I've been getting nervous emails from various folks who generally follow my progress on the annual Christmas train and village display that I put together at the historic Redford Theatre in Detroit. Apparently I've drawn quite the following over the last 10 years and people are getting nervous since I didn't begin the project in October this year as I normally seem to do... 😁
Fear not, the layout is well under way although there's still quite a lot to do. I've had lots of help from friends and family this year and we've managed to knock out a ton of the big tasks over the past week. We even managed to sneak in some time to set up the nine foot tall Christmas tree that normally shares the spotlight in the auditorium with the layout.
This year I've found myself in the position of being the President of the organization that owns and operates the theater (a volunteer position) while also being very busy with my full time paying job, hence my delay in any postings on the layout this year.
Here's a link to last year's post where you can find more information about the theater and the Christmas layout tradition there.
A couple of photos of this years progress. The foundation is laid, the main loops of tracks are wired and secured to the platform and the general village setup is complete. Still ahead is lighting the village buildings, wiring in and installing the accessory lighting (street lights, billboards, etc) and then filling in with trees and other details. A daunting task to be sure.... As always, the track layout is the same as it's been the last few years for simplicity. The building placement has changed somewhat as I usually try to do to keep things fresh each year for our regular patrons.
