We started our Christmas tree tradition this year with the Lionel G-scale Polar Express...
Texas Zepher wrote: [I've suplimented the Hallmark's by converting my entire N-scale fleet to Christmas Tree duty. The open hoppers are the hardest because of the low center of gravity, and getting them to balance.
[I've suplimented the Hallmark's by converting my entire N-scale fleet to Christmas Tree duty. The open hoppers are the hardest because of the low center of gravity, and getting them to balance.
OMG, now that's thinking outside the box(car). It does resolve an issue I have with the Hallmark series ornaments though. I only have one; the Norfolk and Western J-class locomotive. We usually don't use it as a hanging ornament because it's so heavy. You have to find a really sturdy branch, or it falls off a lot. Regular N-scale cars would be much lighter by comparison.
I have figured out what is wrong with my brain! On the left side nothing works right, and on the right side there is nothing left!
That's my Christmas Tree Train: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbCv-H4xSe8
Wolfgang
Pueblo & Salt Lake RR
Come to us http://www.westportterminal.de my videos my blog
trainboy414 wrote:you are first person besides me that i have seen with those ornaments. i have all of them and the little micro ones too but they are on the smaller tree.
http://www.trains.com/trccs/forums/598156/ShowPost.aspxhttp://www.trains.com/trccs/forums/598153/ShowPost.aspxhttp://www.trains.com/trccs/forums/955630/ShowPost.aspxhttp://www.trains.com/trccs/forums/859823/ShowPost.aspxhttp://www.trains.com/trccs/forums/827008/ShowPost.aspxhttp://www.trains.com/trccs/forums/564202/ShowPost.aspx
Plus I've suplimented the Hallmark's by converting my entire N-scale fleet to Christmas Tree duty. The open hoppers are the hardest because of the low center of gravity, and getting them to balance.
Great Western Rwy fan wrote:Being as I don't have room under the tree to set up and run a train,I put train ornaments on My tree.Most of the train ornaments are made by Hallmark.I have 15 to 20 in all.Every year hallmark comes out with a new addition,sometimes a single car and sometimes with a whole train.This year is the freedom train which consists of an engine a coach and an observation car.Here are a few pics of some of them.
Being as I don't have room under the tree to set up and run a train,I put train ornaments on My tree.Most of the train ornaments are made by Hallmark.I have 15 to 20 in all.Every year hallmark comes out with a new addition,sometimes a single car and sometimes with a whole train.This year is the freedom train which consists of an engine a coach and an observation car.Here are a few pics of some of them.
you are first person besides me that i have seen with those ornaments. i have all of them and the little micro ones too but they are on the smaller tree.
Over 50 years old and still runs which is better than i can say for me !
TerryinTexas
See my Web Site Here
http://conewriversubdivision.yolasite.com/
OK...Change of plans...Have a train AND A NEW DIGITAL CAMERA!!!
Don't think I'll bother with a decoder for this one!Buddy waiting patiently for Santa.
Awww, c'mon - who wants to see a bunch of trains running in circles under a Christmas tree?
Opus and Rudolph, apparently. They're huge Flyer fans. (Or is that Bullwinkle?)
Nelson
Ex-Southern 385 Being Hoisted
Here's the HO layout I made for my dad 2 years ago.
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee177/turbo231/IMG_0821.jpg
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee177/turbo231/IMG_0824.jpg
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee177/turbo231/IMG_0817.jpg
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee177/turbo231/IMG_0826.jpg
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee177/turbo231/IMG_0828.jpg
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee177/turbo231/IMG_0825.jpg
That's my little N scale Christmas Garden. I run an Atlas shay on it with a couple of tourist cars.
I don't keep it under the tree, though... too many four legged critters in the house... the hair would wreak havoc on the little drive gears...
Merry Christmas everyone!
Lee
Route of the Alpha Jets www.wmrywesternlines.net
Well, I finally got the tree up yesterday so it is time to make my contribution.
Only one tree this year (and a small one at that), so it got double track! All the trains are new this year. Got an Annie 4-4-0 decorated for Christmas, and Then the new "additions" to the Circus Train. I didn't want to run a circus train because we did last year, but it is one of my daughter favorites and the one she likes to show off to her friends. Also this year is 100% DCC. The PFM sound units stayed in the storage unit.
View from the living room.
View from the hall.
As normal click on the images to enlarge.
secondhandmodeler wrote: Nice trees everyone! I figured I would post one picture in this thread. wjstix, I was planning on comming up to Shakopee Sat. to visit my mother. If we get the weather they're talking about, I don't think we'll be seing mom this weekend!
Nice trees everyone! I figured I would post one picture in this thread.
wjstix, I was planning on comming up to Shakopee Sat. to visit my mother. If we get the weather they're talking about, I don't think we'll be seing mom this weekend!
Well you should be able to get to Shakopee Saturday, but you might be there a day or two!!
For the past few years I have been using one of the newer Lionel "Winter Wonderland" sets. A fellow club member owns a LHS (very convenient), and I was able to buy it at a very reasonable cost. I would want to use my dad's old Lionel set with children and animals running around. Plus the new Lionel track (like Ez track) is great stuff.
PS: This club member keeps a locker at the club with all the good stuff you're always running out of, not bad what convenience! And all your orders get delivered to the club.
Modeling B&O- Chessie Bob K. www.ssmrc.org
There will be TWO main lines this year under the tree. One of my son's gave me the ON3 wolves in the northwoods train set two years ago, and another son gave me an Amtrak passenger train set, ON3, so they will both run this year.
loathar,I read that same story somewhere, Lionel got the whole thing started.
He was commissioned to do a train setup in a display window, and the rest is history!
TheK4Kid
CO Fan wrote: xdford wrote: Remember - it ain't no ufficial Christmas tree if it ain't got a train. " border="0" width="15" height="15" /> Hi AllAs 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 FYIGood QuestionI think it may have something to do with one of the early pioneers MARX or Gilbertwho sold their first trains to a Hardware store as a Christmas Display.All the customers wanted to buy the displayThe rest is HistorySome one here will know for sure
xdford wrote: Remember - it ain't no ufficial Christmas tree if it ain't got a train. " border="0" width="15" height="15" /> Hi AllAs 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
Remember - it ain't no ufficial Christmas tree if it ain't got a train. " border="0" width="15" height="15" />
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've heard that too, but I thought it was the guy that started Lionel. He made a train to run in a store window that had Christmas gifts in the cars. People were more interested in buying the display train than the gifts that were riding on the cars. ( or so the legend goes...)
No train around the tree this year. Don't have any sectional track left.
CSX Robert,
The video is great!Reading this thread brings back so many good memories of Christmas past! My Dad used to set his Lionel trains around the tree as we kids (4 of us) were growing up.My Grandad worked at Sears and took me to work with him one day the week of Christmas 1955, and Sears had a huge window display setup, there were at least three or four trains all running at one time, and I was just 5 years old than, a month shy of my sixth birthday.Grandad let me spend a couple hours with the guy running the trains.It was a MYSTICAL ADVENTURE for an almost 6 year old!!! It's what inspired me to someday have my own layout!!!
Merry Christmas to all my fellow MRR fans!
Ed
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.
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.
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