Hi all,
I have a Bachmann ‘Yuletide Special’ inbound from MB Klein, and I’m thinking of building it into a decorative 2" x 4" Christmas layout - something I can store under my ‘real’ layout when it’s not the festive season - not an ‘under the tree’ layout, but something separate in its own right.
I am looking for ideas, though - would anyone like to share their Christmas setups?
Merry Christmas to all,
tbdanny
When my 7 year old was just a wee lad of 2 we decided he needed a train set under he Christmas tree. So not just anything would do. Dad got out to the work shop and came in with Christmas utopia. I had used extruded foam to make Hills with kids skying sledding down then, the town square with a half dozen or sow lighted buildings maybe a few more. a 1:87 snowman made from Styrofoam balls from AC Moore, plenty of conifer aka pine trees and tons of the white stuff. I used everything from spray on snow to some box of flakes stuff from another craft store thats was supposed to be snow. In the middle of this whole mix I had a figure 8 set up of code 100 track with a SD40 N&W diesel pulling several cars with Santa in one presents in another which my friends wife wrapped up by hand yes we are all crazy here in NJ. Oh and we decided we had to have a Steam locomotive as well so we would switch out some IHC Hudson I think
Well it looked great needless to say the firs thing Jr. did when he hit the floor running around 6:00am Christmas morning was head straight for the train and pull it right off the track! then after a while the golden retriever or as I call him the Golden Keeper was walking around with a box car in his mouth. By around noon two days later it looked like Holiday Armageddon under the tree, The town and most of it’s structures took several direct hits and I’m afraid all residents were lost in the may-lay. A word of advice if you have small children “Chicken Wire”
Well–we put up a Xmas tree and we placed our Xmas village around the tree—with a lionel trainset that I still had from --oh—a little under 40 years ago—which still works—‘Spring’ spent the last coupla hours stalking the locomotive! LOL![(-D][(-D]
My wife badgers me to put up the On30 Christmas train set, so I decided to build a semi-permanent layout platform. It is a sheet of ply notched and trimmed to fit snugly against the two side walls and the window sill in our ocean-view bay window. I then cover it with the thin rolled cotton with the sparkles that you can get for a few dollars at Wal Mart and similar outlets. I have some EZ-Track that came with the train set, and some left over from my first layout. It makes a longish oval with a ceramic lighted station and other buildings that you can get for Christmas displays. It actually looks pretty good when it is all lit up.
The platform has 6 short 2X2 legs maybe 20" long/high.
When the season is past, it goes into our garage propped on end to stay out of the way.
-Crandell
The Kids and I brought in the Christmas layout. simpe 3 circles all built on a 4 ft dia precut circle of particle board, 1/3 of track is covered and enters a tunnel a 17" 2 x 6 box provides the support for our tree. I made some relief buildings from strathmoore board and covered with paper that I created to simulate brick.
outside circle 23" r SP 4-8-4 3 boxcars and SP caboose
middle circle 20 1/2" r Bachman undecorated Doodlebug
Inside circle 18" r Altas NW-2 decorated for my KCS and a feew detailed and weathered cars
left side had a mine and some Preiser bears
front side has a station and lights
right side has city buildings, vehicles and a road crossing.
We enjoy it, this will be the 1st year we actually set it up under the tree.
The new one {if I get it built this year} will be two raised ovals of N scale inside a small 18r oval of HO on a 3/4" plywood base to sit on the table top under the table top tree. It will be 41"x 48".
The N scale should be outside the HO for better visibility, but the size of board required to do so is to big, so the HO is on the outside.
{It’s not much, but where it has to go and what space we have to work with it is as big as we can afford to put up for Christmas}
Onlyest thing is I haven’t decided whether it should be a white snowy theme or a regular green months scene… .
Since you are not looking for an under the tree layout, check out any track plans (plan book, MR Subscribers Extras) then decorate it with the same buildings and scenery used on an under the tree layout. You have the advantage of being able to use the center of your layout. I’d suggest a view block or tunnel so your train isn’t always visible. It could be just inches from the back, so all your scenery was in front of it or it could divide the layout with scenery on both sides. Don’t have to be parallel to the sides of the layout or evenly spaced.
Just a thought.
Good luck,
I’m thinking of a divider about 8" in from the long edge of a 2’ x 4’. The narrow edge will have a mountainside scene with the train struggling heroically along a snow-swept track to deliver presents. The ‘flat’ side will have a village under a hill, with just a single siding with some sort of team/track freight house. It is designed to be a ‘round and round’ type layout - basically, just set the train going and let the visitors ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh’ over the unusual Xmas decoration.[:D]
I do it the old fashion way, a Lionel under the tree. In your case, I think good buildings would be Department 56 stuff, my mother loves them, but they dont go with trains.
Heck if it’s 2" x 4" you could just stick it in your pocket !!
And oh, how they danced…the little children of Stonehenge.
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