All Aboard!: Holiday Trains Galore

If you are a train lover then it is that time of year to get excited, because trains and the holidays go together like hot cocoa and marshmallows. 

Many people are familiar with the Polar Express Train ride at the B&O Museum which kicks off on the 24th of November this year (purchase tickets here). There is a live reading of the Polar Express Story and kids get to meet Santa. The Roundhouse Museum exhibit here is very impressive. 

Going into Baltimore may not be for everyone, so a fantastic alternative that we did last year was the Walkersville Railroad. This kicks off November 24th as well. We loved it. It is a little bit further away, but it is out in the countryside so the train ride was nice and long and pleasant with great views. It was also cheaper. Santa and Mrs. Clause came through and stopped at each group of people for pictures and handed out plush snowballs to all the kids. We stopped at downtown Frederick for dinner after and to see the holiday boats in the canal which was awesome. Walkersville’s tickets sell out pretty quickly. Last year, we bought them in the beginning of October and the princess themed rides were already sold out.

If you are a fan of model trains then there are a lot of great local options.

• The Train Garden at Marley Station Mall, the Emmanuel Lutheran Train Garden, is in Glen Burnie and traditionally kicks off around the middle of November. This train garden is really kid friendly as they have buttons kids can press to interact with the train garden to make fun things happen. This is also free and they take donations. We love going to this every year. 

• Homestead Gardens in both Davidsonville and Severna Park have free holiday train gardens so you can go to whichever one is more convenient although the Davidsonville set up is much larger. 

• The B&O Railroad Museum in Ellicott City is free and it has many trains set up. We went last winter and they had a whole Harry Potter themed train set up.

• Brookside Gardens has both a walking light display and a Christmas train set up. 

• Anne Marie Sculpture Garden has both as well. I’ll touch upon walkable holiday events in a future post. Both places require tickets to see the trains.

• If you are heading north for any reason, the Kenilworth mall in the Timonium area has a nice free train garden for the holidays that we have stopped at.

• …and so does the Fire Museum of Maryland in Lutherville.

• Finally, if you make it to Ocean City this holiday season, the Convention Center has a free holiday train as does the Ocean City Library.

If you are a train lover or you have children that are train-obsessed, there is no shortage of options this holiday season!