You don't have to be a kid or even live in Arbutus to delight in the annual train garden display at the Arbutus Volunteer Fire Department.
"It's a lot of work doing the [train] garden, but it's all worth it when you have the schoolchildren and grown-ups come in and they get excited," said Delores Gutberlet, of Arbutus, a volunteer at the train garden for 16 years.
That excitement was expressed by Maggie Eble, 4, and her brother, Chris, 3, who watched as model trains chugged past a scene depicting the annual Christmas display in the Hampden neighborhood in Baltimore.
"We come here to pass the time before bed," said their father, Mike Eble. "We can walk here to kill time — it's great — they love it."
The train garden, free to the public, is run by a cast of volunteers in a community room at the fire department located at 5200 Southwestern Boulevard, which serves the Arbutus and Catonsville communities. It opened this year on Nov. 23 and will close Jan. 3.
Each year, thousands walk past the display in a six-week period, said Connie Atkinson, 70, who began the train garden 21 years ago with her husband, Chuck Atkinson, 61.
The Atkinsons, who live in Catonsville, lead the volunteers in creating a design, assembling the trains and wiring them properly.
"Chuck and I got married later, and we don't have kids," Connie Atkinson said. "We enjoy seeing the kids' faces, to see the adults and hear their stories; it's a big part of our Christmas, too."
"It's fun," Chuck Atkinson said. "We get to watch the kids grow up."
Capt. Doug Simpkins, head of the Arbutus Volunteer Fire Department, said the train garden is offered to maintain community relations.
"As the volunteer fire department, you're always the focal point of the community — we host wedding receptions and parties," said Simpkins, a Catonsville resident. "We request donations to continue our operation, so to give back to the community and show our support we offer a free train garden with flexible hours."
The display is open weekdays from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. and on weekends from 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. It remains open on Christmas Eve from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., New Year's Eve from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on New Year's Day from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Such displays are common at fire departments throughout the Baltimore region.
It is a tradition brought to the region by German immigrants in the 1800s, according to information from the Fire Museum of Maryland posted on the Washington, Virginia and Maryland Railway Society website.
"Because it is a German tradition, we have a lot of German families who come to the display and share their stories with us," Connie Atkinson said.
For those who relocate to the Baltimore region from other parts of the county, such as Jeff Schmaltz, webmaster for WVMRS, visiting a train garden is a unique experience.
"Where I'm from, in Connecticut, they don't have them," said Schmaltz, who moved to Hanover in 2002.
The garden at the Arbutus firehouse is the first he's been to, bringing his grandchildren who were 1 and 3 at the time.
"They just light up when they walk in the room," Schmaltz said. "Ninety-five percent of the kids grow out of it when they pass the age of 5, but before then they love it."
The Arbutus train garden began in 1993. At the time, Chuck Atkinson owned the model hobby shop, Family Hobby in Arbutus, which has since closed. He said he was approached by a representative from the fire department looking to draw more visitors to the station's annual pancake breakfast with Santa in December.
Atkinson set up an 8- by 24-foot display in a room at the fire station, and it was a success. The following year, he was invited back and set the display up in an old classroom, he said.
"We keep adding on each year and the display gets bigger," said Atkinson, who owns half the trains while the rest are borrowed from other members at the volunteer fire department.
Assembling the trains begins in August, but planning the set-up and design of the trains takes the entire year, Connie Atkinson said.
This year's display of 11 trains range in size from N scale at the smallest to O scale, at the largest, Connie Atkinson said.
Model trains use a standardized scale system for measurement, which is a ratio between life-size trains and their model counterparts.
Throughout the community room at the fire department, villages are set up, depicting fall and winter scenes of a fire department village and Hampden, Gutberlet said.
"Everything is pre-assembled," Connie Atkinson said. "There may be 8 or 10 pieces that we make ourselves."
Each year, the design changes — everything except for the fire department display, she said.
For families like the Hegartys of Ellicott City, who have toddler-age children, the train garden is a perfect place for entertainment.
"My kids are at the age where they're just drawn to trains," Julianna Hegarty said of her two sons, Owen and Jackson.
Her father, Ed Libertini, owner of nearby Caton Communications Group Inc., peered through glass separating onlookers from the train display.
"It's crazy — I didn't think he'd like it this much — he doesn't want to leave," Libertini said, as Owen protested to his parents, who were ready to go.
Connie Lee, 76, a volunteer at the train garden for seven years, said such a sight isn't unusual.
"I love watching the children; they get so excited," Lee said. "Almost every night, someone gets dragged out of here."