Who uses Dept. 56 original Snow Village or Lemax buildings or accessories on their layout?

I use all Lemax stuff on one of my two Christmas layouts. Although many people mix them with "regular" layout buildings, I think they stand out too much. Others keep them in a grouping, and I think this works better.

The thing I don't care for on the Dept.56 buildings is the "half-melted snow". What was the thinking behind that?

I have a 4 x4 amusement park built in the front corner of my layout. It is a huge hit with both children and adults when they enter the room. Most of the rides are made by Lemax and all are plugged into a multi outlet strip and turned on with a RF remote. After Christmas Lowes & AC Mores  marks them down 80-90%.

I like Dept.56 Some of their stuff has some really nice detail

I use a lot of Dept. 56 and Lemax items for Christmas and Halloween.  The one building I keep trackside is the Dept 56 Lionel Buildinng. Yes, it has a wreath on it, but it really doesn't look much like a Christmas decorated building so I use it year round.

Take a look at the video in my signature, about 40-60 seconds in.  The coaster is by Coaster Dynamix.  The other rides are mostly Lemax.  One of our club members, Ben, is an amusement park fan.

Peter

Passenger Train Collector (Brian)....where are you????

Alan

I recently revamped my 8' x 16' layout to incorporate my late mother's Department 56 collection. It came out really nice, even when mixed with realistic scenery and scale trains. See all the photos here:

https://ogrforum.com/d...ent/5934960430570450l

I use a mix of the Lemax, Dept56 and St. Nicholas Square. Since my 'layout' is put up for Christmas, they work very nicely. For those not familiar with St. Nicholas Square, Kohl's sells them and like Dept56, they have their own thread on ebay. (They are bigger like Dept56 'Snowvillage', but matte finished like Lemax).

I like all of the buildings my family members have given. I will try to find a few pictures tonight or tomorrow to post.

Henry J.

Our Club uses the Lemax buildings in 2 distinct settings. One area is an Old West Spooky Haunted Town where we use the station, water tower and saloon with assorted Lemax figures. The other area is a Carnival Theme, where we use Lemax rides and buildings. We just mix and match them regardless of size. Visitors love it.

Matt

I too have a few mixed heritage buildings on the layout.

I have a Gas station / garage in town, Up the Creep Paddle & Canoe shop on the road to the mountain, and a Forest Rangers Station for up on the mountain.

None are in final location but that is fine for now.

I am going to replace the lights with LEDs so I can get the 115VAC off the layout !

Other than that I like them a lot.

I also have several for the Christmas Tree layout that stay boxed up most of the time.

I have several Snow Village lighted buildings on my "anything goes," winter scene Christmas layouts. I have a Snow Village Holy Spirit Church right next to my Lionel Crabby Matt's Heavyweight Diner Car (which I turned into a crabshack/tavern with Miller Engineering beer signs and holiday lights). Running is both a "mini-hudson" postwar train, and a modern standard O train. I'm just looking for Christmas-ness.

Any actual modeling I do is dirty, heavy industry .... so, no place for Snow Village type stuff.

Jim

I use St. Nicholas Square buildings offered by Kohl's Department store.  The attached photo shows about one half of the buildings I use on my Christmas layout.  I have found St. Nicholas Square to be just as nice as Dept. 56 but at a much lower price.

I think they look great at Christmas. When I finally build a permanent layout, they will find a home there too. I love the diecast Dept 56 Subway Entrance, they are really nice..

. Has anyone found a practible way to keep the walls and roofs of these buildings from glowing? I Don't see painting them on the inside as a viable solution with their solid bases and many internal nooks and crannies impossible to get to with a brush. Likewise pouring in a liquid pant to coat walls also wouldn't work as how whould you keep the paint away from the window and door openings? Also, if paint isn't uniformly applied, the walls might appear blotchy when lit from the inside.

Someone mentioned lighting them with leds rather than the 7 watt incadescent bulbs which come with them. Has anyone actually done that? If so, how did you mount the leds to the inside of the buildings? Were they bright enough to look realistic? Maybe to many of you a glowing building isn't a distraction but rather adds ambience to your setting but for those who find glowing walls a distraction, what are some remedies? When you mix glowing buildings side by side with buildings made by Lionel or MTH which don't glow,  what do tou think? A distraction or adds atmosphere to the scene?

I have about 40 Dept. 56 Snow Village buildings, collected over a number of years.  I haven;t really added to the collection in recent years because I'm running out of space for just about everything and anything.  I do have a number of the buildings on display in various areas of my home--mantle, bookcases, etc., but really would like to incorporate them into a layout of some sort.

That last layout I had that featured those buildings was a trolley pike (with SuperStreets) I built last Christmas.  It actually came out pretty well, but I dismantled it after the holidays because it took up a good bit of space in my dining room.  I'm now trying to figure out a way (and location) for another trolley pike that I can keep up all year and make use of at least some of those neat Dept. 56 buildings.

Anything goes on my layout.  Being new at it I am still trying to find or refine my look.  I have some Lemax and K line bldgs from another forum member, some plasticville from a flea market, some cardstock and my wife's garge sale find of 13 buildings a mix of Dickens, Lemax, Dept 56 and some unknowns for a total of $12!  The very obvious holiday ones will be used on a tree layout utilizing my late fathers annual Christmas display.

I also use dept 56 and lemax type buildings.

I would use metal foil or black electrical tape to block unwanted light from coming through roofs or walls.

I wish the people figures were not so oversized, I try to avoid sets with larger people.

The rides are very nice and fairly cheap too.

I don't have them up on the layout yet but I've been collecting the Enesco "It's a Wonderful Life" buildings.  IAWL is my all time favorite movie.  Having a Bedford Falls on my layout will be so cool for me!

Chris

Brian - I'd love to see your layout someday!

Regarding the question on lighting Dept. 56 structures without the glow coming through the walls, this can be accomplished using 3-volt light bulbs controlled by a dimmer switch, or variable transformer throttle. Sometimes though, it's neat to see the glow through the structures.

My former layout, which started as a seasonal Christmas pike, featured about 50 or so Dept. 56 and Stoney Express ceramic/percelain buildings in a multi-tiered semi-hi-rail/toy rail setting. Jim Barrett photographed the layout a few years ago, and although I haven't seen the pictures yet, if it hasn't appeared by now, I am doubting it'll ever appear in OGR.

My new layout (island shape in center of basement) plans call for mostly larger scale Railking buildings on the layout foreground, and concave-shape modules for the basement corners that will showcase our ceramic structures. The goal is a walk-around hi-rail layout in the middle of the basement and seasonal displays/themes in the corners with Dept. 56 Christmas in one area, Halloween in the another, and a Polar Express theme in the 3rd. The result will hopefully be a pleasant experience for all.

Get the Dept 56 low voltage lighting system/strip.  It can light 13 bldgs all with 3 volts. Much nicer than the 120 v. older lights.  It is pricey at $75 retail but you can usually find them cheaper after Christmas.  It is a great improvement over individually lighting each building by using a power strip(120v) especially with the 120v 7watt bulbs.  

Alan, I just opened this thread and you are correct, a picture is worth 1,000 words in telling the story of how I use D-56 products. Here is a sample.