Hello everybody; All of My life We've had a train under Our Christmas tree. Now mine after My Dads' passing, I have a lionel train that My Dad got when He was 12 yrs. old. The same train has been under My tree as often as I had room. A tree without a train just does not look right. Peace, Love, and Happieness to all.
We've always had cats, and trains. They coexist under the tree with certain exceptions: for the first coupe of days the cat plays a game with the trains in which she attempts to just knock off the final car. Next circuit the car after that, and so on till Dad has to set the whole thing back up again, by day four she just sits under the tree, and watches. The dog observes from a safe distance.
It's an important part of the holiday at our house.
Very cool, chatanuga. When the shepherds get tired of Venite adoremus-ing, they can do some railfanning instead.
Never had a Christmas tree train when I was a child or as an adult, but I have just suggested to my wife that we have one next year and she said (and I quote), "OK".
Last year I ran a circle of post war Lionel but it sounded to my downstairs neighbor like is buzzsaw so this year just a small plastic train.
Joe Staten Island West
Tradition!!! It's not a real Christmas Tree without the little train running around the base!
I use 22" R EZ Track with 9" straights, powered by an MRC Tech II to run the Gilbert HO trainset I got for Christmas back in 1958 that started me in model railroading.
I also drag out all my locos that have yet to be converted to DCC and take 'em for a spin.
Alas, my kids are too old to be fasinated with the choo-choo, but too young to appreciate how this was part of the classic American Christmas for us Baby-Boomers.
Jim
We had one up until about 6 years ago when our first kid was born. But because the sleep the first year of thier life in the parlour next to our bedroom. This is where the Christmas tree goes, so we have been sans train for six years. That's ok. We had been using the HO layout engines with a colorful assortment of cars and seasonal cars, but I am going to have to relay the track next year as my parents gifted me with the Marklin. So instead of the layout engines, next year the Marklin is going up. I don't think I'll use the 2-10-0, I think the little 0-6-0T would be better and 4 or 5 cars, but since it's a little more robust that the current HO offerings it should survive the then 2 year old just fine.
All Aboard !!! Why its the polar express - O gauge around my tree !
This year I have a "square" of EZ track with a model power hustler, box car, and caboose. Around that is a loop of fastrack with an old Lionel 1615 set.
-Peter. Mantua collector, 3D printing enthusiast, Korail modeler.
The wife and I are celebrating our 4th Christmas together and decorating isnt complete until the train runs around the tree since our 1st. I run an HO oval of Bachmann EZ Track with some nice equipment, Ill leave it at that. The first year, it was kicked over twice by passers by and I about had a heart attack. The wife still finds it quite amusing when it comes up in conversation. No little ones yet but we do have a furry one who leaves hair all over the place. Ill upgrade to a Lionel set when we have a babys first Christmas in the future.
This year I made a tiny tiny Christmas theme O gauge oval for my Marx wind up Trains to fit on top our coffee table. I bent two sections of Gargraves flex to do it.
Have fun with your trains
I have an HO layout in the basement, that I've been working on for 30+ years, but I also have a Bachmann G scale train set under the Christmas tree. This adds a nice touch to a tree my wife has already beautifully decorated. I have purchased better quality brass track to use for this loop, since it is subject to some abuse. I also add a drop of Wahl clipper oil on each rail after cleaning - does the trick!
This fall we bought a new MRRing space with a house over it!
WE USUALLY have an N scale track and an HO track on a board on a table running around under a 4' tree, but this year all we have up is a two foot tree on a console table about 13" wide, so there is no room really in the new LR for one, and the 3 season room is not yet a 4 season room, where there might be room to run the trains.
There ARE, however, several train locos of christmas decoration style sitting on the apron under the 2' tree!
It will be at least a year or so before we finish off the basement to be able to build my new 'empire' in HO and a smaller one in N scale, though. It will be 8'x8' or 8'x12' with center pit if i can squeeze out the extra footage after we finish off 3/4 of the basement. Its a smallish house, but has about a 25' x 30' footprint in the basement, but I cannot have it all, lol. Darn. The furnace and w/d have to go somewhere!
Happy holidays to all no matter how you celebrate or don't.
-G .
Just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences. Others may vary.
HO and N Scale.
After long and careful thought, they have convinced me. I have come to the conclusion that they are right. The aliens did it.
Mike, your Christmas themed layout sure beats mine. I thought I was doing good 'till I laid eyes on yours. I would surely love to have seen your tree. SUPER!!!
Steve Lindhurst
Mines not around it. It's next to it on a table. I'm too old to crawl around on the floor 'round the tree, chasing HO trains. It is Christmas themed though.
Just for the record we have never had a train run around under our tree. Even when I was a kid it did not run under the tree, but I did have the Lionel set up nearby, and not just at Christmas time. Merry Christmas everyone and thanks for the replies.
We have had a train under our Christmas tree for the past 20 years. All of my grandkids have been photographed (candid, not staged) laying on the floor watching the steam engine go by their faces. This has become a tradition in our home. The trains are G scale/size but just the battery power version, now with a remote. Now my great grandson (photo below) is doing the same. I will continue to do this until we stop having a tree.
-Bob
Life is what happens while you are making other plans!
This year we have my American Flyer prewar O gauge train running around the tree. Last two years it was HO. I let my daughter (7) take part in the decision every year. She has been running the train since she was 1. Gotta raise the child right afterall. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.
i have 2 tracks of lionel around the tree. Not enough for all the engines but enough to keep 2 busy. I have an mth diesel, 2 lionel 2-8-4 with 3 pax cars each, an alco fa set, and 2 1950 era 2-6-2 ,4-4-0. Plus more cars than what I could ever use for these two tracks. Each boy has the 2-8-4, one polar express and one chiago cubs.
alco's forever!!!!! Majoring in HO scale Minorig in O scale:)
Instead of a tree, we have a loop of track and a model village, although there is a tree in the middle of the village square. This picture shows a steam loco but it's been upgraded to electric this year. If you don't see anyoverhead wires, that's because it's wireless. :-)
Recently I don't have one.
The last time I had a train around our tree was 14 years ago. We no longer have room for anything especially a Christmas tree.
13 years ago I bought a one foot tree, lights and a star. It became our Christmas decorated in keychains. But no train, but I got more decorations over the years especially tinsel taken off real trees off the streets.
Four years I got a train set ornament without hooks, so I placed them under the tree pretending its goes around. Maybe one day I'll buy a Z Scale set and replace the ornament. N Scale is to big for my little tree.
Amtrak America, 1971-Present.
I have a Bachmann PRR F7A unit with 5 Scene Master PRR lighted cars behind it. Plus a conductor and two kids looking out of the back of the observation car - a nod to the "polar express" - which actually got me started on all this model railroad stuff.
Unfortunately, they dont run for long as our cats try to hunt and kill them :-)
This was my first attemp at a Christmas train layout.
Chris.
Loco Guy - is a state of mind - not an affinity to locomotives.
Sit back and enjoy your track...
I did it 25 years ago with a Bachmann G scale train. More recently, I used a new Lionel set with Fastrack. Fastrack keeps the carpet fibers from getting sucked up into the locomotive and winding around the axles. So far, I haven't set it up this year.
I do. I setup my Dad's O scale Lionel train with about 5 christmas cars. Its on a 55 in rectangle and the wife has started to add building around it. No place for presents just train. I was really surprised that she agreed.
We have one but its from Home Depot. Cheap and kid friendly as he is crawling and loves pulling everything he finds.
We have done it occasionally. This clip is from 7 years ago. Our dining room ceiling is very tall, the tree in the dining room (not our main tree) is a little short. I have been known to erect the tree on a table. I had a subway train running around it that year.
But the LION is not in the Christmas decorating business anymore, we go younger monks to do that stuff. Besides, our trees are all artificial now. We put the away decorated, and pull them out decorated, long live the decorated tree.
NOW ONCE UPON A TIME... when we still used live trees, the kind we cut down our selves, we elected a tree that was near the church, a tree that would have to come down anyway to allow a construction crane access to the church towers, and so we went out with a chain saw and cut it down, and only half of the tree fell down. Unknown to us it was two stalks growing side by side. So I put one tree in the cafeteria, right up against the wall, and the ohter half in the community room, again right agains the wall. We had to put one heck of a lot of ballast on the (homebade) tree stands to keep the things upright. That was a good year.
One of the reasons why we no longer cut live trees is because we have thinned out to our liking the rows of evergreen trees that we wanted to remove, and had no more that we wanted to cut.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
We are certainly not having a train under the tree.
First of all, we won´t have a Christmas tree, as we can´t afford to spend the 50 to 60 bucks they cost. Second, it´s never been some sort of a custom here to have a train under the tree. It is as unknown to us as is the Christmas pickle, which is not at all a German thing.
I have never had a train running around a Christmas tree. When I was a kid I received an American Flyer over-and-under figure 8 trainset which of course couldn't go around the tree so my parents set it up the night before next to the tree and it was running when we were allowed to enter the living room to start opening presents.
For years I have planned to build a little 4x8 Christmas layout with a winter scene but every year I put it off until the following year. Just too much to do on the big layout in the basement. Next year though I'm going to do that for sure. Which of course is what I told myself last year.....and the year before that.....and the year before that.....and the year before that.....
KEN MASON My wife was wondering just how many readers on the forum actually have a train running around under their Christmas tree?
My wife was wondering just how many readers on the forum actually have a train running around under their Christmas tree?
Why put one UNDER the tree when you have one ON the tree:
My G scale trains used to run under the Christmas tree.
But every Christmas I would get a new item for it. And year after year it got bigger and bigger.
Eventually it got so big we had to move the layout outdoors
Link to large image
Matt from Anaheim, CA and Bayfield, COClick Here for my model train photo website