Union Station

READERS with an interest in Civil War and Howard County history will likely enjoy visiting the Ellicott City B&O Railroad Station Museum this month. The museum, which is housed in the original 1830 Ellicott's Mills station building, will rotate exhibits at the end of the month, replacing "Civil War -- The Maryland Story" with its "Roads to Rails" exhibit. Despite the title's statewide scope, the museum exhibit focuses on Howard County and on Ellicott's Mills during the Civil War years.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- When Graham Banks arrived at a gala in Kansas City's refurbished Union Station last week, he immediately looked at the ceilings.Gazing at ceilings is a habit of the Portsmouth, England, native, who is general manager of the Baltimore firm Hayles & Howe, an ornamental plaster enterprise that restored the lofty reaches of grand old buildings such as Union Station.As ceilings go, Banks says, the ones in Kansas City's train station are stunners."I thought the Postal Museum was a big project," he says, referring to the ceilings of the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum in Washington.

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."

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."

In 1835, the first train to reach the nation's capital chugged into the city over the Baltimore and Washington Railroad, as the Washington branch of the Baltimore and Ohio was known then.However, there was probably no more spectacular train arrival in Washington than that of the Pennsylvania Railroad's Federal Express on Jan. 15, 1953.The Boston-Washington overnight train, No. 173, smashed a bumper post, plowed into the station concourse and stopped only after the locomotive fell through the crushed floor into the basement of Union Station.

Mystery weekendCape May's grand Victorian homes will provide the backdrop for three days of intrigue and suspense, including a "Search for Clues House Tour" and live performances in honor of the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes. "Victorian Holmes Weekend" begins at 8: 30 p.m. tomorrow with a reception at the Top of the Marq Restaurant. Tour six of Cape May's finest Victorian homes from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday and search for clues to solve a mystery. The game begins to unfold at 10 a.m. Sunday after a Sunday brunch at the Top of the Marq where actors wrap up another adventure.

A commuter train engineer who died in Friday afternoon's fiery collision began his work that morning deep within the industrial heart of South Baltimore.It was a little after the snowy morning rush hour when CSX engineer Richard Orr turned off Fort Avenue onto Ludlow Street and drove his car into the sprawling complex where locomotives are serviced and MARC commuter trains begin their day.For Mr. Orr it was the beginning of another long but routine day on the line where he had worked for nearly a quarter of a century.

The Baltimore firm of Williams Jackson Ewing has landed part of a $6.7 million contract to consult on the renovation of Manhattan's Grand Central Terminal, the 81-year-old Beaux Arts landmark that serves 500,000 commuters daily.Williams Jackson Ewing will again be teamed up with LaSalle Partners of Chicago, reuniting two firms that collaborated on the well-received transformation of Washington's Union Station into a retailing and entertainment center as well as a train station. They also worked together to develop the Towson Commons mixed-use project in Baltimore County.

Sit back and relax. Pick up your complimentary newspaper, Danish pastry and cup of coffee and watch the world go by.It is not commuter heaven, but the new cafe-parlor car attached to selected Maryland Rail Commuter (MARC) trains comes about as close as anything Intrepid Commuter has encountered.On Friday, MARC introduced "The Braddock Inn," a refurbished 1949 Pennsylvania Railroad Pullman that will simply bowl you over. At one end is the parlor: 18 extra-wide reclining swivel seats, MARC's first experiment with first-class accommodations.

Among the ties that bind the Baltimore and Washington areas, the heavily subsidized MARC commuter train service is one of the most important. On an average weekday, 9,500 Marylanders use its Pennsylvania line, 4,000 take the Camden line and 5,000 patronize the Brunswick Line from Western Maryland.The destination of 95 percent of the riders is Washington's Union Station. For $131 a month, a Baltimore resident can take an unlimited number of rides to the nation's capital 36 rail miles away.