2014 Christmas Photo Album

So, I am not quite to the level of the pros here, but it is a start. Here is our tree with a track under.

Very nice tree. And you got to start somewhere. Mine started like that.............. then I became infected............................. If my wife knew what Christmasification cost.............well I wouldn't be able to type this............

Here's our small venue layout decked out for Christmas.....It was done by our member Walt S.

 

 

 

 

More pics here:

 

https://ogrforum.com/t...ar-group-news?page=2

 

 

Peter

I agree If my wife only knew. I just tell her I got a good deal and when she sees the results all is forgiven.  Mine started out bare bones too. Once you start there is no turning back. 

So many great photos and videos of Christmas displays!

Don

You have a beautiful tree and you have a train to run under it--that's pretty darn good in itself; especially since I doubt that you are the interior decorator in your household.

Johnny

I enjoy watching your video with the music.  You have nice tree and layout underneath it.  Thanks for sharing.  Ken

To all: I keep receiving "likes" in reference to my post concerning my Mom's houses. I'd like to say Thank You to each and every one of you for your support. I have really been enjoying this thread and seeing each of your personal touches (PTC Brian...I really dig the moose).

 

All of you have really added something special to the spirit of the season.

 

 

PTC,

   Brian I wanted to tell you how much I enjoy seeing the inside of your home, the Supreme Architect has smiled on us both.  Merry Christmas brother and you and your family be safe.

PCRR/Dave

Now that the Christmas layout is mostly done, I'm getting to play a bit more.  That includes trying some different photo approaches.  Here's a photosphere of the layout and Christmas tree...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is Google/Android's 2D panorama type photo stitched from various individual pictures.  Gives a nice perspective of the overall layout!

 

Sam

 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas!!!  You guys are doing some amazing layouts. 

Skip,

What manufacture is the skating rink ensemble. !!??  thanks for idea

 

Thanks for all the likes! And no Pingman, I am not the decorator in my house.

Excellent Skip! That is an amazing room. Almost too inviting the way everything works together.

Hope you have a very Happy Christmas!

Terry,

 

The skating rink is Department 56 "Rockefeller Plaza." BTW, I added two Lionel small floodlights on either side.

 

Skip, only one word describes this scene, STUNNING.

 

Skip, beautiful layout and imaginative use of lighting.

 

Thanks for sharing.

This is probably the wrong place to put this, but I get a chuckle out of it every year at this time.

 

Art

 

Very nice. Tried this layout once with at least a straight or two every 45deg.

Right place.

After reading this thread, I wanted to let people know that Amazon has some of the Christmas Dept. 56 items as lightning deals today.  They had multiple items coming up at different times today.  You can scroll through them and see what time you need to come back if you see anything you like.

Gave the Marine and his wife some of my "stuff" so they could begin their own tradition. Wonder how many others there are set up and running on the base.

(How do cats and dogs do with the snow sheets? Good idea or not?)

Thanks Ken.  Glad you enjoyed it.  Also, a thank you to all that Liked the video.

Timeless and appropriate.  Thanks for sharing.

First time setting up a layout at work. Been a crappy year for our family with the passing away of the wife's Dad.
    Just want to spread alittle Christmas cheer

 

Photos of the family Christmas tree from the mid 1970s.The trains are Lionel/MPC,which is still the era I run the most.My Dad's tradition of a train going around a real tree will continue on.

Dan

Thanks all for your submissions, I look forward to this thread each year!  Here is a video I shot a year ago.

 

got the train platform pulled up from the basement, and that'll be all untill we cut a tree down. 1615 got the honor of the first run this year.

Sorry about your wife's father. Canadian Christmas cheer is always good.

Here are my entries into the photo album. I had originally thought about having the Trolley circulate on an elevated track, but instead I went with the 3 separate loop layout (Train, Trolley, Hand Car)

 

Here are pictures for our Christmas Layout for 2014.  We added a trolley loop for the city this year.  I think this is our best layout yet.  The track flow is good as well giving 3 separate loops, one around the tree and the outside of the city, 2nd for the trolley in the city, and a third that traverses the living room as a whole.  The trolley loop is isolated, however the to other loops are connected.  These loops are not full reversing this year, maybe next year I will add the two more switches to make that work.  All switches, activation tracks, and a few accessories are wired to the MTH AIU.

 

 

I've never been able to get quality dark night photos to my satisfaction on either my regular camera or any of the various cell phones, no matter how many megapixels, etc. the manufacturers boast.  This batch of photos features some overhead shots showing the track loops.

 

Merry Christmas Everyone!

 

Kevin,

   Great Christmas layout, I love it!

Merry Christmas

 

NYC Fan,

   Your stuff is always fantastic also!

 

Steamer,

   Dave I just put the Bear Tree on the platform this week also, and the final siding is not in yet, nor the houses, we are both in the same boat it seams.

PCRR/Dave

 

PCRR/Dave

Out of four cats, two never go near the tree, and the other two like to lay on the snow sheet. I run lights under the sheet, and they like the warmth. Never even blink when the train is running.We lost one of the two that laid under the tree, and surprisingly (not to me) the wife came home with a new kitten, so we'll have to see how she does. 

For another perspective, when my wife and I moved into our new home the day we were married, my cat from my bachelor-apartment moved in with us. That first Christmas, we had a 14' tree in the atrium-style foyer. At about the third day of getting all the lights and ornaments onto the tree, I was startled to see, as I reached into a branch to make some adjustments, a pair of eyes looking back at me(!) Our cat had found a favorite perch to supervise the new world around her. I liked that. When the tree came down after New Years, I could have sworn she kept looking around for her new favorite spot and missed having it, able to look me right in the eye as I walked by. Sometimes, she'd zap a paw out at me, inviting playful moments, it seemed.

 

Subsequent Christmases saw ever shorter trees, in the range of 9 - 10', and Noel (named that because I found her on a Christmas Eve - or was it she who found me?) never seemed as enamored of those perches as she was of the first one.

 

Let us know if your cat finds a favorite spot in your tree, too, Lima, OK?

FrankM

P.S. Here's one of those foyer trees. No train around it. And no kitty perched therein.

The living-room gets its own li'l Christmas tree. No trains.

And the only train in sight is in the family-room, on that coffee-table, and atop the armoire,  but they're just decorations.

At our house, if you want to see trains run, you are welcomed into the basement train-room to see ten of them (+1 trolley) ply their courses in Moon Township.

my uncle had his christmas tree wired to the ceiling for several years. Sam (the Cat) liked to climb it and it and it finally tipped over.

When I was a teenager, my sister's cat was known to climb the Christmas tree.  One day I walked into the room just as the tree started falling over and the cat jumped out of the midsection of the tree.  I was able to catch the tree, and we only lost a few nondescript glass ornaments.  I then wired the tree to the curtain rod hangers on perpendicular walls either side of the tree each year until I moved from home.  Dad continued the 'insurance program' until my sister married and moved out.

Very nice photo, Skip.

 

These photos definitely puts one into the Christmas spirit! No room for Grinch's on this post.