James Rada, Jr.
For twenty-five years, Catoctin Mountain Trains and Hobbies was a local fixture in downtown Thurmont. People came from all over to get just the right car for their train gardens. As popular as the store was, it was busiest around Christmas time.
Paul and Marcia Johnson owned the store, but when they retired, the store closed and apparently all of those memories went the way of the wind. However, the Johnsons commissioned a painting be done of the store.
“It’s not just Christmas at the train shop,” Marcia Johnson said. “It’s about our family.”
The painting is peppered with personal memories, just waiting for someone who knows the Johnsons to spot them:
• The two children looking in the store window are the Johnson’s children, Wendy and Chip.
• The horse drawing the sleigh is the same one that Paul rode when he was with the National Park police. The horse’s name, Bambini, is on the bridle.
• The dog in the painting is the family’s dog.
• The man coming down the stairs in the painting is Paul’s right-hand man in the store, Peter Vellizzi.
• Paul himself can be seen through the store’s front window.
“We wanted to have something to remember the store by, and because I’m a storyteller, I wanted to have all of these things in it to tell the story of our family,” expressed Marcia, adding, “I wanted it to mean something for our family.”
Even now, when Marcia talks about all of the family details in the painting, it brings tears to her eyes.
The original painting hangs in the Johnsons’ living room. However, they had copies made for their children and other family members. They also had the painting made into blank cards that they can send out at Christmas.
The Thurmont Lions Club selected the painting to be made into their annual limited-edition Christmas ornaments.
