The addition of some very small attractions proved to be a big hit for this year's Christmas train garden at the Arbutus Volunteer Fire Department.

"We did very well this year. There were not too many crashes," said Connie Atkinson, who organized the 13-train garden with her husband, Chuck, and seven volunteers.

"I think it was very successful," she said. "People had a great time."

She said 8,030 visitors stopped by to see the train garden, now in its 18th year, at the volunteer fire department headquarters on Southwestern Boulevard.

Though the total fell short of the garden's record of 10,000 set several years ago, she said, the mark was still an increase of about 1,000 over last year.

"We really enjoyed this year very much," she said. "We got a lot of positive feedback."

The 13 trains were in five different sizes, from N scale, the smallest, to G scale, the largest.

One of the new additions to this year's garden, a "charming" display of petite houses, worked well with the smallest scale while another new donation, a large building the organizers determined would be a snow factory, worked best with the O scale trains.

The garden also featured a gingerbread scene built with 300 cookies that featured 40 houses and even gingerbread figures tubing down a snowy hillside on doughnuts.

Work on the garden began on the first weekend of August for the display, which opened the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

In addition to the Atkinsons, Connie Lee, Frank Vacek, Michael Ann Ridgeway, Carolyn Cowles, Delores Gutberlet, Dee Neighoff and Paul Wagner volunteered their time and effort on the display.