The Golden Marx Mercury Stream Line Passenger Train pulled by the black with gold locomotive circled the Christmas tree decorated with old glass Christmas balls, toothpick ornaments made by children, cross-stitch ornaments made by family, a Victorian carousel from England, and an angel on top lighting the way. It wiggled past a ceramic village, which replaced cardboard houses, lead skaters on a mirror pond, an old woman and man sitting on an iron bench, and one surviving old yellow metal truck. The train had been in the attic collecting dust since it failed to run over fifty years ago. It had been purchased by my father in the forties and it was one of the first model trains to honor the streamlined steam locomotives that pulled freight or passengers in the 1930’s. The passengers car windows light up and the cars hook together by a coupler pin making them wiggle and difficult for me as a child to place on the track. A man who loves trains and helps in the Christmas Train Garden display at Marley Station Mall rescued it last Christmas. So the engine with its new motor proudly chugs down the track and circles the Christmas tree, a truly Baltimore tradition brought here by German descendants.
