route to my great-grandmother's house on the hill with my grandfather almost every day," said Pierson, 31, head of Robert Pierson Construction Inc. in Finksburg.

I've heard that anyone with an old felony conviction - even for a white-collar or nonviolent crime - is barred from visiting New Zealand. Is that true? There are no hard and fast rules regarding entry into New Zealand by convicted felons, according to a spokesman for Immigration New Zealand. Most U.S. citizens can visit the country for up to 90 days with a passport, but anyone with a criminal conviction must also obtain a visa. As part of the application process, you will need to provide details of the conviction and information regarding the arrest and release from prison.

After years of planning and false starts, Amtrak has reached agreement with a developer to turn the upper three levels of Baltimore's historic Pennsylvania Station into a 77-room hotel, a first for an Amtrak-owned station along the northeast corridor. Amtrak officials confirmed this week that they have signed a lease with Hospitality Partners of Bethesda that will enable the company to build and run a "boutique" hotel inside the 1911 train station while it continues to operate as a railroad terminal.

"The Maryland Department of Transportation has big plans for a greener, more vibrant neighborhood around the Aberdeen train station, although, as it became clear during Thursday evening's public presentation, those plans are still a long way from becoming reality. " That's how reporter Bryna Zumer began her story in The Record last week about plans to modernize the train station in Aberdeen. It's not the words "greener" or "more vibrant" that stick out in my mind, it's the phrase "those plans are still a long way from becoming reality.

WESTMINSTER - Commuters from the city won't be able to hop a train to Baltimore in the future since the existing lines cannot be used for high-speed passenger use, the president of Maryland Midland Railroad told the Train Station Committee at its first meeting.Although the tracks are good for freight, Paul Denton said, a trip to the Owings Mills metro station would take an hour or longer since speeds on the line reach only 35 or 40 miles an hour.Committee members then discussed other uses for the proposed train station which would be a replica of the one which stood in town at the turn of the century.

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

Hampstead may soon be able to take possession of its abandoned train station if town officials accept an offer by CSX Transportation Inc. to lease the depot until a sales agreement is approved.The CSX proposal, under review by the town attorney, comes amid efforts by Hampstead resident Ken Hankins to organize a group of volunteers committed to preserving the Gill Avenue station.Hampstead Councilman Wayne Thomas announced the pending deal with CSX last week at the first meeting of "Friends of the Train Station," attended by about 10 people.

A small, defunct railroad that still has a big following will be the focus of presentations at the Old Line Museum in Delta, Pa. each Sunday in June from 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. Baldwin resident Jerome Murphy started the Ma & Pa Railroad Month in 1976. The first meetings were held at the Peach bottom railroad station. The Maryland and Pennsylvania railroad line, know as the Ma & Pa, formed in 1901 and ran a 77-mile route from Baltimore to York, Pa. There were 27 station stops, including Towson, Baldwin, Long Green, Glen Arm, Bel Air and Forest Hill.