Show us your under the tree layouts!

On the "triple track" somewhere west of Naperville: the Zephyr, a road switcher, and the Polar Express!!

It's the Blue Comet this year for my Christmas Train around the tree!

It's not exactly under the tree this year, but I'm going to be working to finish the layout today, but this is as it looked last weekend for our shows at the Redford Theatre.  Other than the lack of trees and a bunch of other details, it was pretty much completed for the shows.  We put the trees out on Tuesday evening and will be wiring in all the lights today.  Just in time for our first Christmas movies this weekend.

I started building this layout in 2011, and it's been awesome being able to share my collection with thousands of people every year.  My family and friends have also contributed many things to the display, not to mention volunteer time with getting it all together.  Forum Member Mark B has been working with me on it since 2013.

We expanded the layout by 6 feet this year, so it is now 26 feet long by 8 feet deep compared to 20x8 last year.  Considering that when I started in 2011, I was doing a 12'x8' layout, we've come a long way.  Donations from people like Gary Hart (forum member), the Detroit Historical Society, Tony's mower shop, and more have really helped it grow to where it is now.  Last year we had 16,000 people through the theater during the period the layout was assembled, not including private events.  We were also one of the runners up for this year's MTH Blue Comet Award.  

Nick R. posted:

Just a couple simple loops under the tree...

And a small Christmas village in the dining room.

- Nick

Nick, how tall are those hockey players and where did you get them? I have the Stiga Stanley Cup Hockey game, but my players are closer to 1:32. I would love to find something smaller and nicely posed.

I usually run a simple loop under the tree.

I don't think we are even putting up the tree this year? I now have a three rail high line downstairs.

My friend Jim Z usually has a nice Polar Express set up for Christmas that I wish I had pics of.

Carey TeaRose posted:

As my Std. Gauge layout table took over the entire front room of the house, there is no room for a full size tree this year. After seeing many new and old pics posted, I decided to add a 4 ft artificial tree on the front window end of the layout. Pulled off the two 444 roundhouse sections to make room for it, which gave me a little extra space to add some recent acquisitions. Today the tree got its skirting added, but its not lit or decorated just yet. that will happen this weekend most likely.

Decided today that I'll run the MTH repro gold Millennium AF President's Special set on the outer loop, and the MTH repro 392E steam loco, followed by a "Vixen" Christmas passenger car, and the Stephen Girard 3 car passenger set on the inner loop for this holiday month.

 

Carey,

Love that Presidential engine. It is so classy looking! Not sure if you need the Pass cars, as there is a set listed on the famous auction site. Great Pics!

Joe Gozzo

Jim R. posted:

Nick R. posted:

Just a couple simple loops under the tree...

And a small Christmas village in the dining room.

- Nick

Nick, how tall are those hockey players and where did you get them? I have the Stiga Stanley Cup Hockey game, but my players are closer to 1:32. I would love to find something smaller and nicely posed.

They are "Impact! Miniatures" its a company I think in England that does mostly fantasy game figures, but also does hockey figures in resin or metal.  I went with the metal and I am very happy them!

http://www.impactminiatures.com

- Nick

Not much but my 2 year old niece loves it!She insists i run the "Choo choo"whenever she visits!  [url=https://postimg.org/image/lo5ahftr3/][img]https://s19.postimg.org/62nyxhhsz/20171130_143337.jpg[/img][/url]

In stages of progress and with various helpers along the way.

rjsmithindy posted:

I posted some pictures earlier, but thought I would include a short video as well showcasing two of our favorite Christmas sets from MTH. 

 

Nice Rudolph set! That RTR catalog was one of their best.

Just finished up decorating this year's tree and Christmas Central Carpet Railway.

This is my under layout tree. Under my N scale table layout is my floor O scale layout with Christmas tree.

Running a little behind, but we made it. For some reason, my gateman isn’t opening, not sure what that is all about. 

Looks great, Chris!!  Looks like an interesting ride for the train!

This engine is a brighter red.

Postwar mayhem featuring a Lionel paper train!  Enjoy! 

Nick R, the rink couldn't have turned out any better.  Definitely a game winning goal.

Atoz, nice track plan for under the tree, very interesting.

pennytrains posted:

Postwar mayhem featuring a Lionel paper train!  Enjoy! 

  ROTFLMAO  ...with coffee all over my lap after the "door issue" was uniquely solved.

...yes, of course I let the credits roll past too. I expected no less from you

I did enjoy, very muchly

pennytrains posted:

Postwar mayhem featuring a Lionel paper train!  Enjoy! 

Pennytrains,  That is a very imaginative and time consuming project!  I enjoyed the whole video!!

SantaFe158 posted:

It's not exactly under the tree this year, but I'm going to be working to finish the layout today, but this is as it looked last weekend for our shows at the Redford Theatre.  Other than the lack of trees and a bunch of other details, it was pretty much completed for the shows.  We put the trees out on Tuesday evening and will be wiring in all the lights today.  Just in time for our first Christmas movies this weekend.

I started building this layout in 2011, and it's been awesome being able to share my collection with thousands of people every year.  My family and friends have also contributed many things to the display, not to mention volunteer time with getting it all together.  Forum Member Mark B has been working with me on it since 2013.

We expanded the layout by 6 feet this year, so it is now 26 feet long by 8 feet deep compared to 20x8 last year.  Considering that when I started in 2011, I was doing a 12'x8' layout, we've come a long way.  Donations from people like Gary Hart (forum member), the Detroit Historical Society, Tony's mower shop, and more have really helped it grow to where it is now.  Last year we had 16,000 people through the theater during the period the layout was assembled, not including private events.  We were also one of the runners up for this year's MTH Blue Comet Award.  

 

 

Looks great!  I think a Williams GM BL-2 Demonstrator would look great running on the layout.

How about we send a few dollars towards a new Williams engine for the layout?

Adriatic posted:

pennytrains posted:

Postwar mayhem featuring a Lionel paper train!  Enjoy! 

  ROTFLMAO  ...with coffee all over my lap after the "door issue" was uniquely solved.

...yes, of course I let the credits roll past too. I expected no less from you

I did enjoy, very muchly

That was one way to solve it.

I also so that the Doctor was in as much trouble as always.

My first Christmas tree layout.  I slapped this together last night.  Not sure if I'll install a scene on the bare half as we're a presents-under-the-tree family. 

pennytrains posted:

Postwar mayhem featuring a Lionel paper train!  Enjoy! 

Amazing! Wonderfully done. You have a lot of movie talent, for sure.

How did you do the scene where the car and house trailer pulled up to the tracks and stopped as the train went by? The car and trailer are stop action and the train looked to be pure video. How did you combine the two techniques?

Basil posted:

My first Christmas tree layout.  I slapped this together last night.  Not sure if I'll install a scene on the bare half as we're a presents-under-the-tree family. 

Mighty fine looking, Basil!!

RoyBoy posted:

pennytrains posted:

Postwar mayhem featuring a Lionel paper train!  Enjoy! 

Amazing! Wonderfully done. You have a lot of movie talent, for sure.

How did you do the scene where the car and house trailer pulled up to the tracks and stopped as the train went by? The car and trailer are stop action and the train looked to be pure video. How did you combine the two techniques?

Ha!  I fooled you!    I was surprised myself at how good it came out!    I didn't even put power to the rails till after I had removed the locomotive to make the train easier to push.  But you'll notice I didn't push my luck by turning on the banjo! 

The paper train, by the way, is a Greenberg repro, I forgot to mention that in my post.  It will be on the move again soon as I still have one more layout to visit!   By then I'll either look like this: or this:  .  Probably both! 

Your vehicles showed it was no problem going over O gauge tracks!  It reminded me of stop action photography like the Gumby show on television when I was growing up!  Excellent!!

First year with Christmas Benchwork..

Mark Boyce posted:

Your vehicles showed it was no problem going over O gauge tracks!  It reminded me of stop action photography like the Gumby show on television when I was growing up!  Excellent!!

Yeah, I didn't want it to look too good so I only used about a tenth of the photos realistic animation requires.  Fits in better with the whole toy theme if it looks a might hinky and primitive in my opinion. 

pennytrains posted:

Mark Boyce posted:

Your vehicles showed it was no problem going over O gauge tracks!  It reminded me of stop action photography like the Gumby show on television when I was growing up!  Excellent!!

Yeah, I didn't want it to look too good so I only used about a tenth of the photos realistic animation requires.  Fits in better with the whole toy theme if it looks a might hinky and primitive in my opinion. 

Every 10.  Yes the effect came out real good!  Just like they did way, way back when we first got a television!  

These are all great posts.

Here's our's for 2017. Fastrack 60" and 72" curves creating a modified dogbone and four TMCC turnouts for stub sidings all powered by a ZW-L.

2017

And from the front sidewalk.

HO-HO-HO  err  in this case O-O-O.  NICE LAYOUTS EVERYONE

Ours is simple, has to be otherwise my dogs would take it apart while we are at work all day.  Our layout is comprised of my father's 1948 Lionel 1423w set, purchased second hand from the neighbor family who's boys had lost interest. Slept in my grandparents closet till Christmas day 1978 when the Tyco HO sets I was given died in short order that morning.  It was that day that I got my first real exposure to Lionel trains.  Only addition is a Lionel milk car and platform.  The platform is mounted to the riser table all the time, cant find the box with the milk car, its buried somewhere in my train room.  The 1655 has been remotored with a NOS power chassis from Madison Hardware right before they closed up in NYC.  I have the original one, but its so worn out that she barely runs in forward direction.  I also upgraded her to roller pickups from the 1656 switcher which shares the same drive chassis. I have added a couple more ceramic buildings that hide the tree base.   Tree is a live one this year.   Enjoy and Merry Christmas.   Mike and Michele T

idea-thinker posted:

 

Now THAT'S a mainline run! 

Mixed trains modern with post war. Lionel post war steamer pulls Polar Express. Texas Special pulls Mickey Christmas. AN LC + Pennsy Mikado pulls my childhood milk car and barrel car. A ps3 Santa Fe loco pulls 90s era silhouette passenger cars that I love so much. Some tin Marx goes around the Skating rink. Finally, just for fun, the Zombie train, because why not? Add Scrooge’s house, counting house, and  Bob Cratchits place and the North Pole village, and there it is.Fun!

Here's mine.  Rather simplistic this years due to the fact I blew my knee out.