Secondhandmodeler’s thread made me think. What sort of trains on and around the Christmas trees is everyone doing this year? Instead of dreging up a prior year thread, here is the one for 2007. Mine are not out of storage yet - maybe this weekend. What does everyone else have?
Remember - it ain’t no ufficial Christmas tree if it ain’t got a train. [;)]
TZ - I have an old Lionel set (approx 1985) that I am going to set up for my nephew. Its been so long since I operated this thing. All I can remember is that it has a steam engine and a little rolling stock. I hope it works. Its been paked away for about 15 to 20 years. But it has been stored in a nice sturdy trunk so I think after I clean the rails and check out the loco it will probably run alright.
I’ll check it out tonight and get more details. Anyone know whether a Lionel set from the 80’s would be worht anything? I doubt it is a collectors item, but I don’t really keep up with the value of old train collectables.
Smitty
Lionel New York Central Flyer with Fast Track around our tree (note; this is before we decorated the tree!):
Dave,
That Sequoa looks very nice and realistic on your S-scale layout. Is that snow on the ground? [swg]
Tom
P.S. Good choice in roads, too, BTW
Our house ia a bit small for one this year (well, I COULD do Z around the tree, but that’s right by the front door in the window, and that’s our puppy’s favorite perch) but I alternate between G, O, HO, and Lego trains around the tree. [:)]
Tom,
Bein’ a Pennsy guy, I must follow the words of Sun Tsu:
“Know thy enemy…!”
Notice, too, the somewhat over-scale training potty covered by “good job” stickers in the background… My youngest is about 90% there!
[(-D]
A sewage holding tank!
The T&S spent a fortune on a Christmas village. As there was a station included I felt obliged to provide appropriate transport,
Lionel of course it’s the only thing in my house that’s over 50 years old and still runs [swg]
Since the cats will destroy the tree, it’s out on the back porch, so I set up the loops in my room, and it’s HO, N, and Lego(I have no layout, but I still do some interchanging on the N and Lego)[wow]
Well do to our move next month our christmas layout is confined to the box. If it was set up it was a lionel steam 4-6-2 from 1948 with a bunch of old new rolling stock found in a guys house last year when the family moved him into a nursing home.
Gotta love the father in law for that one. It all runs on the new lionel fast track. May expand that for some turnouts and my moms old lionel diesel f something.
Merry christmas everyone or happy holidays for those who are politically correct.
Mike
| Well i run a plastic G scale train(from when I was younger?) & a O scale set up. The O scale engines are a Lionel NYC 4-4-2 & a Great Northern RS Class. |
|---|
Here’s my Christmas tree train for the year![:D]
The engine and tender shells on there at the moment are NOT the ones that will be used later. The good ones are currently being repainted.
I had to put a masonite circle under the tree (supported by shims over the hard floor) to support the 5lb. of weight held in that engine!
That tree is 20 years old and still doing fine! Pretty heavily decorated, isn’t it?[:D] There’s a lot more color than what’s in the picture.
Wow guys those are some sweet Christmas tree setups, i am thinking about doing one this year but my problem is twofold, one our tree is a 4 footer that sits in our entertainment center, now my N-scale stuff would fit great but we have 6 cats so i might as well paint the thing grey and put a tail on it, now i do have some O-gauge Marxs stuffm and if i made an extender it would work, and hey then i could chase the cats[(-D], i like it, its not only a good idea buts its also some what naughty!, and good work on the potty training there dave, just don’t do what my mom did when i finally got the hang of it, the story goes that she got so excited and made such a fuss that it scared me and i would not do it again for a month[:P], and Merry Christmas to all you guys here, you have all been a big help to me these past months and i thank you!
Remember - it ain’t no ufficial Christmas tree if it ain’t got a train.
Hi All
As an Aussie, pardon my ignorance but can anyone tell me why or how the tradition of a train and the Xmas tree may have originated? I have always been fascinated by this and should perhaps do my own here… even my wife was looking at some of the cheap and nasty sets which I turned my nose up at but offered to do a scale train! I might make a convert of her yet!
Cheers
Trevor www.xdford.digitalzones.com FYI
Good Question
I think it may have something to do with one of the early pioneers MARX or Gilbert
who sold their first trains to a Hardware store as a Christmas Display.
All the customers wanted to buy the display
The rest is History
Some one here will know for sure
I have a 1946 Lionel set that I received from an Uncle when he didn’t want it. When I got it it didn’t work, but a repairman was able to fix it and it has become a tradition to set it up under the tree. We always get a live tree and we won’t be getting it for another week or two, so right now the train sits packed in a box. My nephew will probably be bugging me to set up the train vary soon.
John
Bachman On30 with ceramic village structures, all a gift from my parents some years ago. There is a passing siding at the back which allows me to operate 2 trains; one passenger and one freight.
Well Trevor, I think the idea of trains around the Christmas tree (or under the Christmas tree, not always around it) goes back to the tradition of kids getting a train set for Christmas. In many families (mine included) the Lionel or American Flyer train set was something you not only got for Christmas, but only played with at Christmas - it came out with the tree and was set up running on the floor, perhaps using packages as temporary mountains and such - and then put away in January with the Christmas ornaments.
Last year was the first Xmas together with my wife, much to her chagrin it turned out the round decorated rug she uses under the Xmas three has a raised border that an 18" radius circle of Atlas HO track-with-roadbed fits inside perfectly, so I set up a BLI NW-2, 3 cars, and a caboose. I used a DC powerpack with one of the Bell-and-Whistle button gizmos (otherwise I use DCC). We’ll see if I do it this year, I’m starting benchwork on the new layout this weekend (tomorrow’s blizzard permitting) and I told my wife if I had a layout going by this Xmas I wouldn’t do the train under the tree this year.