I hear sleighbells! [:D] Yes friends it’s that time of year again! [swg] The chill breeze and falling leaves inevitably start reminding me of how much work I have to do! [(-D] And this week it got under way! This pic shows what I have in mind for my pre-war layout this year. Back in May I built the O gauge table layout and it’s been residing in this room since it was finished. So my challenge this time around is to work the Standard Gauge town into less space since I now have to work around table legs. It’s just an oval with a spur to park cars on, but what more do I need for my one and only working loco: a #8?
Becky, Looks nice. I have also been giving thought to planning this year’s Christmas Carpet Central Railroad. Thanks for the reminder and nudge![;)]
Cobrabob.
Wow, I thought I was the only one in Christmas Mode already.[:)] Looks really nice as always. Keep the pictures coming. I need to put my Pony away for the winter and getting going on this.[:)] That’s almost as bad of an addiction as Christmas and trains.
Is that 47 crossing gate original unrestored prewar Lionel, or is it the MTH repro? I ask because the roadway doesn’t appear to have the typical missing paint from the gate props hitting it. Mine’s really bad in that regard.
All of the accessories are MTH. (Minus the AristoCraft signal bridge obviously) Missing as of yet are green and red telegraph poles and a red MTH station clock. The only original Lionel piece is the 95 rheostat just to the right of the station on the upper level. There’s an LGB bridge painted orange and green at the rear of the standard gauge layout but the other bridge and all the structures in the photo are cardstock. The RH Turnout is an Ives btw. I built something today that may change the look of this layout but I’m not sure yet. Becky
First up is this one, the prewar layout. Next, in October, comes my bedroom layout which is an American Flyer S Gauge oval with an O31 oval inside it. That layout is 4 x 6 on luan plywood with Plasticville buildings and has it’s own vintage Christmas tree (flocked with genuine asbestos! [:S]) in the center. I call it the postwar layout but I run MPC and modern equipment on it as well. The last layout to go up is also the biggest. It’s 15 by 9 and represents Disneyland. That one goes up in November and all 3 are operational by Thanksgiving day. I give myself a month for each to accomodate any cleaning I might have to do, any repairs needed, etc.
There may be a fourth this year, but I doubt it. I’d like to get my Lionel G Scale Atlantic out of it’s box and give it some track time, but I need it’s transformer to power the MPC James Gang General (DC only) that pulls the Disneyland Railroad. So unless I can solve the power problem, the G Scale may have to remain boxed.
If I had more space, #2 on my list of trains I’d like to run would be a small HO layout. I have the Hogwarts Express from Bachmann and a 3 rail Maerklin set that look neat running side by side. I also designed some european paper buildings and I could easily make a nice layout. I have some American HO but not a lot. Similarly I have a tiny collection of N gauge I’d like to operate more but I give real estate priority to S and larger scales as a rule. One of these days…
BTW, I did install yesterday’s project on this layout today and it looks great!
One down, 2 to go! A few points of interrest: The upper airship (standing still) is a Graf Zeppelin, the lower one that’s just a blur is an R 100 paper model. At the grade is my customized #8 pulling a restored 512 in peacock and an MTH 517. The 35 and 36 passenger cars that match the #8 are on the siding to the right. Up front is a K-Line Good Humor Kruzer and if you look very closely you may spot a billboard at the base of the Chrysler building that has the Lionel 1931 cover photo on it. The O loco is a diecast prewar model masquerading as a 1661 pulling both Lionel and Ives 1690 and 1691 cars. Power comes from a 100w Lionel type T and a 250w type K transformer. I use 95 rheostats on both, one mounted to the table and the other on wires for the Standard Gauge line. Remote control prewar style! [(-D]
In the center of town you’ll find a little house that’s near and dear to every Clevelander’s heart. It’s Ralphie’s house from A Christmas Story!
See the leg lamp in the window? If you’d like to build one of your own it’s available for free download from ss42.com. But I’ll warn you that your download options are for 1:87 or 1:60 only. I used the poster print option on my printer to enlarge the 1:60 version b
For various reasons, I haven’t gotten nearly as much done as I expected. But I’m finally getting back on track and next to be built is my bedroom layout:
The big gray circle denotes AF S gauge track. The outer line is O31 tubular and the track on the viaduct (the white rectangles) is a dummy for display only. The Christmas tree stand (the green X inside the Flyer loop) is built into a very oddly shaped hill with 2 tunnels. The buildings are Plasticville, Lionel or K-Line.
And finally… there is now a finalized plan for Disneyland 2012:
Sadly the Monorail just won’t make it. A lot of neccessities have sapped my time and resources and now that I’ve gotten a severe bronchial infection there just can’t be any more sanding, grinding and playing with noxious chemicals to get the job done. The station is close enough to completion though so it will be acting as a placeholder for this year.
Anyhoo, I’m still hoping to have all 3 up and running by Thanksgiving!
Your pictures always blow me away. There is always so much going on in there, and all of the color is just fantastic. I really like Ralphie’s house. I have a bunch of Christmas Story buildings by Dept. 56, but your set up there, with Randy looking out the window, is just really cool. I wish I had your flair. I guess I need to try harder.
I saw a Christmas train/tree setup in Lowe’s. I assumed the train was the usual New Bright cheapie but upon closer inspection it was a Lionel cheapie in G gauge. Really light weight stuff but for 50 bucks you can’t expect much.
