Christmas Layout question

My wife & I have done several holiday layouts using D56/lemax items + O scale trains.  We built 4 4'x4' tables and use them in various arrangements based on the design for that season.  I line them up and clamp them together.   Sometimes we insert lowered areas between these main tables for water scenes.  We ended up just drilling lots of 1/4" up to 1" (or larger as needed) holes in the table tops wherever needed to drop down the various plugs for buildings/etc.  On our ealier layouts, we would try and route all the cables to one point and drop them down.  This proves tricky and hard to hide the cables.  So now we just drill new holes if needed or using existing ones that are already in our table tops. Some builds/accessories/etc have modular "bricks" with a detaching small plug and thus don't need the big holes, but some items still plug directly into your 110 AC and thus you need big holes.   You end up with "holey" table tops, but the more layouts you do, the less likely you are to have to drill a new hole!

 

Anyway, once all the wiring is dropped down under the table, I get (LOTS of) those power strips that have 8 or so little pigtail plugs instead of a straight power strip. Like these:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Accell-D...words=octopus+outlet

 

The advantage of these "squid" deals is that you don't waste sockets due to the bricks' size.  Power strips always end up with wasted sockets. 

 

Next you hide everything under the table with a skirt.   We buy the cheap-o plastic ones at the part store and cut them to fit.  For halloween, we do black, for christmas, we do red or green or even white.

 

On top of the layout, you then cover all the holes, any wires exposed, etc, with whatever ground cover you're using.  We use various autumn colored foams for halloween, or snow for winter scenes.  And lots of trees, people, roads, etc from D56/Lemax.

 

We've also used white butcher paper crumpled up to do mountain sides that look like snow covered mountains.  It works great and is fairly cheap and easy to do.

 

Here are some pics of previous layouts we've done.

 

http://aoot.com/pics/Christmas_2005/

 

http://aoot.com/pics/Halloween_Layout_2007/

http://aoot.com/pics/Halloween_2007/

 

http://aoot.com/pics/Christmas_Layout_2008/

 

http://aoot.com/pics/Halloween_Layout_2010/

http://aoot.com/pics/Halloween_2010/

 

 

Hope this helps!

Stevo:

 

Thanks for the informative response.  I was debating about whether to drill holes for the cords so that's reassuring.  I like the idea of the multi outlets instead of just a power strip.  Did you do any special wiring for your track or is the layout the right size where you don't need to?

 

I took a peek at some of your pictures, and WOW, you really go all out.  Very impressive.  Where do you get all of your buildings, people, and supplies?  We have bought some during after holiday clearance sales and a few on ebay. 

 

 

These layouts all had a single hookup for track power on each loop.  I usually use a modern ZW with 135 and/or 180 bricks, plus a tmcc base and cab-1s.  The track is MTH RealTrax.  I'm not very happy with that product, but once you get it setup and debug any continuity problems, it stays running pretty well.  I'd trade it for Lionel FastTrack though if I could .  Sometimes I have a siding that is isolated, if I'm running conventional trains, and just have a simple toggle switch to route power to the siding or the main to allow 2 conv trains to share a loop.

 

We bought some d56 stuff over the years on-line here and there, but a lot of it was bought at our local train/d56 shop that now has closed down (they couldn't survive the 2008/2009 crash ).   If you spent enough money with them, you would get discounts from them that made it a little more bearable.  The lemax stuff we would buy at Michaels after they drop the price.  Also, you can pretty regularly get a 40-50% discount coupon on-line which helps, but its good for only 1 item/day. 

 

Be sure and post a pic or two once you get the layout going!

 

Cheers!

 

I use a string of C7 Christmas lights.  That way there is only one plug and one cord running from one house to the next.  I even cut a longer string into short lengths of 5 lights each for separate areas on my mantle.  I put a new male or female end on the cut ends to make it safe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dept. 56 has a unit that has one 110 volt plug and receives twelve low voltage plugs. It includes nine bulbs , sockets and cords that will fit through a small diameter hole. It then has three areas to plug in dept. 56 accesseries. The sockets are designed to fit in their buildings and Lemax. The unit can be placed table top or under table and require only small holes for cords, plus less high voltage , more low voltage.

I do it on foam base.  Once buildings are set I make grove in foam for wires. Cover with scenery material.

Bill d

Hiding the wires to individual animations is done by running the wires under and in back of the objects. In the rear, near the tree trunk, everything ends in a "mountain" of plugs,wires, and outlet strips, and I cover this with that white "snow blanket" stuff to make a mountain with skiers and sledders on it.

To get power to all of this I run a line from the outlet, up to and across a rear branch, then down the back of the tree trunk. The line I use has a "foot petal" on-off switch in the middle, so I can use my foot to control the non-train/non-tree stuff.

The foot pedal is a good idea, hadn't thought of that.

 

The preliminary plan is to use a table or two, use Fastrack for the trains, and then probably the pink foam boards for the buildings and cover it with snow blankets. 

Should be easy to poke/drill holes through the foam for the cords and keep them hidden.  This will be a pretty small and basic layout due to the room size and my genuine lack of experience designing layouts, but excited to get started and make it happen. 

 

Thanks to everyone for your assistance.

Have fun!  Upload a pic or two when its done!

I took a different approach: removed the 120v lights & cords and installed LEDs similar to my permanent layout.  Thus, all lights are powered by transformer and the layout is unburdened by all those heavy cords.

 

Bill

Wanted to update everybody on our progress.  We started the construction of the layout about 2 weeks ago and finally ready to run some trains.  The layout is about 8 x 5, has 2 loops (one with 036, one with 054 curves) and we are currently running a Norfolk and Western passenger train and a Santa Fe freight train.

 

We are not finished, still need to hide some wires, hide some areas, and add lots of trees, but wanted to post our prgress so far.  Comments welcome!

 

 

Layout looks fantastic!!  But what do you have those twenty something light cords plugged into?

Nice layout!!!

We have 40 buildings to plug in plus 2 items that use battery only. There are 4 power   strips, one for each corner.  Wal Mart sells a lighted  strand  that  has five bulbs to one outlet.  I bought 3 of those, and that was a big help.  The bigger headache is the big black plugs that take up more than one space on the power strips. 

 

I kept the 2 CW 80 transformers on their own separate outlet, just to be safe.

 

 

 

thanks!  It was a lot of fun to put together.

Hi Santa Fe Va,

 

That looks great you did a wonderful job. Puts me right in the Christmas spirit

 

Thanks for sharing

 

Alex

 

 

 

Thanks Alex.  My daughter is working on a video so perhaps we can post one soon.

Hope things are getting better for you and your neighbors after Sandy's rude visit.

Looks AWESOME!

Wish mine ever looked that good.

I end up on the floor with gifts piled all over it so not much scenery involved.

Thanks Santa Fe, slowly getting back to normal here. I would enjoy seeing a video

of your Christmas  Layout. 

 

Alex

I've built two Christmas layouts with Dept 56 structures. Both used foam insulation that I cut holes in to run the lights from underneath. One was on the floor, the other was framed with 1x4's. For the version on the floor, I had to carve out canals underneach to hold the wires.

 

Enjoy the process of making your layout,

 

Tim