Emile, GREAT IDEA!  They look great--thanks for some Christmas spirit--we need it.

Beautiful train and display!  Can't wait for this years "Epic" pictures and video!  Christmas wasn't the same last year without them.  Thank you for sharing.

Emile had a great video last year. I sent it to everybody I know. 

 

This is will be an epic set when your done Emile. 

His P/E Christmas video was awesome.

Very Nice.

Cool, I like the light reels, I agree with Keith, pretty clever.

 

Thanks to all for your positive comments. The December issue of OGR Magazine will include an article and photos of my Christmas layout. It should be available on the newsstand and by digital subscription sometime in October. For those who want to see more, Epic Christmas Village V, which is the subject of the article, will debut on YouTube on November 5.

 

Emile

That is great, really clever!!

Emile,

 

Very nicely done !!! Love it !!!!

 

Alex

That is very cool!  A unit train of those cars would be cool too.  I'm looking forward to your video !

Pretty neat.

Nice work, Emile.  And congrats on landing a Polar RR SD80MAC!  In a world where the word "rare" is so often way overused, this piece truly is RARE.  Not sure why, but Lionel reportedly had a relatively low production volume for the Polar RR SD80MAC.  I recall talking to Nicholas Smith Trains about this a couple of years ago, and they mentioned only 3 arrived in-house... and they went quickly.  I found one last year at a hobby shop that doesn't do much website advertising.  Took a while, but it was worth the hunt.    Enjoy yours!!!

 

David

Thanks David. I had the same experience. I looked forever for the SD80MAC and then a little Hobby Shop posted their first website with the SD80MAC on it. I got lucky to see it within the first few days and I snatched it up quick. Haven't seen another one since.

 

Emile

Thanks for posting this sneak peak!  Never too early IMO to get into the Christmas layout  spirit of things.

 

Emile,

 

Genius idea on the reel cars. 

 

Now, I do not need any more engines (but that does not stop me from buying 'em ) and I do not run very many modern diesels yet - but that SD80MAC is awesome.  I got to find one now if I can.  The thrill of the hunt!

 

Lionel should hire you as a consultant, then they could sell a ton of items in the Holiday catalog.  They need to rerun this engine for sure (again, just my opinion).

 

Thad

 

Great idea using the lights in the reel!  Did you spray paint the reels red or does someone manufacture them?   For my Halloween layout, I bought a pack of ten battery operated LEDs that are orange to go in a gondola.  The sides of the gondola help hide the two aa battery pack.  How are you powering the lights in the reel?

 

You're so right, Emile!

 

Really cool, engine. I love the whole Polar Railroad thing.

 

Your cars look great! Can't wait to see your train running!

Emile,
Great idea!  I have the same question about how are you powering your lights?  I don"t remember seeing a video of Christmas layout from last year.  You always do a spectacular job!

Ken

Emile-

 

Great looking set. My question is why can't the manufacturers come up with these types of cars?

 

Thanks for sharing,

 

JoeG

VERY nice Emile!  Perhaps these had a small production run because not many people were willing to pay for such an expensive loco whose use is limited to just a short time each year?

What a great idea! Can't wait to see them finnished!

 

BTW -

 

MTH released an uncatalogued Imperial Christmas ES44 GE Evo engine about a year ago and they are also hard to find.

 

JoeG

Thanks Tom. I painted the the Reels which were originally grey. For 3v power I used a 2 coin style battery holder. The watch type batteries were thinner than using a AA battery pack. I had originally hoped to run it with track power but the more I read, the more I realize that electrical circuits are just not in my skill set. You would think there's an easy plug and play way to knock 18v to 3v, but I sure couldn't figure it out. In the future I may look to collaborate with another OGR member who knows what he's doing. I expect to get about 20 hours out of current arrangement.

Possibly, the list price was just over $500. For a Scale Diesel it didn't seem all that excessive. That's less than half the other big selling Scale Christmas Loco. The SD80MAC has a similar paint scheme to the Ferromex Diesel. It is such a great looking train, I think it could be easily run year-round. The proportions of the modeling are awesome and this thing looks "Bad As" in-person. I would love to see Lionel do another run of these Bad Boys.

Quite possible, but the pent-up demand is definitely there for this loco.  Of course, 2012 pre-dated Lionel's BTO days, so Lionel may have simply misjudged the interest level for it -- especially since the color scheme is so traditionally Christmas.  Most of the prior Polar RR stuff was blue/burgundy/gold, so this was also the transition to the new, alternate Polar RR paint scheme of red/green/silver that we now see on select rolling stock like the round-roof Polar RR boxcar.

 

Lionel has been all over the map for us hi-rail/scale Christmas enthusiasts:  Polar RR blue/burgundy/gold; Polar RR red/green/silver; and most recently, the North Pole Central in reg/green/white/grey. 

 

David

 

Was in target yesterday and they had some neat Philips LED battery operated lights for $8.

example:

http://www.target.com/p/philip...=philips+battery+led

 

http://www.target.com/p/philip...=philips+battery+led

 

only bad thing is that they take two aa batteries.  if anyone comes across a link to two watch sized batteries that power leds please post!  another idea is to look out for seasonal battery operated necklaces

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Hom...ace-900219/205819526

the necklaces do take the smaller batteries

 

Home Depot also has battery operated LED lights.  I got a bunch after Halloween last year for $2 a pack.

Tom,

   Radio Shack has the Coin Clip battery holders.

Emile

VERY Nice!!!

 

Here is a link to BigCrabCakes P/E Christmas layout complete with

Josh Groban          

 

Please enjoy, I do every time I watch it.      

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc6IHUdl3V8

Thank you SantaFeJim. I have had a lot of positive response to that video. It's hard not to sing-a-long.

 

Emile

Michaels has these set of 50 micro leds made by lemax for $9.  Aaa or aa battery operated. 
Reminded me of this post when i saw them the other day

http://www.michaels.com/lemax-...Lemax+lights&start=4