The fascination with Maryland train gardens explained

Hi Rob,

Was it the Diseasel running backwards, on the How Ordinary(HO) layout early in the video? Bet the conductor in that caboose had a white knuckle ride.

Doug

Many of the O-Gauge scenes appear to have been filmed at the  Holiday layout set up each year at Kenilworth Mall in Towson, MD. It is always a popular layout, set up by a dedicated group of volunteers. Lots of push buttons for kids, too.  Large bridges over the fountains are part of its appeal.

"Diseasel"? "How Ordinary(HO)"? Give it a rest.

Check the grade crossing at :45, and the siding switch alignment at 1:30.

Wow, somebody had a Rough Day at the Playground. I can see why this was so upsetting to you, well not really. Maybe you should check out the Kalmbach forums, your attitude is very common there, which is why I don't spend as much time there any more. You would probably fit in very well on the "HO&N Scale Monthly" (Model Railroader) forum.

Doug

Hi Rob, I missed that grade crossing, I have four wheel drive, so no problem, but I probably wouldn't recommend that route to any lowboy trucks.

 I did notice the "Switch" for that siding, but I have seen that before when people didn't have room for a switch, and wanted the trackage for a display or storage, especially in yards to increase car storage, or to add to the illusion of a large yard, again getting track in even where a switch wont fit.

As to the original topic, being from the West Coast, I have never heard the term "Train Garden" used in that way. I have heard Large scale referred to as "Garden Scale" and Large Scale outdoor layouts referred  to as "Garden Railroads" but never the term as used above.

Doug

We always called them Christmas Gardens as a child back in Baltimore. In fact the first time I took my dad an uncle and my brothers to York as guests I called George Yohe to ask a how many guests I could bring and during our conversation I referred to it as a Christmas garden and he said from that he could tell I was from Baltimore since no one else calls them that.

Jerry

In the Maryland area they are first called Christmas Gardens which has led to more people now calling them Train Gardens. We have had visitors that live in other states ask us where the flowers are, in reference to it being called a Christmas Garden.

Items like the siding are done for the sake of not having a actual switch in the track to eliminate the possibility of a derailment since most of the track plans are simple ovals. Some of the Gardens are somewhat crud in areas since all of these displays built in a rather short time frame.

I have been involved with public Christmas Gardens since the early 70's. I even had a Christmas Garden in my house which I opened to the public in the late 70's after the Dundalk Fire Station(Career FD) closed theirs down. That Garden was done in HO and near the end of it I offered the use of my O gauge trains to them but they declined. I learned some things from them in the years that I helped them. I did offer the Wise Ave. Vol. Fire Co. the use of my trains and animations which they accepted and it started in 1981. I even stretched myself out in 1986 when I started the Christmas Garden at Kenilworth Mall which I was contracted to do the first 3 years of it. I even helped build Christmas Gardens for the County Executive and the Governor of Maryland.

Sometimes there is not enough time and helpers to complete the project at hand. And you have to remember one other thing that this is built for entertainment so naturally things are not going to scale like in a train layout. It now has been about 4 years since I have worked on a Christmas Garden. The last one was for the Maryland State Arts Council, Maryland Traditions Master-Apprentice Program, as A Master of Building Maryland Christmas Gardens.

I returned to helping the Wise Avenue Vol. Fire Co. Christmas Garden which has a 22' x 44' display. This past year there was almost 29,000 visitors to the dis[play in the month that they were open to the public. Which featured the 4 lane Key Bridge with traffic moving in all of the lanes.

I think that the term "Garden" comes from the color of the base of the display - green, like an evergreen Christmas tree.

In Lehigh, Berks and Lebanon Counties in SE PA, the term is "putz." It is pronounced "put" [that down] + "z." "Putz" is derived from the German verb "putzen": "clean," "brighten," or "decorate." A putz is a scene or a series of scenes that portray the birth of Jesus. Secular scenes can be added. Moravians brought this custom to Bethlehem. It spread southwest to Reading and Lebanon.

Adding a soft "h" produces a word that is spelled the same way, but it means just the opposite. A "pu[h]tz" is someone who doesn't accomplish anything. Such activity is dismissed as "pu[h]tzing around."

How a minor inflection can give one word two opposite meanings is anyone's guess.

It may have come about as Pennsylvania German mixed with English.

Some families still set up a putz during the holidays. Putzes are displayed in Historic Bethlehem, PA, between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The Christmas Putz in The Lutheran Home at Topton, PA, was constructed between 1909 and 1946 by Mrs. Ida Henry, Matron of The Lutheran Orphans' Home, to portray the Christmas story for children in her care. After the Chapel was moved to a more convenient location by the Henry Health Care Center, the vacant space offered a perfect home for the Putz. It fills 560 square feet. It is open to the public between Thanksgiving and Christmas Saturday and Sunday afternoons between 1:00 PM and 4:00 PM. Admission is free.

When Mrs. Henry needed help with the Putz or with pageants staged by the orphans for visitors, she made some caramels, boarded a train for Jersey City Terminal, took the ferry to Manhattan, and consulted the Director of Staging and Scenery at radio City Music Hall. An elaborate model of Radio City rests in the far left corner of the Putz.

Topton is the top of the grade on the former Reading East Penn Branch (now Norfolk Southern) halfway between Allentown and Reading. The station there is now a bakery and deli. Topton is located a few miles east of Route 222.

Dent fence sections enclose sacred and secular portions of the Putz.

Reading T-1 No. 2102 is a Bob Gale Super Classic. He modified common Lionel locomotives to make everything from switchers to "scale" GG-1's and UP Big Boys. His UP 4-12-2's had twin motors. The real 2102 ran through Topton in freight service, on the Reading's renowned Iron Horse Rambles, and on subsequent excursions.

The Toonerville Trolley was built by Lyle H. Cain