Christmas trains

Michael Kernbauch couldn’t imagine putting up a Christmas tree without displaying a toy train beneath it. As a father of three children, Mr. Kernbauch, 49, carries on the tradition that he experienced in his youth.

This year, his tannenbaum stands in the family room of his Clifton home with a LGB locomotive leading the cars on the train track. The locomotive sounds a whistle and gives off a pine scent.

“Toy trains are something that carry you back to a less stressful time, to the holiday you faced as a child,” Mr. Kernbauch says. “If you are 9 years old, your world is a Christmas tree and a train.”

Along with mistletoe and manger scenes, Christmas trees accompanied by toy trains are popular symbols of the winter holidays. The possibilities of decorating with the miniature cars are as big as a person’s pocketbook.

Oral tradition says that the “train gardens” began in Maryland in the 1900s, says Ed Williams, deputy director and chief curator at the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum in Baltimore.

“It’s mostly in the Maryland region that they are called ‘train gardens,’ ” Mr. Williams says. “Some people expect to see flowers and bushes, but it’s trees and trains.”

When settlers came to America, a large group of German immigrants made their homes in Maryland, Mr. Williams says. During Christmas, the German natives would build little houses to replicate the villages from which they came in Europe. These communities would be placed under their Christmas trees.

According to legend, decorating trees is a German tradition started by Protestant reformer, Martin Luther. He supposedly placed candles on the branches of evergreens, as a symbol of Christ, “the light of the world,” Mr. Williams says.

Trains had been pull-toys since at least 1830. Then, in 1901, Joshua Lionel Cowen created the first electric toy train, which German immigrants added as components under their evergreens.

Mr. Cowen was a store window designer in New York City. He put a battery in a toy train and made it run in a window to draw attention to a jewelry display.

The attention, however, went to the toy train, probably because the form of transportation was such a dominant factor in American culture at the time. Then, Mr. Cowen created advertisements with Christmas trees and toy trains, cementing the notion that the two items belong together, which boosted the Lionel toy train line.

“That began the electric toy train phenomena in America, and it took off,” Mr. Williams says. “There was a great love affair of trains in America and worldwide.”

Today, the miniature cars come in multiple sizes, says Susan Spindel, owner of Trains Etc. Inc. in Lorton. From smallest to largest, the gauges are Z-gauge , N-gauge, HO-gauge, S-gauge, O-gauge and G-gauge, Mrs. Spindel says. (Z-gauge is 1:220 scale; N-gauge is 1:160 scale; HO-gauge is 1:87 scale; S-gauge is 1:64 scale; O-gauge is 1:48 scale; and G-gauge is variable, but 1:22 scale is a range indicator.)

The price of trains ranges, too, depending on whether they are antique, new or used. Condition and rarity also play a factor in the value. The average new starter set would cost about $250, Mrs. Spindel says.

The size of the Christmas tree should help determine the scale of the train. For instance, most average evergreens would usually be complemented by HO-gauge to O-gauge trains. Larger trees, such as the National Tree outside the White House, look better with G-gauge trains.

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