If you happen to be going after Thanksgiving, you can visit any number of holiday train gardens, an old Baltimore tradition that is largely unique to the area and is slowly dying out. Most of the ones my wife and I used to visit when we lived there were hosted by fire companies, usually with a free-will offering of a few dollars. They are truly worth seeing. The ones that come to mind the quickest are Glen Ave. on the north side, Arbutus VFD on the west side, Ellicott City company #2 a few miles to the west of that, and Wise Ave. in Dundalk. The Shops at Kenilworth on the north side has had a large display for years that was featured in the PBS special Clickety Clack Christmas Trains (sp?); also worth a trip. A good website that will help you learn more about these displays is http://www.wvmgrs.org/TrainGardens.htm#Baltimore, which has been updated for 2017.
Historic Ellicott City is worth a visit. It was the original western terminus of the B&O. The original station has been made into a museum and there are several train layouts. There's good antiquing there as well, and good restaurants. From the west edge of Baltimore City, where we lived, Ellicott City isn't much more than 10 minutes away.
