For me growing up, Baltimore was the closest city. Each first Saturday after Thanksgiving my family would catch the Greyhound to Baltimore early in the morning. It was always a thrill coming into Baltimore on US route one, as the bus would cross over B&O's Wynans Yard, which in those days always had lots of action. Next was the Western Maryland grade crossing carrying the freight main to WM's seaport terminus at Port Covington. Then in just a short distance was the B&O double track ( now CSX single track ) grade crossing at the Montgomery Ward store/whse just before Monroe Street ( MW was located at Monroe and Rt. 1 ). In the 50's these grade crossing were protected by signal men perched in towers. Whenever a train was coming these guys would come out blowing whistles like traffic cops to stop traffic. If we were lucky this happened at least once either coming or leaving Baltimore. B&O seemed to run some pretty long slow freights which I assume were transfers from Wynans Yard to another one of the B&O yards around Baltimore or visa versa.
We'd exit the Greyhound a couple blocks from Baltimore's then thriving downtown which was the Howard Street area. First stop was Frenche's Sporting Goods which hosted a large Lionel train layout. It was a thrill to see this layout in action. It always had Lionel's latest stuff running on the rails with Lionels latest accessories highlighted around the layout! French's was a Lionel dealer year round and that is where we took our trains to be fixed for many years during the 1950's and 60s.
Howard Street played host to several department stores which all had train displays during the Christmas Season. There was Hecht Co., Hoschild Kohn, Bragger & Gutman, and Hutzlers. Some of these displays were more elaborate than others, but as a kid they all looked fabulous to me! There was also Taubman's which sold trains at discount prices. Taubman's is where we'd pick up the new Lionel catalogue which my brother and I would excitedly read at lunch..... and of course our parents were serenaded to rousing chorus of" I want that! I want that ! Look at that! I want that engine! I want those passenger cars!" and so forth. My parents always seemed to enjoy our excitement. Of course on Christmas morning one or two of those "thats" we wanted was found on our train layout all hooked up and ready to go. Treasured memories for sure.
