tailpipe62 Great pictures Southpaw. I am aware of Dept. 56 and LEMAX, but sure wish there was some more European buildings. There isn't alot in O guage. I have bought a couple of the newer Lionel Polar Express sets for my nephew and grandson to get them into the hobby. I wrote to Lionel asking why they didn't team up with another company to reproduce the buildings from the movie. Never did get an answer. I am not talented like Becky, no way I could make my own. But I just might have to try, as I see no other option. Patrick
Great pictures Southpaw. I am aware of Dept. 56 and LEMAX, but sure wish there was some more European buildings. There isn't alot in O guage. I have bought a couple of the newer Lionel Polar Express sets for my nephew and grandson to get them into the hobby. I wrote to Lionel asking why they didn't team up with another company to reproduce the buildings from the movie. Never did get an answer.
I am not talented like Becky, no way I could make my own. But I just might have to try, as I see no other option.
Patrick
Thank you! blush But it's really a lot easier than it looks! Give it a try, you'll surprise yourself!
Becky
Trains, trains, wonderful trains. The more you get, the more you toot!
great stuff santa fe! that first color shot makes me wish it was christmas right now! the b/w stuff is nice too. reminds of some of the shots from the old Lionel catalogs my dad kept since the 60's.
thanks for the ideas. a lot of that is similar to what i was picturing in my mind about how it should look.
doug,
I had over 30 of the Dickens village buildings. The X hated them, but the judge awarded them to her anyway! :-) Heck of an investment. Just surprised that no company see's the opening in the market.
Patrick, I tend to lean towards the Lemax brand for their pricing structure but the Dept 56, if you are interested in say an English look, carry a line called Dickens Village.
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msbsouthpaw Do you think 8'x5'6" is still too big if I'm going to have two tracks? Thanks! Matt
Do you think 8'x5'6" is still too big if I'm going to have two tracks?
Thanks!
Matt
My layout is usually about 16'*6' and that's including a narrow yard section on one end. I have two tracks, one is probably about 13' long and the other is a little more than half of that. I think you would be fine with that dimension with a short trolley track. If you have the room, you might want a little more to spread things out more. I have a platforms that most of the buildings go on and then the trains and a few other things are on the floor level. It helps give a little more height to things.
Watch my video in my other post. The section right under the tree (from the inner loop) will be a little bigger than what you are thinking of doing. I'm not sure how much stuff you want to put in there. If just a few buildings, the trolley and a couple loops of track then you should be good.
The figures that companies like Lemax make are a little smaller than G scale. They are big. If you keep them away from the trains a little, and not directly around a building then they look pretty good.
A few pictures for inspiration-
The track in front of the buildings is the trolley line
This is the trolley I use. It's made by Lionel. Not the greatest one, but I only use it at Christmas so it does the job.
A 4'*4' Christmas layout I had in my basement one year.
The first few buildings of my brothers Dept. 56 Christmas Story village (based on buildings from the movie). He's expanded a lot since then.
SantaFe158 Thanks, I'm 16 now and started with a Lionel NYC Flyer under the tree when I was 3 and then added my moms small Christmas village around 2nd grade (5 or 6 buildings) and it's grown over the years . It's always a lot of fun though. I add a few things to the village every year. Now I have trouble finding places to plug lighted buildings in. The train collection has also grown a lot since the first set. I'm up to around 14-15 Locomotives (a small number compared to some collections) and somewhere between 30-40 cars.
Thanks, I'm 16 now and started with a Lionel NYC Flyer under the tree when I was 3 and then added my moms small Christmas village around 2nd grade (5 or 6 buildings) and it's grown over the years . It's always a lot of fun though. I add a few things to the village every year. Now I have trouble finding places to plug lighted buildings in.
The train collection has also grown a lot since the first set. I'm up to around 14-15 Locomotives (a small number compared to some collections) and somewhere between 30-40 cars.
By the time you get to be 42 you'll have purple hair and will wear nothing but blue and orange!
Lemax is definately the cheaper route and can be found year round on Ebay. Look under Collectables: Holiday and Seasonal: Christmas Current: Villages and Houses. Many Lemax and Dept 56 items command a high price especially if they're models from 3 or 5 years ago. I worked at Michael's for awhile and I can tell you if you want anything Lemax buy it the first week it's on the shelf. If you wait for sales/coupons you'll be out of luck.
I look for this kind of stuff every year and while I'm not a structure collector, I've noticed that some big box retailers like Target have reduced or diminished what they carry. You can do decently at Wal Mart and K-Mart but specialty and craft stores usually have more of the line. Dept. 56 you can usually only find at Halmark stores or high end retailers like Macy's.
At the end of this month (August) Micheal's normally starts putting out their Halloween and Christmas displays and the items are normally discounted 10 to 20 percent. So it's not to soon!
I like the Dept. 56 buildings more than the other brands. I can pretty much tell a Dept. 56 building at a glance from other brands by the difference in quality. But I have a fairly large collection of the buildings and if I am ever able to build a permanent layout, the buildings are going to be a major part of it.
Everyone else is correct in that you can find other brands for less money. The majority of people are going to look at your Christmas village and think it is neat and not be able to tell one brand from another or even care. You can have a very nice Christmas village for far less money if you use Lemax or big box/department store brands such as Home Depot, Lowes, or Kohls.
If you do get any Dept. 56 buildings, they have different themed "villages", such as North Pole, Christmas in the City, and Snow Village, plus a few others. The buildings have different architectural styles, and are also different scales. Snow Village is probably the most popular, I've heard mention that they scale better with O scale trains, and the buildings are larger than the Christmas in the City buildings. It probably looks better if you stay within one "village", but a mix can look nice, too. I don't know if Lemax or the other brands have different "villages" or not.
As mentioned, the people that come with the village buildings, or can be purchased as separate accessories, are way out of scale for O scale trains. But, if you aren't concerned with scale, the people do add a nice touch and they are easier to see than the scale, but comparatively little O scale people. I've seen neat Christmas Village layouts that are pretty much scale, but I've also seen some really neat layouts that have a real mish-mash of buildings and people and toys in all sorts of scales and from all sorts of manufacturers that are really charming. There really aren't any rules for setting up a train around a tree at Christmas.
Thanks for the feedback. What you said seems to be the consensus: Lemax and Dept 56 are the best choices, but the people are a little off. As for the size, I was envisioning two ovals, w/ a trolley or small "commuter" type train on the inside track. My grandfather drove a trolley for SEPTA (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Auth.) for almost 40 years, and according to my dad, he always had a trolley on the platform. So for an homage to him, I'm trying to accomodate that. Do you think 8'x5'6" is still too big if I'm going to have two tracks?
SantaFe........that is beautiful! Thank you for the video. My Christmas layout is far smaller, far simpler, and has to employ the wife's Christmas decorations, her buildings (village pieces). For some of these, scale is out the window. But it gets the job done and everyone is happy.
Jack
IF IT WON'T COME LOOSE BY TAPPING ON IT, DON'T TRY TO FORCE IT. USE A BIGGER HAMMER.
Thanks for the feedback! I have not heard of Lemax, but that sounds pretty promising. Looking fwd to seeing the video later today, should be very helpful to me to see some ideas for how it should look. I'm behind a firewall at work.
I have a lot of Lemax items in my village. They look pretty nice, and don't cost nearly as much as the Dept. 56 buildings. Michaels usually have big discount coupons that you might be able to spend on Lemax items.
watch?v=5UdXeVWtS2Q&feature=channelvideotitle
I have to second Joe's comment on Lemax. They can be purchased "in season" at Hobby Lobby and Michael's stores. Look for the coupons which typically are 40% or better. If they are not this week, they will be next on the coupon. Also, you can get really good deals after Christmas. Joe is also right in that the people that they sell for these buildings are the wrong size. Look in the train section of Hobby Lobby and they may have such figures. The size can be anywhere between 1/43 to 1/50 scale for such a set up.
Dennis
TCA#09-63805
While I have a few Dept. 56 buildings, most of the ceramic buildings on my layout are by Lemax. These are sold by a great variety of stores and most of mine are from Ace Hardware or Michaels, or regional stores Menards and Steins Gardens and Gifts. They look good, and they are "priced to move." Laster Hobby Supplies has the 2011 Lemax Halloween and Christmas lines on their ehobbytools.com website.
Bob Keller
I would consider the size you gave to be LARGE for a Christmas layout. Maybe consider something more like 4x6 ? Building-wise I'm a fan of LEMAX as the cost much less, look as good (IMO), and offer a larger selection than Dept.56. Although LEMAX and Dept.56 buildings are the "right" size, the figures are closer to "G scale".
Welcome to the forum.
Department 56 is "THE" brand on ceramic villages, also very pricy. There are many others available that look just as good. Most of the BIG BOX stores sell a line of their own that are very inexpensive. Last year I bought a couple at the local Dollar General.
Banks, Proud member of the OTTS TCA 12-67310
Good Evening...
I'm a bit of a newbie to model railroading. I last put up an HO set w/ my grandfather when I was in high school about 15 years ago, before he passed away. My dad recently survived his third bout w/ Lymphoma and gave me kind of a "bucket list" request to put up O gauge for him this Christmas. He used to put up O gauge w/ my grandfather when he was a kid. You could say I'm in the "purchasing" phase of fulfilling this request. Now I'm wondering if there is a reliable brand name for Christmas "village" buildings/structures that would look festive w/ a small layout I'm planning (5'6"x8' or so). I'd like to get a jump on things since I'm anticipating perhaps other parts of this process going slowly for me!
Any recommendations or personal experiences on this issue shared w/ me would be greatly appreciated. I really want to make my dad smile this Christmas!
Thanks a lot, and I'm sure you'll see me in this forum more frequently over the next several months!
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