This morning we headed to Ellicott City, Maryland to check out the B & O Railroad Museum. The Ellicott City Station Museum is much smaller than the museum in Baltimore, but we still managed to spend nearly two hours there. Plus (in our opinion) the Ellicott City Station is in a much better area with several quaint shops within walking distance.
Right now the Holiday Festival of Trains is going on. There were four different model train layouts to watch, plus Santa Claus was there. We knew this would be right up Evelyn's alley - she had lots of fun watching model trains and visiting with Santa. A bonus: we won't have to fight crowds at the mall to see Santa this year.
The first model layout we saw replicated the first 13 miles of commercial railroad track in the country - from Baltimore to Ellicott Mills around 1830. The next model layout we saw was a multi-level O-scale setup. Evelyn enjoyed this one so much she went back a second time to see it all again. When she saw the third model, she was overjoyed to see a Chessie locomotive plus some Chessie freight cars. Finally, the fourth model layout we saw was the G-scale Thomas.
On our way out (through the gift shop, of course!), Troy spotted a wooden Chessie box car that would work with her Thomas set at home. Naturally, we couldn't leave without one. All in all, a wonderful, train-filled outing for our little girl!
Evelyn standing in front of a B & O caboose. We walked through it, pretending we were engineers.
Evelyn watching the Thomas model trains. She saw several characters she knew: Thomas, James, Percy, Trevor, Harold, Toby, Duck and Diesel, not to mention the freight cars and coaches the engines were hauling.
Evelyn lived up to her "Chatterbox" title when visiting with Santa. When prompted, she gave her wish list: Thomas stuff, rollerblades, and Cinderella stuff. She went on to tell Santa what yummy corn casserole she made for Thanksgiving - "The best corn casserole, ever!"
Julia lasted less than a minute with Santa. Troy passed her off to him, and she looked at me like, "What in the world is going on? Who is this guy?" Julia then looked back at Santa (which is when I took the picture) and started to cry. We rescued her before it became too traumatic.
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