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Janis Roguskie’s Christmas 2011 layout
Merry Christmas, and thanks for sharing your layout with me.
It was a great Christmas layout. It reminds me of the combination of three 4’X8’ boards I used to put up to amuse my grandchildren when they were young. One board was a city, one yards and a transition board with the tree and a farm.
This is a wonderful representation of the type of layouts I drooled over while spending hours in 1950’s department stores. The sounds of O-gauge trains continuously running through classic toy-train scenery and accessories is charming and nostalgic. Would be nice to see the complete track configuration.
For those wanting the track plan, I wish I could draw it out and put it on here. I was thinking about submitting an article on the layout to CTT. Meanwhile, this link is for a video called “Planning a Christmas Layout”: http://youtu.be/xFOHz0qoz30
This video might give you a better idea of the track layout. The only thing different from the final version, with regards to the track, is the location of some of the sidings.
The inside track is a slightly modified version of the Lionel D-291 Dealer Display ( For the track plan: http://www.lionellines.com/displays.html). The D-291 uses Super O but I used 031 track. I was originally going to do the trestle set as well but someone suggested doing an outside loop of track instead. I further modified the D-291 track plan until I could fit the outer loop of track onto the layout. It worked out really nice. I wanted to capture the look and feel of layouts that I was taken to visit in the late 50s and early 60s. From the comments, looks like I’ve been successful.
P.S.
We’ve always had a Christmas layout…tradition. As for the presents, they get stacked along the length of the platform.
To Bruce Weihberg:
I bought three 36" X 80" Luan doors at Lowe’s. I cut the door height down to 64". The doors are butted side to side and the layout sits atop milk crates.
Really Nice!! It shows how much you love your trains!! Nice Job!
very impressive christmas layout,like how you utilized the space
Quite a few folks were asking for the track plan and so I dug the track back out of the boxes, laid it out on the floor and made a video that walks you through the track plan and gives details regarding custom cut track sections. The kind folks at CTT were gracious enough to post this video on the Reader Video page. I hope the video provides enough details so that anyone who wants to, will be able to duplicate the layout. Thanks to all for the many nice comments and thanks to CTT for posting my videos.
Viewing this video I’d have to agree with all the others that this layout is very nicely laid out around the Christmas Tree. A wonderful job!!! Ron & Cindy Canton OH
It is very impressive to see all the action on the layout. It is a great job well done.
Beacon, floodlights, crossing guards, control towers and villages all in a tight space with out being crowded! Excellant use of space. Sent me back to the Christmases of my youth!
Amazing. So much realistic scenery, action and equipment in such
a small space.
i love to see and hear female model train fans!!! when all of us boy cousins had layouts during the 50s, here in brooklyn ny, my cousin ann-marie had one too! she still has one to this day out in california where she retired from the fashion business. i hope Ms. Roguskie makes it permanent!
Very nice, what fun! Thanks for sharing.
Very neat xmas layout. Reminds me of my Dad’s layout in the 50s.
Congratulations to Janis for a very wondeful nostalgic Lionel layout. This reminds me of my layout from the early 1950s in which I ran a 1949 Lionel 675 Pennsy engine & 1950 NYC F-3 AA units with many of the post war accessories that you display. Nice layout design with great train action. Well done! Thank you Janis & Merry Christmas to you & yours.
I LOVE IT THANK YOU.