I hear sleighbells! Yes friends it's that time of year again! The chill breeze and falling leaves inevitably start reminding me of how much work I have to do! 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
Trains, trains, wonderful trains. The more you get, the more you toot!
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.
Toy Trains, they are not just an adventure, they are a way of life !
Becky,
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.
Bob,
Good to see you back.
If that's what you're hearing I hear Schubert's String Quartet #10 in Eb major. Cool.
Pete
"You can’t study the darkness by flooding it with light." - Edward Abbey -
I've heard of Beethoven Christmas music, but not Schubert! (Fur Elise)
I love carpet layouts! You can do whatever you want each time!
Actually, I never really lose that Christmas feeling. I started planning for this year before I finished installing last year's layouts.
Penny Trains I love carpet layouts! ...
I love carpet layouts! ...
oil + gravity?
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
Hey?! How many layouts do you have...?
Three. Maybe more.
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! ) 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!
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 by 140% to get a model this size. I glued the individual wall segments to cereal box cardboard and then glued everything together with hot glue.
A paper Wright flyer from Cannon soars above the O gauge level of the layout.
I saw lemax buildingss on display in micheals today.
George
Beautiful work Penny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The garden center of the local Walmart & Kmart are starting to look a lot like Christmas
Banks, Proud member of the OTTS TCA 12-67310
Penny Trains 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 by 140% to get a model this size. I glued the individual wall segments to cereal box cardboard and then glued everything together with hot glue.
Nice work, you can't have Christmas without the Christmas story!
The Lehigh Valley Railroad, the Route of the Black Diamond Express, John Wilkes and Maple Leaf.
-Jake, modeling the Barclay, Towanda & Susquehanna.
Not in my neighborhood you can't!
Hiya!
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.
scrambler81 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.
Thanks! Here's the link to the free Ralphie's house paper model:
http://www.ss42.com/pt/achristmasstoryhouse/AChristmasStoryHouse.html
You should give it a try! It's a lot of fun!
overlandflyer 243.84(cm)? i now see why the metric system failed here. my couch is 8 feet long. smiles...gary
Two down...
#3 gets underway tomorrow!
Just got an idea for what I might do. Simply an 0-27 and 0-54 loop of track on white cotton batting with some low-cost buildings from the local CVS Pharmacy. The town will also probably have some Hot Wheels cars from when I was little populating the little village. The inner loop will be mainly modern era Lionel, with the second outer loop being all postwar Lionel (2020 turbine powered by RW transformer, with the only real exception here being the track). Operating cars include a 3461 log dump car, and 3462 operating milk car.
Hope to start on it after Thanksgiving.
Great work as always! Really enjoy your layouts.
Keep on training,
Mike C. from Indiana
Oh my!!!
amazing displays there.
I have a tree climbing catzilla here...
Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry
I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...
http://modeltrainswithmusic.blogspot.ca/
Remember folks, God put the Atlantic Ocean where it is to keep Napoleon, Hitler, Communism and the metric system OUT of North America!
Penny Trains I hear sleighbells! Yes friends it's that time of year again! The chill breeze and falling leaves inevitably start reminding me of how much work I have to do! 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
Becky you are so cool!
M-I-C....K-E-Y....M-O-U-S-E!
WELCOME! DISNEYLAND IS NOW OPEN!
Let's take the tour!
We'll start in Adventureland at the Temple of the Forbidden Eye which is Jungle Cruise adjacent. To the right you see the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. Behind them is Frontierland where you'll find Tom Sawyer Island, The Mark Twain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.
In this view you can see how well using a hairdryer to ripple polyeurethane "water" while it dries works.
Two additions to Frontierland this year are a new Frontierland Station which you can see in the 2 photos above, and the Country Bear Jamboree which has a relief of only 2 inches. While I made the railings, and post and beam details from individual wood pieces, the logs on the walls are just paper sheets glued to a heavy cardboard structure.
Looking down the road, you can see the pagoda tower of the Enchanted Tiki Room on the right and the Pirates of the Carribean just beyond. On the left is the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and the Haunted Mansion.
Let's head back to Mainstreet USA. Visible here is the start of the Skyway system. I was only able to complete 6 cars this year but eventually the system will extend at least another 3 feet on each side of the Matterhorn. If you look closely, you might be able to see an item I added over on the right. Since Monorail construction is still ongoing, I decided to represent that with a Lionel crane!
One of these days we'll swich our old tube television for a nice wall mounted flatscreen that doesn't require a big TV stand. When that happens Tomorrowland can grow to be more than just a spit of land bordering Main Street. However, with the exception of the Astro Orbitor and Space Mountain, all of Tomorrowland is new this year! On the other side of Main Street you can see the Plasticville Independence Hall doing duty as the Hall of Presidents and the new Liberty Tree right in front of it. Behind Liberty Square is Fantsyland with the Wicked Wench acting as the Jolly Roger which was anchored in Skull Rock Cove behind Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland from 1955 to 1982. To the right Dumbo the Flying Elephant and King Arthur Carousel help entertain guests standing in line at It's A Small World.
Finishing out our tour is a small tribute to both my favorite movie and a ride that's disappeared from Walt Disney World. Captain Nemo's Nautilus cruises the lagoon at the base of the Matterhorn.
Well, those are the best of the 100 photos I took today. We hope you've had fun during your visit to Disneyland today!
Penny Trains M-I-C....K-E-Y....M-O-U-S-E! WELCOME! DISNEYLAND IS NOW OPEN! Let's take the tour! We'll start in Adventureland at the Temple of the Forbidden Eye which is Jungle Cruise adjacent. To the right you see the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. Behind them is Frontierland where you'll find Tom Sawyer Island, The Mark Twain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. In this view you can see how well using a hairdryer to ripple polyeurethane "water" while it dries works. Two additions to Frontierland this year are a new Frontierland Station which you can see in the 2 photos above, and the Country Bear Jamboree which has a relief of only 2 inches. While I made the railings, and post and beam details from individual wood pieces, the logs on the walls are just paper sheets glued to a heavy cardboard structure. Looking down the road, you can see the pagoda tower of the Enchanted Tiki Room on the right and the Pirates of the Carribean just beyond. On the left is the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and the Haunted Mansion. Let's head back to Mainstreet USA. Visible here is the start of the Skyway system. I was only able to complete 6 cars this year but eventually the system will extend at least another 3 feet on each side of the Matterhorn. If you look closely, you might be able to see an item I added over on the right. Since Monorail construction is still ongoing, I decided to represent that with a Lionel crane! One of these days we'll swich our old tube television for a nice wall mounted flatscreen that doesn't require a big TV stand. When that happens Tomorrowland can grow to be more than just a spit of land bordering Main Street. However, with the exception of the Astro Orbitor and Space Mountain, all of Tomorrowland is new this year! On the other side of Main Street you can see the Plasticville Independence Hall doing duty as the Hall of Presidents and the new Liberty Tree right in front of it. Behind Liberty Square is Fantsyland with the Wicked Wench acting as the Jolly Roger which was anchored in Skull Rock Cove behind Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland from 1955 to 1982. To the right Dumbo the Flying Elephant and King Arthur Carousel help entertain guests standing in line at It's A Small World. Finishing out our tour is a small tribute to both my favorite movie and a ride that's disappeared from Walt Disney World. Captain Nemo's Nautilus cruises the lagoon at the base of the Matterhorn. Well, those are the best of the 100 photos I took today. We hope you've had fun during your visit to Disneyland today! Becky
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh................. Memories, sweet memories.
O little town of Plasticville. Passengers waiting on the platform at the Union Station get a view of the town's Christmas display.
Which includes a snowman ,
and a Santa Claus. Both made from hollow plastic pieces I had lying around. Cutting a hole in their bases allowed the insertion of a grain of wheat bulb.
The town also features 2 snowflake arches made from steel wire and ornaments made for tiny Christmas trees.
The same plastic snowflakes have also found their way, via a bit of hot glue, onto the town's streetlamps. Here you can also see our brave firefighters hard at work getting their ALF pumper washed and polished for the Christmas parade.
A bit harder to see is the town's Christmas tree, which lives under a viaduct arch. The streetlamps in the tree's vacinity have candy cane decorations which match those surrounding the base of the tree. In the foreground but blurry you can see that the lamps accross the front street of the layout have stars to go with the nativity in the park.
I also got this neat shot yesterday over on the tinplate layout.
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