Holiday visitors - Fancy trains or fun trains?

Depends on my audience. Train guys get Legacy and DCS with all the bells and whistles. General admission gets some of the more colorful trains with whimsical rolling stock. 

I agree with Marty.

Depends on who is showing up ?

Everyone Seems to like a lot of smoke.

Non train people will like the M&M hand car,

The Snoopy hand car. That ugly snow globe flat car.

Be sure to let them blow the whistle.

 

My partner and I do a little Vaudeville thing where we tell someone

that the train is magic. It knows if you are naughty or nice.

The train is running around the loop when it stops in front of the victim.

Then ( as always ) the dump car dumps a candy cane.

See the train does know...

We usually go through 300 candy canes a night...

 

Most of all, have fun with it....

 

Bruce..

 

I rarely have people over to see my layouts, but at our modular club shows around Christmas time I run the Polar Express, or the North Pole Central starter set with a few extra Christmas cars or the passenger car set. (I play a game with the passenger cars; I pull a car off the track every few laps and get people to figure out what reindeer just "left"). Other items that seem to be popular are a Marx M10005 or a Marx 666 pulling a set of 6" freights.

 

Thomas or one of his friends are a must show as well. The new remote version allows him to get run while another train is running on the track. A few shows ago, I was running him and a prewar 259e with some 600 type  passenger cars on the same track, which was quite a contrast.

 

Things that I have seen that don't go over so well are scale speeds, coal unit trains, and FREDs. Switching operations usually don't keep many interested either.

 

J White

 

Four the past few years, we've set up a set of loops for the City of Los Angeles' Winter Festival at Pershing Square in Downtown Los Angeles. We have the Polar Express, Thomas, and Harry Potter trains running on loops, with the prototypical stuff running on two outer O-72 loops. The kids (of all ages) seem to like it. We get a lot of questions and subsequent visitations to the club layout.

I have two trees with trains under both (one is a high-rail winter scene). I only run Lionel postwar on these because: 1. Lionel PW under the tree is a "natural", and 2. It gives my PW engines something to look forward to the other eleven months.

I have three loops, and I run "fun" stuff on two,but I always run one big, big guy on my main (72 and 84" loop) - maybe a scale Big Boy or EM-1 or Vision Challenger but something approaching 30 inches or more long with 25 or more scale cars - most non-train folks have never seen a loco that big or a toy train that longand detailed and it wows them and gives them a feeling for why I love the hobby so much. 

To me, visitors who are not involved with our hobby would rather see a passenger train with the all of the lights and flash they represent. Of course I am prejudice, but I think I am correct.

This past weekend on my Redford Theatre Christmas layout (consisting of two main loops and a couple small O-27 lines on another level), I had a friend running his Lionel Vision UP Challenger with a set of scale MTH passenger cars on the outer loop, a Williams 746 N&W J class pulling an O-27 sized freight train on the second loop, a K-Line Porter pulling Thomas the tank engine's passenger cars Annie and Clarabel on the upper loop, and my 2020 turbine pulling freight on the inner figure 8.

 

Everybody seemed to enjoy it, and we had multiple questions about "why the front end of the challenger swings out" and stuff like that.  Sometimes mixing things up makes it more fun than just sticking to one thing or the other.  We had my friend's Legacy ATSF 3751 pulling the O-27 freight cars around the day the layout was installed, and had a blast playing with it. 

I must agree passenger cars seemed to be well received by all, but I've also noticed fun cars go along way if they are relatable.  I usually have a Disney train running, and almost all of my Disney cars off actions, chase gondolas, bobbing heads, aquarium swimming.  People see the cars, then recognize the characters and that tends to be popular with everyone.  I think that is why the Hogwarts and Polar Express are popular, people recognize and can relate.  Also, steam engines seem most popular, probably all the movement by the drivers and the puffing smoke.

I think you are, too.  My trains get the most attention from visitors when I put a string of lighted 027 NYC cars behind my 736.  Turning out the room lights so they can see the lights on the layout, helps, too.  The beacon, the lighted billboards, the yard lights, a couple of lights in the passenger station, etc.  They don't care -- or even understand -- about scale fidelity or accurate prototype reproduction.

 

Otherwise, I keep my Reading Faribanks-Morse and Lionel NYC 783 ready on the layout.  It all depends on the tastes, interests and level of familiarity with miniature trains that the individual visitors have.

 

As I said earlier, I always run one "big guy."  This year it is the Vision Challenger. I am always a bit of an evangelist of this hobby, and the thing that surprises and impresses most guests who aren't into trains is the sound: they simply do not expect any chuffing, etc., nor that it could sound exceptionally good, dynamic sound, as does the Challenger - which has the best sound of any loco I have.  They love it!

No matter what type of trains you choose to run - fancy or fun - make sure they will run flawlessly.  Nothing spoils the fun like having an engine stall out or a train separate in the midst of a demonstration. 

 

Personally, I like to get things set up ahead of time and record an operating session with DCS.  When the guest arrive I just hit play and let the DCS do all the work, giving me time to talk to the visitors.

I think people are more interested in the fact that the postwar trains on my Christmas layout are still running after 65 years than they are with technology gizmos. Even I'M impressed!

If I had my way, I'd just run all my trains at once, but as that's not an option yet, I use the biggest and best locomotive I have.  It's extremely rare that we have guests over, but honestly, from my observations, I think the fact that there's a working train at all in my house is what gets people's attention.  I also think having it on a table helps make it more noticeable.

Aaron

Beings I only have scale sized modern trains that is what I run. 95% of them steam engines. 

 

The kids that see them are amazed at the sounds and the action of the steam engines. The 8-10 year old ones learn the legacy handheld in minutes, much faster then adults who don't even want to touch it. 

 

The kids never want to see the diesels run or the older trains running around the tree but they always ask about the steam engines in the garage. They can't believe these things ever ran for real. I show videos to prove they did. 

As stated above it depends on audience. The one determining factor for me would be WHO is expected. I have members of my own family that I wouldn't let touch any of my trains as they have no respect for anything.

 

Dave

The basement layout is under "permanent" construction and rarely has visitors.  My wife and daughter don't even look at it.  But last year my son and I put together a holiday layout upstairs that does get some interest from family and friends.

 

Typically run the Ski Train, Sante Fe Flyer, and N&W "J" Passenger train.  If there are accidents or rough handling, it's not a big deal.  This year we picked up a Polar Express set from a forum member and will add that to the rotation.

We leave the bigger engines and smoke units for the basement. 

I've usually run postwar under the Christmas tree. It's what my father had done and I enjoy keeping that tradition.

 

That said, I've toyed around with the idea of two loops one of the Lionel Santa Fe Freight 208 and its Legacy counterpart.

Main Layout has a Big Boy with a long consist, an 4-8-4 with a moderately long consist and others, the Coors Silver Bullet train is always a big hit with adults.

It's nearly all Steam on my railway with very few non steam engines.

The Sounds really grab attention for me as well.

Kids like the Crane car and anything they can put a load in.

 

The Christmas Tree layout is always a small steam engine with Christmas type cars.

I have a Naughty Or Nice dual dumper gondola and a work caboose to match.

I run boxcars with the Christmas painting on the sides as well. This year I'm adding an old K-Line car that plays several Christmas songs.

I also put out a short piece of track with the Santa and an Elf Handcar bumping back and forth on it.

We always have a get-together with out closest neighbors around the Holidays. The little kids like Thomas and the like. The big kids like the fancier stuff. I'll usually have a mix of both running. 

 

 

*First time posting back on the forum for many years. Glad to be back.