So Which Christmas Series do YOU collect?

I have a large collection of Christmas trains from Lionel, MTH, K-Line, and LGB G gauge.  MTH and Lionel make so many Christmas trains today that I can't possibly collect even a fraction of them.

I am the only person in my local area that I know who has a Christmas collection with two exceptions.  Some of my friends have the Christmas Thomas trains and the Polar Express or both.  I don't have either Thomas or a Polar Express Christmas train.  

I suppose it doesn't make any difference what kind of train a person runs around a Christmas tree as long as they run a train.  This is the entry point for so many future model railroaders.  

Happy New Year,  NH Joe

I always purchased Christmas cars from both Lionel and MTH without following anyone's theme, at least until last year.  I now love MTH's LED cars, both freight and passenger cars.  I have the only Premier set made, the SP GS4 and all SP passenger cars, the rest of my cars and engines are all RK.  I have all the Christmas tree cars, the nativity set along with the hiCube boxcars, the CP boxcars and the Noth Pole and Christmas Express passenger cars.  To head up these cars, I have both Dash 8s with LEDs.  I was looking forward to MTH issuing more LED cars but now that they are closing their doors, I won't have any more cars to purchase, my wallet thanks you..

Great question Polar Railroad and Polar Express SCALE freight. I have the Polar RR GP7 an Polar Express 0-8-0 (bashed to LionChief) scale engines w/ matching scale cabeese.'

I also have a LionChief Polar Express conventional consist consist w/12 distinct cars.

All of the above

If any of my trains are not on a layout, I store them in their boxes on several shelving units.  They are stored by Manufacturer and then by catalog number.

I realized that I have a whole bunch of Christmas-themed trains.  And, I also have a fair amount of Halloween-themed trains, and I have a third category I call AEC/Alien/Area 51.

A few days ago I went through all the trains and pulled out all of the Christmas, Halloween, and AEC/Alien/Area 51 items.  I created sections in the shelving for all of these categories.  I also have a fair amount of G gauge, and pulled all the Christmas-themed G gauge items and gave them their own section.

I found that I have 63 Christmas items, 33 Halloween items, 27 AEC/Alien/Area 51 items, and 12 G gauge Christmas items.

As far as Christmas items, I have:

- Polar Express (Lionchief and the new Lionchief Plus 2.0 locos) and all of the black-roofed cars

- Premier Canadian Pacific Holiday Train

- MTH Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer set plus all additional cars

- Polar Railroad K4 Loco and several (but nowhere near all) Polar Railroad cars

- Several Lionel and MTH Christmas-themed aquarium cars

- Many MTH M&M's Christmas box cars

- Several MTH flatcars with lighted Christmas trees

- A few of the K-Line Coca-Cola Christmas box cars

And, there are a few more that I am forgetting.

I have the MTH North Pole train station with Christmas lights.  I definitely want to pick up more of the MTH buildings with Christmas lights. 

I have all the Polar Express scale freight cars.  I’m still holding out for a PolEx steamer (1224?) to pull them with.

I don't have a Christmas themed layout but I do have the Railking CN Holiday train with a number of add on cars including the scale stage boxcar.  I do have a small Christmas vignette consisting mostly of Miller Engineering Xmas signs and the Lionel Christmas Gateman.  I am presently searching for the MTH Automated Santa Caboose.

We (wife and I) are Disney fans, so we have all of the Disney Christmas train sets and extra cars (also have all the other Disney sets/cars).

We also have the North Pole Central passenger car set (am I the only one that it bothers that only the first three cars had road numbers on them?), a lot of the annual Christmas boxcars (probably 20+), several of the North Pole Central steam engines (3 or 4 - can't remember exactly), the naughty/nice hoppers, candy cane tank cars, gondolas loaded with presents, etc. -- pretty much if it caught our fancy, we got it .

I have the AF Polar Express passenger set and extra cars and Christmas box cars.

I have the Polar Express Scale Passenger minus the Observation Car. I am hoping to buy the yet to arrive North Pole Central Snowflake Limited Scale Freight Set powered by the New Lionel Legacy B6SB 0-6-0 Locomotive.

Decided to collect the "traditional" box cars from MTH:

I have most of the scale Polar Express freight cars and a smattering of Lionel and MTH Christmas items. But I have purchased the yearly Lionel Christmas boxcar for each of my boys since they were born. That way when they finally move out they'll have a nice collection started. I also buy each of them a silver eagle every year to go with the cars.

James

I have the first Polar Express Set (conventional) that came in 2004. I also have all of the add-on cars through about 2010. Then the product line exploded and I just couldn't keep up.

I also have the Peanuts Christmas Freight Set that I ran for the grandkids this year. I changed out the freight cars and used the 3 passenger car add-on set. The kids loved it.

@Retlaw posted:

We have the North Pole Central passenger car set (am I the only one that it bothers that only the first three cars had road numbers?)  .

Ha!   I have that North Pole Central passenger set.  I know the numbers are weird, but the first three cars were offered as part of one of those "add on" kits.  Lionel apparently didn't plan on adding a car for each reindeer name at that point, so their goose was cooked.  Some of these cars are pretty expensive now, so I am glad I have them!

@Sean007 posted:

I have the Peanuts Christmas Freight Set that I ran for the grandkids this year.   I changed out the freight cars and used the 3 passenger car add-on set.  The kids loved it.

Sean, I have the Peanut freight set also... got it out this year for the first time in a while.  Mine generates virtually NO smoke.  Is yours like that?  (Wish I would have gotten that 3-car passenger set. Was dumb not to.

I have 80 Christmas box cars that I ran in 2 trains during  my annual open house during the month of December.  One 40 car train had all of the Lionel Christmas box cars from 1986 to 2020 and 5 K-Line Coke Christmas box cars.  The other 40 car train was made up of MTH, K-Line, Weaver, Williams Christmas Cars, more MTH than the others.  These Christmas cars are only on the layout during the month of December.

Karl

The Chesapeake Susquehanna & Western Model RR

@RadioRon posted:

Sean, I have the Peanut freight set also... got it out this year for the first time in a while.  Mine generates virtually NO smoke.  Is yours like that?  (Wish I would have gotten that 3-car passenger set. Was dumb not to.

Hi Ron,

My Peanut locomotive is not a great smoker either. Sometimes I forget that it can smoke and all of a sudden I'll see a wisp of smoke!

I'm glad that I picked up the Peanuts passenger set (actually my wife did) as I collect most of the Peanuts / Snoopy Sets and cars.

@Sean007 posted:

Hi Ron,

My Peanut locomotive is not a great smoker either. Sometimes I forget that it can smoke and all of a sudden I'll see a wisp of smoke!

The odd thing is, I have the Strasburg Railroad passenger set from 2010.  It has the same loco used in the Peanuts set, but smokes like the dickens!  That is distressing as I am on a very limited budget & splurged to get that Peanuts set (the Strasburg set, too, for that matter).

Polar Express and North Pole Central

The Christmas cars are fun, I especially like the new lighted cars of various types that MTH has been doing. I have a few factory Christmas cars that look nice so I bought them. The full factory sets I have are a Lionel Polar Express where I have lighted the fire for the Hobo, and added snow with sparkles to the roof. Also a Hallmark Santa red train set.

But I have the most fun creating my own cars. I buy up old engines and freight cars cheap worn out 0-27 freight cars and repainting and decorating them. I had done many years ago a set with old Lionel Steam engine in a Candy Cane scheme, red white green stripes I masked and painted with silver and gold lettering and plastic candy canes in 2 gondolas. Also my other favorite is a red and silver old Lionel train with silver letters and loads of toys Hallmark ornament Tonka trucks, sleighs etc.

My favorite I started working on long before MTH came out with them was a CP Holiday train with EL light strings around the edges of the box cars and EL light sheets and blinking stars on the sides. I made an operating stage car with a band that moves and lights up.

Here is a link to some photos of lighted and custom painted cars on my grandsons layout;

https://ogrforum.com/...9#152899748545405979

I like the MTH SP 4449 Holiday Express because it is a real train. I can watch a video of the real thing and then run the model. (I have a better video but it is too big.)

I collect the Lionel Christmas cars; here are the 1986 and 1988. When we began our December open house for our layout in 2016 we resumed the collection, have every one since.

Jan

I have just one I created from a 259E Tinplate that I usually show on the Tinplate Forum.

I'm actually into Prototypical paint schemes but I do have a couple of MTH bump & go Christmas Trolleys I use during the holidays and some decorations from the Dollar Tree on my layout.

I have all of the Traditional MTH Christmas cars, The MTH "Nativity" light up cars, and the Lionel Keep Christ in Christmas cars made for and sold by KofC council 5103 (glendaleknights.org)

I just took delivery of the two Polar Express TOFC Cars. The trailers appear to be a bit dark from the Polar RR and Polar Express cars. But its just a fantasy anyway...

While I have many Christmas and holiday related boxcars including musical and operating ones as well as operating Santa cabeese, reindeer cars and mth lighted boxcars and flatcars, and numerous Polar Express sets and locos, my favorite Christmas set is the Hallmark Santa Toymaker Express Lionchief set of which I have two, including one NIB set still in its unopened outer shipping box. I'm disappointed Lionel and/or Hallmark never made add on cars for this great looking and sounding set with its cherry red metallic engine and great sounding Santa audio clips.