Christmas/Winter Trains & Layouts - LETS SEE YOURS!

@Mark Boyce posted:

Welcome back Kotter!  Very nice Kevin!

Thanks Mark!

@PRRronbh posted:

Mikki, what part of North Carolina?

Ron

I'm sorry, Ron, but I thought I had posted a reply but don't see it now. We moved to Hendersonville just south of Ashville.

Mikki

Merry Christmas

Okay, now that the first NFL game of the day is over, here are the photos:

This was my first - at will be last - usage of the Menards tubular track that I purchased for the layout (I had sold off all my Lionel tubular track years ago). Wasn't happy with the tracks constantly coming apart and because of the ties being further away from the track pin ends, the track clips from Lionel couldn't be used.  Had to tap in with nails to keep tracks together which still kept rising up from the foam and buffalo snow.  Also, the bottom of the rails were a bit wider, they would not align with the rubber ties for 3R Plastics that I had so instead of clipping them to the track bottom, I just slid them under (you can see the result of the movement of the ties afterwards in the photos).  Same thing with trying to force on the Lionel Lock-On.  I went out to the LHS and purchased three Lionel 10-inch straights to that I could provide power to the track.

Yup, crimping ties with pliers, etc. is I guess part of model railroading with tubular track, but that's not my cup of tea.  I didn't mind it for a instance or two when I had Lionel tubular track, but to do it for every single piece of track, not so much.   I'll stick with good old Lionel tubular track whenever I'm going to use that track style.  That being said, most likely going to use my Atlas O track for Christmas 2024.

Very nice Kevin'.. Merry Christmas... The best in the new year to you and yours'.. 🎅

Merry Christmas Everyone!

@walt rapp posted:

@trumptrain  how do you remove all of that.  You post images of your layout here year-round and there's not snow in the off-season.

thanks - walt

Hi Walt -  My apology for being so long in getting back to you.  I'm just seeing this post now.  

To answer your question:  I first scoop up as much excess as possible and deposit it in canisters, saving the snow for a future project.   Next I  brake out my shop vac and apply the crevice tool, sucking up any excess.  

Here's the back story about my snow scenes:  In late July of 2022 OGR approached me about doing a feature story for the Dec/Jan issue which came out in mid November 2022.   OGR requested that I also provide photos to accompany the story and that the photos not be photos that I had previously posted on the Forum.  Obviously a reasonable request.  Rather than cover my entire layout with snow, which would have been a massive undertaking, I decided to create 3 dioramas at three different locations on my layout.  I then covered these dioramas in snow.  So in actuality the snow scenes you see are taken of the dioramas.  

As it was, even with the dioramas, removing the snow was quite a task!  I'm so glad that I chose to create dioramas and not cover the whole layout or even a large section of the layout in snow ...  Although one day I may do so.  Time will tell!  

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas everyone.  Sorry for the late posting but it’s been a busy holiday season so far.  Here is this year’s rendition of our family Christmas Carpet Central Railway with a photo of a nicely restored post-war Lionel 675 followed by a video of the 675 pulling a consist of silver and red archived Lionel Madison cars from 1997.

Very nice!!

We're still celebrating Christmas!  I posted this in the what did you run today thread and I just saw this... I think it probably belongs here.  I'm new at this, I hope it's not a problem to post it here as well.

Here are photos and a link to a video of my 2023 Christmas Train Layout.

Link to video:  https://youtu.be/hf1aiUYH6o4

Merry Christmas to All!

Jerry Gahimer

Well folks, it is that time of year again! Let's see those Christmas/winter layouts & trains!






Bryce

Here are some photos of past iterations of our layout. Currently, our layout is undergoing massive refurbishing! Hopefully, this time next year I should have new photos. I love winter scenes. Our new layout will have several sections depicting winter, my personal favorite season of the year.

When I lived in Brooklyn NY I didn’t have room for an indoor layout. I had this LGB set that I put in the front rock garden every Christmas. It grew from a #2 0-4-0 and 2 passenger cars to what you see here.

Bob, How do you make snow look real, use real snow!  Nice Christmas train in Brooklyn!

@Mark Boyce posted:

Bob, How do you make snow look real, use real snow!  Nice Christmas train in Brooklyn!

Mark, that was real snow. The trains ran 8 - 12 hours a day. The only weather that stopped the movement was freezing rain. I got out there with a bottle of spray alcohol when it stopped. All that snow in the trolley picture was after a storm that started at night into the next day.

Here is out Christmas layout from about 2 years ago.  The train set is Lionel but on Christmas eve night the fancy (expensive) Lionel locomotive went dead.  A quick fix was a $10 Marx 400 plastic loco that I picked up at a local flea market and happened to be in the closet.  Out it came and true to Marx, ran like a charm.  Also found out that all the sounds were really in the Lionel tender so I even had those!!.  That cheap loco saved Christmas.

@pennsyfan posted:

Mark, that was real snow. The trains ran 8 - 12 hours a day. The only weather that stopped the movement was freezing rain. I got out there with a bottle of spray alcohol when it stopped. All that snow in the trolley picture was after a storm that started at night into the next day.

Yes, I can see it is actually snowing in the videos.  Those trains will run forever it seems.

@pennsyfan posted:

When I lived in Brooklyn NY I didn’t have room for an indoor layout. I had this LGB set that I put in the front rock garden every Christmas. It grew from a #2 0-4-0 and 2 passenger cars to what you see here.

I don’t know, Bob. You SAY that’s in Brooklyn, but there ain’t a tacky blow mold Santa or Toy Soldier to be seen… one has to wonder

P.S. that is quite a nice setup - would have loved to see it, especially at night.

Upper Level of L-shaped Layout -- with Dept 56 porcelain structures ...

I placed 35 Dept 56 pieces from the North Pole series on the upper level of my 15x19-feet L-shaped layout as a SALUTE TO CHRISTMAS, even though it's anchored there all year long. Three short trolley lines travel along the routes. Each trolley line conducts adjustable DC power to the rails for the Christmas-related pieces.

Mike Mottler    LCCA 12394

@Apples55 posted:

I don’t know, Bob. You SAY that’s in Brooklyn, but there ain’t a tacky blow mold Santa or Toy Soldier to be seen… one has to wonder

P.S. that is quite a nice setup - would have loved to see it, especially at night.

That stuff was not welcome at my home sir!

Christmas 2023 layout.  Two loops, Lionel and S.  Trains are a 10th Anniversary Polar Express pulled by a 736 Berkshire and a 7 car Flyer orange stripe consist pulled by Milwaukee Road S3 4-8-4 261.  Station is the Lionel version of the Flyer 789 Baggage Smasher station with a Lemax LED  bulb replacing the stock bulb.  That way the illumination runs off of the Christmas tree lighting circuit.

Station platforms are Marx.

2023 Christmas layout in action.

@pennsyfan posted:

That stuff was not welcome at my home sir!

🤣🤣🤣

You must forgive me, Bob. 30 years ago when I was living in Brooklyn, we had an apartment on 84th St. and most years, we’d drive down to see the outrageous light displays on 84th around 13th Ave. (before it became extremely congested and extremely tacky). I’m sure you have seen pics or videos of the street. What amazes me nowadays is that they have a couple of yearly auctions up here in the Poconos of “classic” blow molds. They go for a couple of hundred to a couple of thousand for the rare ones.

@Apples55 posted:

🤣🤣🤣

You must forgive me, Bob. 30 years ago when I was living in Brooklyn, we had an apartment on 84th St. and most years, we’d drive down to see the outrageous light displays on 84th around 13th Ave. (before it became extremely congested and extremely tacky). I’m sure you have seen pics or videos of the street. What amazes me nowadays is that they have a couple of yearly auctions up here in the Poconos of “classic” blow molds. They go for a couple of hundred to a couple of thousand for the rare ones.

Oh I thought you were talking about the plastic lighted ones

Yes we used to go out to Dyker Heights to see that

Perhaps it’s a bit early to set up a Christmas layout, but it sure is fun. We haven’t started yet this year. Even so, this has got me thinking. The last 2 or 3 years we have added some Chistmas decorations to our small 027 in our front room. Before that we would run Standard gauge around our Xmas tree. Happy Holidays to you all!

John (WP) that is a beautiful train set! what year is that from?

@WP posted:

Perhaps it’s a bit early to set up a Christmas layout, but it sure is fun. We haven’t started yet this year. Even so, this has got me thinking. The last 2 or 3 years we have added some Chistmas decorations to our small 027 in our front room. Before that we would run Standard gauge around our Xmas tree. Happy Holidays to you all!

@WP

John:

Your Christmas layouts are GREAT!!!!! Also, you should consider selling publication rights on the above photograph to Hallmark for use on a Christmas card. (Make sure you get royalties.)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your family!

What a beautiful location for a Christmas Layout.

@R2unit posted:

John (WP) that is a beautiful train set! what year is that from?

Thank you. The red Ives Wide Gauge set is an MTH version from a few years ago.

@Randy Harrison posted:

@WP

John:

Your Christmas layouts are GREAT!!!!! Also, you should consider selling publication rights on the above photograph to Hallmark for use on a Christmas card. (Make sure you get royalties.)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your family!

Thanks Randy!! You are very kind. Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Here are some pics from 2022.  

Westend Patsburg decorated for the holiday season.

Circa 1950 as the Transition era is in full swing.  

Santa waves goodbye as his train departs the station.

Evening B&O commuter train.  

Morning B&O commuter.

Fighting snow on the Mountain Division is always challenging.

@trumpettrain- Patrick, what an incredible snowscape and layout.  Beautiful.

@wp - What a beautiful layout and setting for the trains and Christmas tree.  I like to see that #520 doing yeoman's service, it is sometimes a "forgotten" engine and I have always liked it very much.  Again, beautiful layout and tree.

Best Wishes

Don

Patrick, those are all great winter photographs

John, what an excellent room for the Christmas tree and layout!

@trumpettrain posted:

Here are some pics from 2022.  

Westend Patsburg decorated for the holiday season.

Circa 1950 as the Transition era is in full swing.  

Santa waves goodbye as his train departs the station.

Evening B&O commuter train.  

Morning B&O commuter.

Fighting snow on the Mountain Division is always challenging.

Excellent realistic scenes and descriptions Pat. You had better make sure that Big Jim and Tee don’t retire with those snowstorms.

What do you use/do to get such realistic snow?

Jay

Here is my Christmas layout so far. Grandkids are coming for thanksgiving so gearing up. A little old with the new. The F3 ABA is from 1948 (although not available till 1949 I believe) and the Pacemaker set is the Visionline Freight Set. Also Thomas the Tank is running as well as the Hippy Trippy Trolley.

Hi all!

I joined this forum 10 years ago just after I bought my 4 1/2 year old son a Polar Express 10 Year Anniversary Lionchief set.  I built a winter layout for it.  (The first photo shows the very first layout from 2014 and the second photo is the completed 2014 layout).

We moved to a new house a few years later and didn't have enough room inside to have the layout, so it went into the garage which was full of a lot of junk from the move (and years of accumulating stuff).

Fast forward 10 years.  This summer we cleaned out the garage and cleared space for the train set layout.  My son (who is now 14) and I spent a few days cleaning the table, tracks and trains to get everything up and running again.  I was at a yard sale this past weekend and scored a haul of 7 Dept 56 buildings and accessories which I added to the layout.  It still needs some work, but this is what it looks like so far.  I hadn't realized how much I missed this!

Joe, The layout has come along nicely!!  You have some really nice buildings!!

www.youtube.com/trainbros89

@Tranquil Hollow RR posted:

Excellent realistic scenes and descriptions Pat. You had better make sure that Big Jim and Tee don’t retire with those snowstorms.

What do you use/do to get such realistic snow?

Jay

Thank so much for your kind words Jay!   I use Woodland Scenics Snow and Fusion Fiber.  The Fusion Fiber makes for nice looking clumped ( freshly plowed ) snow.