Train Gardens Help Fortify Baltimore Traditions

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- An old German tradition during the holidays took root in Baltimore and the area train gardens help to strengthen a community's identity.

What you can see at a train garden like the one in Ellicott City will amaze you, Mike Schuh reports.

But the greatness is not limited to firehalls with amazing layouts and details.

In shopping malls like Kenilworth in Towson there gardens are worth a presidential visit.

At the B&O Museum, their garden is richly detailed with Camden Yards, a full downtown and a working seaport.

It seems like a friendly race to out do each other.

An auto shop in Arbutus even has a pretty hood replica of M&T Bank Stadium.

These places are a matter of community pride -- and when it comes to authentic Baltimore, Bill Eicher understand local flavor.

"I built a model of the Key Bridge," Eicher said.

It's huge, easily 20-feet long, the cars zoom along. Like real life, part of the roadway is shut down by an accident.

You can see the pride people take in making these for their organization or community.

"A lot of time they'll come in and you'll see their faces and it's like 'Wow'," Eicher said. "And to me, that's just the greatest thing to see."

They keep the lights on every year because it's a part of Dundalk history.

No one else has a Key Bridge or a Chessie in the Bay. Complex toys linking people to the place where they live.

"We know that the 12, 13 and 14-year-olds that come to see this -- in a couple of years we could get them as members," Eicher added.

But more than members in the fire company or the builders of train gardens, they are people strengthening the fabric of their community.

The garden at the Wise Avenue Volunteer Fire Company runs every night starting at 6 p.m. and ending at 11 p.m. The cost is one dollar. On weekends they open at noon.

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