Christmas Railcars!

Let's focus on entire Christmas trains today.

"And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed..."Genesis 22:18

Happy Hanukkah to all who celebrate!

"Your [Abraham] descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and east and north and south. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your offspring." Genesis 28:14

Here is my contribution. Just picked up a tree today so I dug out the Christmas fleet and will let them roll until we are able to decorate it. I had a little extra room so I added a couple non Christmas cars on the inner loop. The inner engine is a K-Line by Lionel with a a cruise-m and the other is a K-Line by Lionel that I did a Legacy conversion on.

Snowmen, elves, and handcars!

SPFord27 posted:

Here is my contribution. Just picked up a tree today so I dug out the Christmas fleet and will let them roll until we are able to decorate it. I had a little extra room so I added a couple non Christmas cars on the inner loop. The inner engine is a K-Line by Lionel with a a cruise-m and the other is a K-Line by Lionel that I did a Legacy conversion on.

Bunch of sharp-looking cars there, SP!

Merry Christmas everyone !

SPFord27 posted:

Here is my contribution. Just picked up a tree today so I dug out the Christmas fleet and will let them roll until we are able to decorate it. I had a little extra room so I added a couple non Christmas cars on the inner loop. The inner engine is a K-Line by Lionel with a a cruise-m and the other is a K-Line by Lionel that I did a Legacy conversion on.

Nice!

So are the two 2012 Lionel boxcars one of each (US and China)?

I started looking at the differences between the 2 and found it pretty interesting (was considering writing a post someday).  They definitely each have a different "look" to them.

-Dave

Vincent Massi posted:

Snowmen, elves, and handcars!

Really like the glass handcar ornaments!

-Dave

Vincent Massi posted:

SPFord27 posted:

Here is my contribution. Just picked up a tree today so I dug out the Christmas fleet and will let them roll until we are able to decorate it. I had a little extra room so I added a couple non Christmas cars on the inner loop. The inner engine is a K-Line by Lionel with a a cruise-m and the other is a K-Line by Lionel that I did a Legacy conversion on.

Bunch of sharp-looking cars there, SP!

Thank you! My wife and I made it a tradition to pick up a Christmas boxcar for every Christmas together. The other cars have been picked up here and there.

Dave45681 posted:

SPFord27 posted:

Here is my contribution. Just picked up a tree today so I dug out the Christmas fleet and will let them roll until we are able to decorate it. I had a little extra room so I added a couple non Christmas cars on the inner loop. The inner engine is a K-Line by Lionel with a a cruise-m and the other is a K-Line by Lionel that I did a Legacy conversion on.

Nice!

So are the two 2012 Lionel boxcars one of each (US and China)?

I started looking at the differences between the 2 and found it pretty interesting (was considering writing a post someday).  They definitely each have a different "look" to them.

-Dave

Thank you.

Yes that is the US and China version of the 2012 Christmas boxcar. Ironically it lines up with our first Christmas together. We picked up the China version first and after picking up the US version there is a night and day difference in them.

We're running out of time! Gotta' deliver more Christmas decorations!

Nice gondolas!

Good grief, I found two more Christmas items at open-air markets today! (Photos tomorrow). Meanwhile, here are some more Christmas train photos.

Vincent Massi posted:

....................

I know it's HO (or is sure looks like it), but that's pretty neat!

You don't by chance have a pic of the rest of the train, do you? (Never mind, I think I found it.  Looks like it's one of those "on-going series" deals, so who knows what a full set may end up like... the first few cars do look really cool though!)

-Dave

You guys better have your Christmas train lay-outs finished.

Here's a mix of Christmas trains on my permanent layout and some on last years layout around the tree.  The Baldwin R16 Sharks Demonstrator Livery lends itself to Christmas quite well! 

Merry Christmas to the whole lot of you!

I'm running out of December--my Christmas display comes down on January 1. So here are some more good Christmas lay-put photos...

Pickins are gettin' slim!

Okay, Gang, this is the last post. Thank you to everyone who followed this thread and who contributed to it.

Why is this the end?  Today is only the 4th Day of Christmas; we have eight more!

Vincent Massi posted:

Merry Christmas to the whole lot of you!

I like the Keep Christ in Christmas.  I always say, if you take Christ out of Christmas all you have left is mas.  Mess.

palallin posted:

Why is this the end?  Today is only the 4th Day of Christmas; we have eight more!

The photos I have left aren't that good.

Here are a few of my favorites. The last one is a shout-out to Mike at MTH. A year before it released, he was at my LHS. I mentioned that they never ran an appropriate loco or caboose, for the scripture based cars.  They are among my wife’s favorites. Coincidence? Probably, but the next tear I saw this loco. Would still like a caboose, though. 
Looking through the rest of the thread... There are still ChristmS cars I’d like

palallin posted:

Why is this the end?  Today is only the 4th Day of Christmas; we have eight more!

Absolutely!!!

Vincent Massi posted:

palallin posted:

Why is this the end?  Today is only the 4th Day of Christmas; we have eight more!

The photos I have left aren't that good.

 

LOL. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Vincent!  You did a whale of a job on this topic!!!

Vincent Massi posted:

Doug, I have tried so hard to get ANYTHING, anything at all, from that Burl Ives (He was the snowman/narrator) Christmas special. Great-looking train!

 

Vincent

there are tons of small figurines on the bidding site. From there it’s a gondola some glue and a sprinkling of imagination. 
Also, MTH did a whole set with add on cars  hard to find, but I’ve given a few sets to nieces and nephews. I have the add on cars, but need want to get the original set cars and caboose for me

Vincent Massi posted:

Some left-over cartoon characters...

I have to find that peanuts miniatures Train!

A few stragglers here.

Somehow I think we made it through this whole thread without the Department 56 cars and engine showing up.   (And the building behind them)

-Dave

Dave45681 posted:

A few stragglers here.

Somehow I think we made it through this whole thread without the Department 56 cars and engine showing up.   (And the building behind them)

-Dave

That’s awesome! Since most of my layout decorations are dept 56. I didn’t even know the train existed. 

Marty R posted:

That’s awesome! Since most of my layout decorations are dept 56. I didn’t even know the train existed. 

Looking at the years on the cars, I think they were made between 1995-2001-ish.  (think the order was the first 2 boxcars, the caboose, then the tank car, hopper and gondola.  I forget when the engine was offered off the top of my head.)

The series was a Lionel custom run offered by a store called Allied Model Trains, but they went out of business back in 2015.  They were apparently a long term store in a town near LA in California until the closure.  They at one point had a huge store that looked like a station, then moved to the smaller building where they were until they closed.  That smaller location was destroyed in a fire shortly after they closed up shop.

Most of the cars seem relatively common on the secondary market these days.  There was a time when some of them commanded a premium, but you could probably pick most of them up pretty affordably now (though searching for them right at Christmastime might not produce the best deals, of course ).

-Dave