2016-2017 Redford Theatre Christmas Layout

Hopefully this link works. I'm not sure if I shared this in the past, but Google Maps did a 3D tour of the theater a couple years ago. The trains were still up too at the time which is pretty neat. You can do a virtual walkthrough of most of the building.

Virtual Tour

Jake....you do a great job every year and are a credit to the hobby!

Peter

Awesome Jake!!  There is a special place in Heaven's roundhouse for you 

Thanks guys!

Some new bulbs I ordered arrived today for the village buildings.  I found a pretty good deal on a certain auction site for direct replacement LED C7 bulbs to replace the bulbs in 30+ buildings I use on the display.  Heat and power consumption have been somewhat of a worry for me over the past 6 years.  Obviously the buildings don't get burning hot, but I feel a bit better about having LED's in them.

They're a bit dimmer than a regular incandescent bulb, but they should look fine for my purposes.

Incandescent Bulb:

LED Bulb:

WOW! A theatre pipe organ and an O gauge train layout only feet apart!  I'm in heaven!!!  Do you ever use the organ to accompany the trains?  Kind of like a 3-D silent movie!

Tom

Tom Densel posted:

WOW! A theatre pipe organ and an O gauge train layout only feet apart!  I'm in heaven!!!  Do you ever use the organ to accompany the trains?  Kind of like a 3-D silent movie!

Tom

A couple of the organists have admitted that they watch the trains running while they play before the shows   I do enjoy the nights I go to the theater to run trains because I can talk to more of our patrons about them and also listen to the organ, which isn't as easy when I'm behind the concession stand or in the sound and light booth.

There was one time during our Christmas show that the organist requested that I run the Polar Express set while she played the theme from the movie.  That was pretty cool to see the display lit up and the train running with all the house lights dimmed down.

Hartman posted:

Jake.  What you folks are doing is great!  I noticed the light display under the upper level......Cool.    As for the Bump N Go trolley, the bumpers are fine for home, but I noticed you are using a running loop, that is best out in public, so you don't have chase stopped trolley issues all the time.  I know you put a lot of time and effort in this, so I hope you can keep going and get more help as time goes on.  Also, have another Merry Christmas.

Dennis

Thanks Dennis!

The light display was something I found on Amazon last year.  Initially I thought it would be neat to hide it behind the layout and give a sort of northern lights effect across the front of the stage, but I found it looked better behind the snow going up to the second level.

I have been running the Lionel Bump and go trolley on a loop for the past few years.  I think it'll be put on backup duty this year with my purchase of a Williams Peter Witt car and the MTH Trolley.  The Lionel one doesn't like dirty track, and it has a pickup slider rather than rollers.  It think the newer models will hold up a bit better than the Lionel one has.  I went to the loop because I figured the constant shock of hitting a bumper would eventually cause problems with the Lionel trolley on display service (I believe I did have some issues the first couple years with the bumpers but I can't remember exactly what those were)

I think we put about 60 hours into the display last year, and I'm sure it'll take nearly as long this year.  I'm looking forward to getting started though.

Yesterday we received a generous donation of a Williams GP38 and a Lionel Charlie Brown Psychiatric Help booth from Tony's Mower and train shop, a LHS located in Northville, MI.

I also recently purchased this carousel and K-Line Plymouth Switcher set for the display.

We also plan to begin construction of the platforms that hold the train display and all of its wiring (11+ power loops per main loop and accessory power) starting today. It won't look like much for a while but it will be a start!

The platforms are up.  This year we covered the platforms in sheets of hard board to give a smoother surface to mount track.  This also allowed us to paint the panels white to leave a better base for the polyester snow material.

Nice work!

Looking great, The Redford Theater is a great place to watch a classic movie. "As it is typical, the layout will probably be about 8'x20' this year and located in the orchestra pit of the theater auditorium".

Will the Theater Organ have room to rise out of the orchestra pit?  or does it come out of the floor on the left side of the stage? 

Gary

Back in July of 1980 my brother Ned and I drove to the Redford Theatre from Niles, MI to meet up with Greg Bellamy and Henry Przybylski.  We spent some time at the Redford and got a tour of the organ chambers and watched the Barton console rise up on its 4 poster lift.  We then went to the Senate Theatre where I got to play the 4-34 Wurlitzer.  Henry then showed us the Hollywood Theatre Barton shoehorned into his garage and basement.  We then spent the remainder of that night touring the huge Detroit Fox Theatre.  That was prior to its restoration.  What a night that was.  We saw a couple of other theatres in the dawn hours and finished up at the Michigan Theatre parking garage.   I believe Greg went on to become the managing director of the Detroit Fox.  Kudos on your Christmas train layout and all those who make it happen.  It is simply fabulous and I am sure the patrons look forward to it every Christmas season.  Do you run strictly Lionel or is there some MTH or Rail King in the mix?  Will an updated video be available in the future? 

Thanks guys!  It's nice to finally get started after months of planning.

Gary, the organ rises out of the pit to the left of the layout.  We don't interfere with it in any way, though the platform comes within about 3 feet of the console.

We run mostly Lionel, K-Line and Williams, though I just purchased an MTH Trolley set this year.  I don't have much against MTH, I just have Lionel's command systems and don't really want to have another, so most of my collection is Lionel with conventional engines from the other companies.  We will definitely make a video this year as well.  Part of the purpose for me posting videos is so I can see what I did in the past.    It's the basic little details that make a big difference that I tend to forget, like the placement of the layout in the pit and what went where to make it fit.

I didn't get nearly as much done at the work session yesterday as I wanted to.  I was under the impression that I left the light strings for under the snow at the theater last year, and only found out after a 40 minute drive that they're still in our attic at home.  Obviously I can't get much done since laying those is the first step, but we did manage to lay out the new snow rolls and got them cut to size among other small projects.  Sunday brought about the final day of railroad operations for 2016 at work, meaning I'll have a little more free time to get down to work on the layout now.  I'm hoping to get as far as having the track's laid and wired Thursday evening if all goes as planned.

At home, I worked on creating a model of a ride on miniature park train using a Kato N scale set, an N scale flat car with O scale figures seated on it.  Came out halfway decently and will be included in a revamped park area on the layout this year.

Today we made some major progress on the display. A feature that's been complimented many times in the past few years is my backlighting underneath the snow sheets. I've gradually added more lights to it every year and I think we've got it pretty well covered this year. Installing the strings of lights was todays project, which took way longer than I intended it to 

Anyway, we started about 3:30 this afternoon and wrapped things up at about 11:00 tonight (with a dinner break and Menards run in there). Overall I think we're pretty well along, considering I was getting nervous about running a bit behind where I usually am at this point in the season. I'm thinking another couple days of work, maybe three at most and we'll have things up and running for the season. Right now the tracks are laid out, awaiting wiring. Once the feeder wires are dropped through the table and mounted to the screw terminals, we should be ready for buildings.

We initially laid the track out so we could work the lights around them, then pulled them all up and laid the snow over the lights, followed by the track again. This year I also experimented by adding a set of colored lights and I think it looks pretty good. All the strings are LED lights, and I plan to convert all the building lights to LED's as well. Not so much as an energy saver, but mostly to reduce heat output. Energy savings will be an added bonus, though in the long run it probably won't amount to much on the total theater electrical bill 

Putnam Division posted:

Jake....you do a great job every year and are a credit to the hobby!

Peter

What he said!

Thanks Bobby!

Hi Guys

You are doing a great job on that Christmas Layout .  Keep sharing the Photos & videos ! 

WRGMILW posted:

Hi Guys

You are doing a great job on that Christmas Layout .  Keep sharing the Photos & videos ! 

Thank you!

Well as of tonight all five tracks are wired and the trains are operable.  The first year (knock on wood) in my years of doing this display that everything ran smoothly on the first try.

Nice!

Have you had any problems when the layout is under staff control and they just switch on the layout power? Any derailments, is what I am concerned about with our display.

The layout will be connected to a motion sensor. When a museum volunteer and guest enter the room, the lights will turn on, the layout will come alive and the trains will start at the preset throttle voltage/speed. 

Jake, your displays are certainly something to be proud of. I especially like all the lights under the "snow". I'm building a permanent multi-level holiday display layout for my wife's collection of Bedford Falls buildings and accessories. In the past, I've put up temporary layouts in the dining room or garage, but now have a "craft" room where I can set up a 4x8x10 "L" to run 3 trains. All the buildings have C7 lights and dealing with all those power cords has been a real pain. I've been using 9-outlet extension cords, but I'd like to do something simpler. Like you, I've replaced all the bulbs with LED C7's, but still have all those cords. How do you deal with the cords for all your buildings/accessories? Do you just "hide" them under the "snow" and run them to extension cords/power strips?

Moonman posted:

Nice!

Have you had any problems when the layout is under staff control and they just switch on the layout power? Any derailments, is what I am concerned about with our display.

The layout will be connected to a motion sensor. When a museum volunteer and guest enter the room, the lights will turn on, the layout will come alive and the trains will start at the preset throttle voltage/speed. 

 

Thanks!

Knock on wood, I haven't had any major issues with leaving it.  Derailments due to touching or something falling on the track happen only very occasionally.  Most of the sound/light operators know how to fix it, but I also leave my phone number posted in case they need more help.

That sounds like a great idea with the motion sensor.

DoubleDAZ posted:

Jake, your displays are certainly something to be proud of. I especially like all the lights under the "snow". I'm building a permanent multi-level holiday display layout for my wife's collection of Bedford Falls buildings and accessories. In the past, I've put up temporary layouts in the dining room or garage, but now have a "craft" room where I can set up a 4x8x10 "L" to run 3 trains. All the buildings have C7 lights and dealing with all those power cords has been a real pain. I've been using 9-outlet extension cords, but I'd like to do something simpler. Like you, I've replaced all the bulbs with LED C7's, but still have all those cords. How do you deal with the cords for all your buildings/accessories? Do you just "hide" them under the "snow" and run them to extension cords/power strips?

Thank you for the compliment.

I usually distribute a few of those flat white 3 wire extension cords around at various points on the layout where I put buildings, and then I usually hide a power strip or two behind the buildings and also usually a couple underneath the upper level.  Last year I bought a couple of Lemax lighting strings that have several of the lights with clips that can then be used for several buildings but with only one plug to deal with.  Handy if you group buildings together in a town like setting where they will be close anyway.  In a few of the "less populated" areas of the layout, I do run the cords under the snow to an extension cord also located underneath.  Since the layout is really only viewed from the front and partially from the sides, hiding stuff behind the buildings isn't much of a problem.  Only those on stage ever see it, and I usually do try to cover it up with a sheet of snow material.

The big space user is actually all the power transformers for the village lighted accessories, but those also get hidden with the building light cords.

This year I also got permission to use a hole saw to core out several holes in the main platforms that are large enough to fit the head of a small extension cord through, so that will help prevent me from having to run cords under the tracks like I have in the past.

Thanks for the reply, Jake. I drilled holes last year to run all the cords under the table, but I'd really like to convert to some kind of LED strip lighting. My goal this year is to get the tracks permanently installed and experiment with temporary building locations. I have some unused strings of LED tree lights that I may try to use to light the buildings. I figure I can push 3 lights up into each building and string them along beneath the layout. This will have the added bonus of providing some light under the layout.

Jake, coming along fantastic as usual, the lights under the snow effect is outstanding. We will all be looking for future updates!

DoubleDAZ posted:

Thanks for the reply, Jake. I drilled holes last year to run all the cords under the table, but I'd really like to convert to some kind of LED strip lighting. My goal this year is to get the tracks permanently installed and experiment with temporary building locations. I have some unused strings of LED tree lights that I may try to use to light the buildings. I figure I can push 3 lights up into each building and string them along beneath the layout. This will have the added bonus of providing some light under the layout.

I don't see why that wouldn't work.  I think I counted about 3 LED's inside each of the LED C7 bulb, so you'd probably be at about the same lighting level.  Im limited to the number of large holes I can drill in these platforms since we do use them for other purposes at the theater, but as long as you have platforms dedicated to trains that would probably be a good thing to do.  It's probably also cheaper in the long run to buy a string of lights.

BobbyD posted:

Jake, coming along fantastic as usual, the lights under the snow effect is outstanding. We will all be looking for future updates!

Thank you!

Well it was a bit of a hectic day yesterday, but I went from a layout nowhere near show ready at quitting time on Thursday night to a 98% finished display for the show last night. I still have a few more transformer powered accessories to wire up and place on the display, but it was presentable for the showing of "The Sound of Music" last night.

Here's a rough and quick video I took of the activity last night during the show

Nice layout, Jake. They seem to get a little more elaborate each year. I visited the theatre's website. The Redford is nice venue. It appears to have been recently renovated. How big is the house?

Mill City posted:

Nice layout, Jake. They seem to get a little more elaborate each year. I visited the theatre's website. The Redford is nice venue. It appears to have been recently renovated. How big is the house?

Thanks!

The theater has been under restoration since the late 1970's, so some of what you see is more recent while other things date back 20-30 years give or take.  Originally it sat 2000 people, but that number was reduced to get around some projectionist union rules back in the day that required a certain number of projectionists on staff per number of seats.  Obviously it's an all volunteer staff now so that's not the case anymore, but the number was further reduced when seats on the main floor were replaced in 2003 so that they could be spaced a bit further apart.  This allowed for a little more leg room on the main floor since modern people are a bit taller than those that would have been attending movies in 1928.  Currently I believe it holds somewhere around 1600 people, which isn't necessarily a huge theater in comparison to some of the large downtown movie palaces, but a decent size for the neighborhood theater that it was designed to be.  I think our entire seating capacity would fit with a little extra room in the balconies of some of the downtown theaters in Detroit.

SantaFe158 posted:

Mill City posted:

Nice layout, Jake. They seem to get a little more elaborate each year. I visited the theatre's website. The Redford is nice venue. It appears to have been recently renovated. How big is the house?

 

Thanks!

The theater has been under restoration since the late 1970's, so some of what you see is more recent while other things date back 20-30 years give or take.  Originally it sat 2000 people, but that number was reduced to get around some projectionist union rules back in the day that required a certain number of projectionists on staff per number of seats.  Obviously it's an all volunteer staff now so that's not the case anymore, but the number was further reduced when seats on the main floor were replaced in 2003 so that they could be spaced a bit further apart.  This allowed for a little more leg room on the main floor since modern people are a bit taller than those that would have been attending movies in 1928.  Currently I believe it holds somewhere around 1600 people, which isn't necessarily a huge theater in comparison to some of the large downtown movie palaces, but a decent size for the neighborhood theater that it was designed to be.  I think our entire seating capacity would fit with a little extra room in the balconies of some of the downtown theaters in Detroit.

Very nice!  Kudos to all who made it happen.  Nothing beats watching model trains running with the background music being played on a theatre pipe organ (in my humble opinion).  If I may ask has there been any new pipework added to the Barton in the past few years? 

I'm far from an expert about the organ (though I love hearing it played and would love to learn it someday), but I believe some modifications were made early on in the formation of the Motor City Theatre Organ Society, but I'm not sure if those were additions of anything or just modifications.  The only thing I know for sure was added was the player piano that's connected to the console and located opposite of it in the orchestra pit.

If you visit this link, there is a good amount of information about the organ.

Wow! 1600...It's an intimate house, I would never have guessed that large. The "chairs" look like they may be Irwin, with Springfield seat backs. Very nice. They certainly didn't go cheap there. I think it's great that they keep it up as they do and tackle projects one at a time. I assume the union projectionist were IATSE. After more than forty years in the entertainment industry, I'm more than familiar with union demands.

True enough, palaces are enormous, some with two balconies. Those are some real nose-bleeders.  

Mill City posted:

Wow! 1600...It's an intimate house, I would never have guessed that large. The "chairs" look like they may be Irwin, with Springfield seat backs. Very nice. They certainly didn't go cheap there. I think it's great that they keep it up as they do and tackle projects one at a time. I assume the union projectionist were IATSE. After more than forty years in the entertainment industry, I'm more than familiar with the union demands.

True enough, palaces are enormous, some with two balconies. Those are some real nose-bleeders.  

As I recall, the seats that are currently in the building were made by the same company that made the originals.  You seem to know more than I do about them.  They replaced more modern seats that I believe were installed in the 1940's or 50's during a slight modernization of the building.  They were replaced in two phases, the first in 2003 which replaced the main floor seats and the front section of the balcony, and then the second which occurred a couple years back that completed the project.

Obviously it has a heavy Japanese style decoration, which is how it was originally built, but that was all painted over when the U.S. got involved in World War Two, so pretty much everything is restored.  Original paint work was uncovered from beneath about eight layers of paint (with much left to discover it seems) and stencils were created to replicate the original appearance.

Irwin Seating Company was founded in Grand Rapids over 100 years ago, so it's certainly possible. Replacing them in two phases was very smart. I don't think most people have any idea how these facilities devour grand sums of money. It's a thirst that's never quenched.

The WWII neutralization is not surprising, if not somewhat humorous. Despite that, one can see the loving care that has gone into restoring the theatre. A gem that any community would be proud to claim as their own.

 PS: I'm glad to see that they have retained their Atec A4s. They may be big and heavy, but you can't beat the sound they produce.

Mill City posted:

Irwin Seating Company was founded in Grand Rapids over 100 years ago, so it's certainly possible. Replacing them in two phases was very smart. I don't think most people have any idea how these facilities devour grand sums of money. It's a thirst that's never quenched.

The WWII neutralization is not surprising, if not somewhat humorous. Despite that, one can see the loving care that has gone into restoring the theatre. A gem that any community would be proud to claim as their own.

 PS: I'm glad to see that they have retained their Atec A4s. They may be big and heavy, but you can't beat the sound they produce.

The seats are Irwin. I'm almost certain when they called to place the order they opened a file and said we see your building plan calls for model _______ seats. Would you like to order that model we still make them. 

As jake said the seat rows were modified to allow for leg room, ADA/Wheelchair seating, and to carve out a "mid-house" (actually the back of the main floor but pretty centered if you include the balcony as well) sound and lighting booth.  Our "fire capacity" according to the city of Detroit is 1,581. I believe we actually have 1,602 physical seats though. To put that in perspective the Detroit Fox Theatre (the only other area theatre still maintaining its original theatre organ, a very large Wurlitzer) has a capacity of 5,174. They were built for the same purpose as the Redford (Movies and Live Shows) but now because of their house size cater more to concerts and off broadway stage shows. The Redford has taken the opposite approach. We maintain a bi-weekly classic movie series with occasional live entertainment and stage plays. 

Well this was a very successful weekend at the theater.  We had over 600 people for a Saturday matinee showing of "The Polar Express" as well as over 1000 people for two evening showings of "National Lampoons Christmas Vacation."

There were several times you couldn't even see the layout from the back of the auditorium because of the crowds viewing it.  There were also several times I had to remain at the layout simply because I couldn't work through the crowd to get anywhere else   It definitely makes all the effort we put into this display worth it though.