Local children are even more mesmerized by watching BCFD Engine 45 firefighters respond to a call.  Image by Payton Chung licensed under Creative Commons.

For over a century, in between blazes, cat rescues, and chili cook-offs, Baltimore-area firefighters have apparently spent their winter downtime arranging elaborate model train sets. Stop by dozens of Maryland fire stations this month, and alongside big red trucks you’ll find tiny toy trains tootling through serene snowdrifts, over improbably lengthy bridges, under blinking tiny flying reindeer, and past too-charming-for-zoning townscapes… invariably interrupted by a fire crew valiantly battling a smoky conflagration.

The original link between firefighting and model trains seems lost to history, but the Fire Museum of Maryland (itself home to a December train garden) suggests a connection: many early Baltimore firefighters were German immigrants or their descendants, for whom Christmas decorations included toy villages—and later—toy trains.

The firefighters’ efforts are in addition to numerous model train exhibits that appear every December at railroad and aviation museums, old train depots, arboretums, garden suppliers, malls, and suburban backyards. Altogether, that means dozens of model train exhibits to visit from the Alleghenies to the Eastern Shore, enough to exhaust even the most devoted model train lover.

A comprehensive list of train gardens in and around Maryland is maintained by “Grandpa” from the Washington-Virginia-Maryland Garden Railway Society. GGWash contributor Stephen Repetski has taken the liberty to plot 2022’s entries onto a Google Map, perfect for planning a road trip.

Some highlights include:

Engine Company 45, on the north side of Baltimore City, has welcomed visitors to its train garden for 67 years. This one’s unusual because it’s in the main firehouse, with only a curtain separating it from the other trucks and the firemans’ pole. Look for the scale model of the National Aquarium and the multi-alarm blaze inside a block of rowhouses. (Baltimore City Engine 41 also has a train garden.)

Engine 45's elaborate fire scene. Video by Stephen Repetski. Click here to see WJZ's extended coverage of the garden scene.

Ellicott City Fire Department Station 2 has a vertiginous train garden adjacent to the main firehouse. A child-height area populated with numerous cartoon characters sits below multiple hilltop villages with admirable levels of mixed-use, multi-story density.

A car-free village with an enviably high floor-to-area ratio. Photo by Payton Chung.

A rare model train layout that features a town plan actually typical of the US. Photo by Payton Chung.

The Arbutus Volunteer Fire Department has had a train garden display in its multifunction room for almost 30 years. Its train layouts are in multiple scales, including a Lego model railroad. As a bonus, this station faces Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor.

Arbutus Lego town. Photo by Payton Chung.

The Wise Avenue Volunteer Fire Company in Dundalk runs a train garden with a century-long history. It boasts an impressive array of animated features, including a swing-span bridge, an expressway, and a cargo terminal. The nearby Dundalk-Patapsco Neck Historical Society also has a holiday train garden in the town’s World War I-era planned downtown.

A moving swing-span bridge, night scenes, and a cargo terminal. Photo by Payton Chung.

Thumbnail: Tiny train & big red truck: a Christmas story by Payton Chung licensed under Creative Commons.

Payton Chung, LEED AP ND, CNUa, sees the promises and perils of planning every day as a resident of the Southwest Urban Renewal Area. He first addressed a city council about smart growth in 1996, accidentally authored Chicago’s inclusionary housing law, and blogs at west north. He currently serves as treasurer of GGWash's Board of Directors.

Stephen Repetski is a Virginia native and has lived in the Fairfax area for over 20 years. He has a BS in Applied Networking and Systems Administration from Rochester Institute of Technology and works in Information Technology. Learning about, discussing, and analyzing transit (especially planes and trains) is a hobby he enjoys.