Is anyone setting up the Christmas layout yet?

In the planning stages of mine. Would love to have 2 Separate loops so I could have 2 trains run unattended. Doubt I have the room though. We have Christmas with family and friends at my house and this is the first year I want to go standard gauge tinplate instead of I scale.

Space for standard gauge is an issue. Our house is fairly small and the tree and layout consume a lot of space. Had to take some furniture out etc, but it is still tight. Wife does not like it but has not given me too much static. It's not something I do every year.

 

Steve

no layout this year even though it was g scale, with our frist grandchild turning one  and a new long haired  dachshund pup we feel it may not make it through the season so for this year we will enjoy yours, I do have the same picture that i posted last year, but it includes the pup that past in june so we will put that to rest and have all new in 2013 have a great holiday season.

Brian

So far it has run 5 different engines Ok. One PS2 and the others conventional. A Z is available if I run across a loco that wants more voltage.

 

Steve

My daughter and I set up a standard gauge figure-8 on the floor tonight.  It would need an area of 4' x 9'.  After measuring in the living room an area for that space, we decided to go with a simple loop so it would fit within 4' x 8'.  I need to leave room for buildings and accesories too.

Have you ever tried Railway Roulette? Great fun during the season. Oval, but figure of eight more fun. Place markers representing different stations around the circuit and then place your bets on where a clockwork train is going to eventually come to a halt from wherever you decide to set it off. Hours of fun for all the family and bets don't need to be more than a few sweets.

 

David  

The Wife is planning on getting the Tree Sunday Dec 3rd, and planned on letting me put up trains then, but I may try to get away with laying the track a day or two early, so I don't have to fight the tree putting track down. Our Family and Dining rooms are adjacent to each other with no partion so I have about a 13x24 space to lay two loops of 072 and 082 Real trax around the walls, plus a loop under the Tree itself. She tolerates my Sickness, er, uhm, HOBBY, but knew that it was a PRE-EXISTING condition when we got Married, so she has to accept it, kind of like my accepting her Pug, except that the Trains are ony up for less than 2 months a year, that dog is a year round annoyance .

 

Doug

Post some pic's...I'm looking for inspiration!  I was going to bag it for this year, but seeing this thread has me reconsidering...

 

PD

 

 

Still pondering my options..leaning toward Large Scale this year, with a small side rod Whitcomb pulling log cars loaded with Christmas trees..still working on the rehab of the Marx ATSF 21 and associated cars off and on, which would be a preference, but much work remains..probably a simple loop will do..

The time for Christmas in our family is from Thanksgiving until January 6th. Why January 6th? That is the 12th day of Christmas. Besides it gives the kids time to enjoy the holiday. Those that take everything down the day after Christmas never hear the bell ring.

 

Al

My tree is up with over 1,000 Christmas balls, all very special, some from my mom and dad and others are antique Christmas balls plus modern that I have collected over the past 40 years. 

 

A std. Gauge blue comet is under the tree. It will run till after January 6th. Also the tin plate race car set is being set up. This will be the first year for the race car set to be running at Christmas time. 

 

With train downstairs and up stairs, it's a Wonderful life. 

the Boss wants to wait until after Thanksgiving, but she's out of town this weekend visiting our daughter.........

Here is my layout. I do not have any of the 15 ft tall people as of yet that are common on std gauge layouts, but I do have an order in at Barclays. The Lionel Classic's box supporting the transformer will get wrapped to look like a present.

 

Steve

You might want to consider large scale figures (G). Last time I did something similar, no one noticed the slight discrepancy in scale, except me. Here is a G Scale figure next to a Standard Gauge Station..

 

Steve, I've enjoyed your photos. I especially enjoy seeing the Marx freight terminal, with all the accessories. I have one of those on the O Gauge layout,  and its dominates everything else. Scale...what's scale? 

The new Thomas is in place. Next weekend the mainline will open. 

Very Nice Steve, Nice and early also.  I like running 2 trains also, mine is almost ready for next week. I can feel christmas in the air. Good feeling. Thanks for posting.

Unfortunately our tree goes into a recessed corner, so I only have room for one loop. This rules out a lot of creativity, so I end up doing the same thing every year. A loop of fastrack, with Marx tunnels where it goes under the tree so it disappears under the tree, then comes out and runs around an area where presents can be put.

 

This goes against what I used to enjoy though. I used to set up my Christmas layout every Black Friday and would always make it a fun layout.

Thanks for the comment.

 

And no official word yet from the proclaimer of seasons:  Daffy duck!

me too! Steve what is the size of the Terminal? Love to find one.

I am just now taking down my Halloween layout. This year I am probably just going to setup a loop of my G scale trains.  I have 4 days to figure out what I want to do.

Here are three photos of The Christmas Putz in The Lutheran Home at Topton, PA. It will be open Saturdays and Sundays from Noon til 4:00 PM November 24 through December 30. The Lutheran Home is located along the East Penn Branch of the Reading (now Norfolk Southern) a few miles east of Route 222 halfway between Allentown and Reading. The station in Topton is now a bakery and deli.

 

 

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."

 

   ~  Ralph Waldo Emerson

Great to see all the Christmas layouts popping up! My turn next week. Though, it may not be under the tree this year since the CFO realized we forgot to setup our "F" gauge nativity set last year. It will go up this year, then will have to engineer a layout round it.

 

Keep the pics coming and this thread alive!

 

Best,

CH

We posted this in an ealier thread.  Been working on our first holiday layout for about 2 weeks now, first week figuring out layout for the 2 loops, mountains and tunnels.  Second week spent on building placement (over 40 of them!) and wiring.

 

Not done with everything yet but my 10 year old was ready to start running trains.

Had family and friends over all weekend and having a blast!

Seasonal businesses are cropping up!

 

 

 

 

Peter

I usually do not start until after Thanksgiving.  This year, I needed to fix the track on the layout.  i decided to bring the modules up and lay new track.   i just finished and trains are running on the new track.  The wiring is done for the buildings.  All that is left is to unpack the buildings and put them on the layout.

 

 

I am hoping to start on mine this coming weekend.

 

The Marx Freight Terminal is 28" long, 11" wide and about 9"tall. It was many of the Marx playsets that had nothing to do with trains, but the freight station has become a favorite for O and standard gauge. Not hard to find, but a boxed one or one with most it's accessories can get pricey. Just the terminal can be found for under a $100.00 quite often.

 

Steve

on vacation this week, so I will have the time.

 

just need to buy 2 rail track now.

Fabulous pics, everyone!

 

Peter

Christmas 2012 Planning Stage - 5' X 5';

I take this as the "early starters" thread.

 

Set it up this past weekend, and had a few helpers this year.

 

My layout has been coming together over the last two days. I only dove into tinplate last year with a starter set for Christmas, so I don't have any proper buildings or accessories yet. But I think we'll have a happy hodge-podge of a big oval with a 384 pulling passenger cars, an inner figure-eight running a #8 trolley, a couple of Lego Winter Village sets, a Lego church my 5yo son is building, and a pair of Dept. 56 buildings for good measure. I picked up the full DCS system at the local shop yesterday, and that seems like a ton of fun so far - it eliminates some awkwardness in stops with station announcements that I couldn't get around with the Remote Commander. And I think being able to run the trolley on an automatic route of station stops while directly controlling the 384 will look pretty awesome once it's all put together. I'll post some pics after Christmas - the tree isn't going up for a couple more weeks yet, and there will be some more Lego and Dept. 56 buildings arriving as gifts. 

 

My wife has been quite tolerant so far, despite the fact that I just commandeered about a third of our living room. To her credit, she recognizes how absurdly happy I am when I have a train running (though she doesn't get it herself), and this is the only time I have a layout at all. So it will be good times for the next 6 weeks or so, and I'm going to live it up. 

 

Hope everyone's holiday season is off to a fine start!

Steve and everyone, great pictures.  I hope to have my Christmas layout up in couple of weeks.

the Boss said a little while ago "I figured you'd put your train board up this weekend" But you told me you didn't want it up this early...... This was my one weekend off a month too! Now I've got 7 midnights coming.

Gentlemen,

     Looks like I better get busy, doing some planning.  Its going to be simple this year, time is at a premium but I still want a living room layout, with the Bear Christmas tree on it.   You guys all have a big start on me, thanks for the great pictures!

PCRR/Dave 

 

Memories of the big 4 level O Guage layout

one of four guardians of the layout....