B & O Rairoad Museum, Ellicott City Station

There are currently two very special exhibits at the unique B & O Museum, Ellicott City Station, the first and oldest railroad station in America and the terminus of the first thirteen miles of commercial rail in the country.

The "Festival of Trains" exhibit consists of five model railroad layouts.  The first, a permanent display in the Freight House, is a forty foot HO scale model of the first thirteen miles of track from Baltimore to Ellicott`s Mills, now Ellicott City. Additionally, there is a huge O scale display in the Car House consisting of several trains, cars and villages complete with a tiny drive-in movie theater showing, what else? "It`s a Wonderful Life." Two other O scale displays are in the Men`s Waiting Room and a G scale "Thomas the Tank Engine" display delights the kids in the Lady`s Waiting Room. Additionally, "living historians" are generally present in the "Freight Agent`s Living Quarters" on the ground floor explaining the whys and wherefores of 19th century railroad operations.

The second exhibit, "The War Came By Train", commemorates the sesquicentennial of the Civil War and consists of Civil War artifacts, documents and various displays. The HO scale display in the Freight House has been altered to show things as they were at the beginning of the war. This exhibit will run until the "war is over" in 2015 and, for the next four years, will feature various events, Civil War reenactors and, from time to time, even an old guy playing his banjo in the Freight House and complaining he`s been waiting for a train since 1861 and service just isn`t what it used to be.....

Do visit the Museum, open 11AM-4PM Wednesday through Sunday. Check the website; www.borail.org/ellicottcity for specifics and visit the Museum on Facebook: B & O Museum, Ellicott City Station.