The fascination with Maryland train gardens explained

I've found it is more of a Baltimore thing. 

Personally, I've never called it a "train garden" nor have I  heard anyone call it that and I've lived in Potomac, MD, just outside Washington my entire life. 

Plus the term "train garden", for whatever reason, kind of bugged me (but DON'T ask me why...just sounds....."wrong"....for lack of a better word. 

Bill,

In my 45+ years in model trains, I never heard of train gerdens.  I was intrigued since we  lived for a while just across the Potomac in Keyser West Virginia before moving back 20 years ago.  I did a Google search, and Google's wisdom 'suggested' train gardens in Maryland, as soon as I typed in train garden.  Here is the first link:

And there are more.  I have visited Several of these train gardens in Maryland and Northern Virginia, but if the term was used, I didn't pick up on it.  That term certainly is not used in Western Pennsylvania.  Interesting topic.

While the video cited by ADCX Rob explains holiday fascination with model trains, it doesn't explain why they are referred to as "gardens" instead of "layouts" in Maryland...

Bill in FtL

"Dave Shackelford, chief curator of the B&O Railroad Museum, said the hobby grew from Baltimore’s immigrant population, specifically those from Germany."

"It was traditional to set up figurine Nativity sets around the tree at Christmas time. But as Baltimore factories churned rail car after rail car, scale models became more common."

LMGTFY

Train Gardens

"Enthusiasts of miniature train gardens explain how the custom came to Maryland, courtesy of German settlers, who valued the precision necessary to create the cheery intricate worlds and used the hobby as a diminutive distraction from the frigid, and sometimes dismal, life of war-torn Europe."

"It is Maryland's Moravian descendants who brought with them the religious practice of placing nativity scenes under Christmas trees some 200 years ago."

"As the state's population grew in size and diversity, it wasn't long before traditions mingled, offering the modern version of trains coursing through fields of Christmas evergreens or garden holiday stages set to the sound of "chuggah-chuggah" steam engines."

Hi Folks,

   I am originally from Baltimore and it was actually called a "Christmas Garden" and always contained a Nativity scene.   In Pennsylvania they called it a "Putz."   I guess "train garden" is more politically correct.

Take care, Joe.

it's definitely an Eastern Shore thing, too.

Never heard the term 'train garden' here in the Midwest either? And wasn't a 'Putz' one of the guys in the 'Grumpy Old Men' movie?

Well, you learned something new!!!

  BTW, in Pennsylvania Dutch parlance, the "Putz" is not pronounced with the Yiddish short "U" but rather a long "U."  There is a difference!

Take care, Joe.

My Grandparents were from Germany and they taught my brother and I to refer to it as a Christmas Garden and to this day living in Baltimore I proudly call it a Christmas Garden.

Hi Balto,

    In Baltimore's Little Italy, it was also called a "Christmas Garden," and in my childhood neighborhood, which was predominately settled by Czech immigrants, it was called a Christmas Garden, too.  I seem to remember (back in the mid 1960s) signs saying "train garden" from firehouses and other places having public displays. 

    I also proudly call it a Christmas Garden!

Thanks for your post!

Take care, Joe.

Actually that was two new things. I'm old and retired, but still, not a day goes by that I don't learn something new and some days even more than that. My biggest problem now it remembering it the next day.

Take a look at this website. It provides some history and early perspective that may help.

www.familychristmasonline.com/...ristmas_villages.htm

I agree with SJC's comments above.

Have lived in Maryland since the mid-50s but never heard of a "train garden" until much later in life (maybe here on the forum?).  It's definitely a Baltimore thing as here closer to D.C. I never heard the term used.

Hi Folks,

     I think the confusion is in the way one can detect an element of skepticism when someone says "they have never heard that before." 

    The origins of model railroading is in the Christmas train village, and I think that is what's bothering people who want to elevate trains to something other than play.

Take care, Happy Easter, Joe.

My brother in law lives just north of Baltimore in Parkton, and calls a layout a garden. 

Don

It was called a garden long before PC was invented. 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

Curious how the expression "garden" seems to be more of a Baltimore (or possibly an Eastern Shore) thing, yet is attributed to the European immigrants who settled in the area. One would think that Europeans from the same countries who settled in other areas of the U.S. would have brought the same expression to those places as well, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

I can understand the Holiday connection to nativity scenes, which frequently were set up outdoors, usually in the front yard, but are nativity scenes also called "gardens" even if they are indoors, say on a living room table, and have little or no scenery?

It does seem to be a dead give away of where they are from when someone uses the expression "train garden"...

Bill in FtL

I'm 83 yrs young and as far back as I can remember ( 4,5 yrs old) and being from

Penn. & Md it was always called a Christmas Garden--In fact my father told me 

he had a Christmas garden (maybe without trains) since he was a kid

JOHN G

quote:

 I guess "train garden" is more politically correct.

Where does "politically correct" come in?

How many people are going to have a year round "Christmas garden"?
A "Train garden" wouldn't be seasonal.

Call your set up whatever you wish.

I call my year 'round layout a "Christmas Garden" and always will.

  Thanks for your permission!

 I don't care about political correctness. 

Happy Easter!!!!!

Take care, Joe.

'Garden'-'Layout', it has to be a Md thing, after all they still call it "The Free State" ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? It's a layout!

Good long question---ask someone from Maryland

Another look is www.familychristmasonline.com/...ristmas_villages.htm

to explain how, what & why---anyway it's been our way for a long long  time

in fact I'm working on Christmas 2015 garden right now

see ya