The Emmanuel Lutheran Church Holiday Model Train Garden has been a part of the holiday season tradition for Anne Arundel County residents for more than 30 years. What initially began as a set of modular displays that were built in a basement and carried to Glen Burnie Mall eventually evolved into a large, permanent display at Marley Station Mall.
The permanent display has provided the opportunity to uniquely grow the displays much larger than what is typically possible with modular model train displays.
For example, this allows longer stretches of train track, larger buildings, and more tracks (15 tracks planned for 2024 season) than are typically seen in modular displays.
🚂 MISSON OF THE HOLIDAY TRAIN GARDEN
The Train Garden is an all- volunteer, donation-based organization with two missions: 1) to assist the citizens of Anne Arundel County in times of need (via the Emmanuel Lutheran Church food pantry and emergency fund), and 2) to provide an enjoyable, family-friendly holiday model train display.
🚂 AN UNSTABLE 2023 SEASON
We recently experienced a turbulent 2023 season. The owners of the Marley Station Mall, NAMDAR Realty Group, raised the Train Garden’s rent to a level that was not sustainable within our donation-based operations model. In accordance with its contract at that time, NAMDAR asked the Train Garden to close and vacate its Marley Station location by 31 December 2023, which meant a shortened 2023 season (we closed on 18 December 2023).
When we made this information public, we experienced a huge amount of public outreach, personal stories, and public support for the Train Garden that truly let us know how important our missions are to the community. It reinforced the importance of our volunteer work.
Following the WBAL news story on the Train Garden (https://www.wbaltv.com/article/marley-station-mall-holiday-train-garden-leaving/46154307) and members of the public contacting NAMDAR on our behalf, NAMDAR Realty Group offered to extend the Train Garden’s lease until March 2026, but unfortunately this news was not received before volunteers tore down the tracks, decorations, and displays in preparation for a quick move to meet the 31 December 2023 move-out date.
The silver lining to our 2023 season is that we received many offers for potential future locations for the Train Garden. We explored those options and while none were as suitable as Marley Station Mall for our primary location, we are actively working with Maryland Hall for a modular satellite display in Annapolis over the 2024 holiday season.
🚂 NEW FOR 2024
In March of this year, volunteers started to implement a new design for displays at the Marley Station Mall and build the Maryland Hall modular displays. We have big plans for our 2024 season, which includes our showcase Willy Wonka (inspired by the 1971 and recent films), Toy Story (Andy’s Room with a sneak preview picture below), Watership Down (classic adventure novel by Richard Adams), Thomas the Train visits Mount Rushmore, and a traditional ski slope with Christmas town displays.
To accomplish our 2024 season vision, we had to learn how to use 3D printing. This spawned an interesting fusion of 3D printing, both Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) for buildings and larger items and resin for detailed figures and model railroading. All of the Train Garden displays are O Gauge three rail track (O scale is 1/43 to 1/48, or 43 to 48 times smaller than actual objects) and many figures and items are not available for purchase at that scale. For example, if one puts a HO person (1/87 scale) or item in an O scale display, it looks too small.
3D printing is a powerful tool to be able to print items and figures at any necessary scale. Hence, we were able to design and print Willy Wonka figures (e.g., Oompa Loompas and all of the classic characters) and ski slope skiers and snowboarders at O scale.
There are unique figures that will only be seen in our displays this year.
But the tradeoff compared to buying figures at a store is the time to design, print, and paint each item (a lot of volunteer time and effort is required).
Sneak preview of 2024 season Toy Story model train display (still in development at Marley Station Mall)
🚂 VOLUNTEERS & DONATIONS NEEDED
The Train Garden is always seeking volunteers for a variety of jobs, including: train display creation, wiring, 3D printing design, painting of items, clean up, organizing, and running the trains during our open season. Prospective volunteers should not let unfamiliarity with model trains discourage participation.
There is a volunteer job for everyone at the Train Garden! We have also been blessed to have connected with some amazing sponsors and partners for this season (they will be posted on a banner at the Train Garden this year).
Prospective volunteers or sponsors or partners who would like to donate to the Train Garden in exchange for advertising can contact ms.train.garden@gmail.com for additional details. Please consider making a visit to the Train Garden part of your holiday tradition this year.
🚂 OPENING DAYS
Opening day for the Train Garden at Marley Station is the Saturday November 23rd 2024 (Saturday before Thanksgiving) and at Maryland Hall a week prior on Saturday November 16th 2024.
The schedule of open dates for both locations is still being determined based on volunteer availability and will be made available prior to opening day.
We look forward to welcoming you and your family at BOTH locations this year!
Macaroni KID Pasadena-Severna Park-Glen Burnie and Macaroni KID Annapolis are the proud media sponsors of the Holiday Train Gardens.
