In a typical year I have 4 large to small Christmas train village displays that run most of the holidays of course none this year. However a major expensive hotel is currently working with me to put up some type of display in a hotel window for the holidays. So I got to thinking how could I reliably have a train running.
I looked into powered Christmas tree rotating stands! They hold a lot of weight and have 120 power that rotates with the tree. Perfect rather then try to keep a train running I am now looking to set up a Stationary Christmas village and have the train track rotate with a vintage 1950's Lionel train sitting on it. With the power plug available I can light up the engine and put lights on throughout the train as it is just attached to the track! I was hoping to design it to have the track sit down a bit so you do not see it moving as much and have the perimeter snow banks high enough to block the view of the tracks. So if looking straight on you would see the train moving instead of the tracks as well. I am going to use a Diesel engine instead of steam so you will not notice the wheels not moving.
So now how to hold up the stationary village in the middle? I would build some U shaped brackets over the track and train on each side that would hold up the middle wood base and cover the brackets with tunnel structures to hide them!
What do you think? Anyone done this? Any other ideas? Perhaps as many of us and train clubs will not be doing normal Christmas theme train public displays or shows this year you might consider approaching a hotel, store or mall etc. and see if they might like to put up a display with a similar idea for the Christmas season. I am hoping that for this I will be able to display information about our train club where people can find more information on model trains Lionel etc. And a link to our local railway museum where I normally have a massive Christmas train village running during Polar Express train rides. Hopefully for this I can get a donation for the railway museum!
