New Photos 11/26 on a Baltimore Christmas Tradition

Yes we here in Baltimore call them CHRISTMAS GARDENS. I have seen this Garden at the Fire House and the pictures are great but you must see the finished Garden.

Could you add location, dates, and times open?

Thanks!

Great job, Paul!  Thanks for posting the pictures.  Really nice to see positive things about Baltimore, you don't in the national media.

Art

Thanks for the pics; it looks like it's coming along well!  You don't happen to have a diagram of the layout plan that's postable, do you? 

I looks like the beginnings of the layout (er:  train garden) at the Wise Ave Volunteer FD in Dundalk.  The dates and times are usually posted on Grandpa's Train Gardens.

We are the Wise Avenue Volunteer Fire Company locate at 214 Wise Avenue, Dundalk  MD 21222 in southeastern Baltimore County. We open on Nov. 28 thru Jan. 3, our hours are weekends Noon to 9 pm and weekdays 6 pm to 9 pm and it is closed on Christmas.

 This is the layout I'm still old school, it is on graph paper with one block equaling 3" square. It shows the different levels, train routes, major animations and most importantly each platform frame location. The platform frames are made from 2" x 4" and most are 4' x 8' in size and smaller. The frames are reusable bolted together with 2" x 4" legs and after the frames are up we use 3/4" sheets of plywood onto the frames. The plywood are new sheets since we cut a lot of holes into for all of the animations that go in. And each year the layout is different so our visitors enjoy a fresh new layout each year. 

Outstanding!

Peter

Here are some updated progress photos for end of week 5 of building of our Christmas Garden. We have only 6 days before we open to the public. All of the train tracks are in place except 1 with is the bridge for the Polar Express with between the city and the North Pole. All of the animations are in place and cut in. Along with all of the buildings are also in place.

Below is the bridge for the Polar Express is being oainted.

Paul,

 This is outstanding, what a tremendous amount of work. !!!!! Very nicely done.

Thanks,

Alex

We are almost done with the construction of the 2015-2016 Christmas Garden. Tomorrow we will be adding the finals touches to the display. Now you can see most of the finished display for this year.  

As you see below the bridge that links the city to the North Pole for The Polar Express is in place and all of the water is revealed. The total water area is about 8' x 8', 4' x 8' is Plexiglas, 2'6" x 4' is for real water and the rest is wood. And there may be a sail boat, a shark attacking a jet ski, a power boat pulling a skier or something else moving on the Plexiglas and running thru the bridge pilings.

The water part on the wood had just been poured a few hours before this photo was taken so it has not had time to settle.

Fantastic! That is an immense amount of work!

Peter