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Post by kstrains on Dec 1, 2023 0:59:35 GMT
My Story with Christmas Layouts...
I began to setup my own Christmas Train layouts when I bought my first home in 1998 in Charlotte, NC. I have setup a Christmas Train Layout every year except for one year in the early 2000's and last year when we sold our home in the Chicago to move back down South. Prior to my wife and I owning our 1st home, as a boy my Dad would set up a Christmas Train Layouts every year, so it has been tradition for me. My layouts have been small to large over the years. Each year my layouts would get bigger until the point of taking up the entire family room. I would move out furniture into the garage to get as much space as possible for the setup of my Christmas Train Layout. My larger layouts, I would start the setup in early September. Over the years, the larger layouts became more time consuming and made me weary with the setup and take down. Hence, when getting ready to move over a year and half ago, I decided it was time to thin out my train collection and my village pieces. I sold a large part of my train collection and kept what was meaningful to me. This year I did not know whether I wanted to setup a Christmas Layout in our new home. When choosing a new home, I was not interested in having a extra room for a permanent layout. At times, I have somewhat regreted that decision, but I also like building a new layout for Christmas each year. My daughter moved out of our home this past Fall, which gave me the idea that I could build a smaller layout in my home office by using her desk that she did not take with her as a beginning of a platform for my layout. My layout this year consists of 2 levels. My daughters desktop is approximately 48 x 24 but I expanded it by buying some wood to make 72 x 48 tabletop for my layout. The top level has a small 4 foot Christmas tree with 3 loops of track. The biggest loop is 0-42 curves, and other loops are 0-36 and 0-31 curves. The bottom level has 0-27 curves. I have MTH engines running on my layout by using MTH DCS. It is a Peanuts Themed Layout with Department 56 and a few Lemax buildings.  This is top Level  This is Bottom Level  Small Christmas Tree on Top Level. My office faces the front of our home and road in front of our house. Attachments:
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sorenk
Junior Member
"Come to Enon where the lights of Christmas will always glow."
Posts: 63
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Post by sorenk on Dec 1, 2023 12:16:29 GMT
From the early days of the layout - Folk artist "David Frykma" on two old Liionel beacons
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Post by healey36 on Dec 1, 2023 14:06:56 GMT
kstrains - Looks wonderful to me. When facing a tight space, going vertical works well. Still noodling this year's under-tree design. sorenk - That is terrific. I just bought my first postwar beacon after these many years fooling with this stuff. I bought a box of stuff at a recent estate sale that had the lantern bit...found the rest of the beacon tower and lamp on eBay. Kind of the reverse acquisition process for most, I'm guessing.
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Post by steveoncattailcreek on Dec 1, 2023 16:43:55 GMT
From the early days of the layout - Folk artist "David Frykma" on two old Liionel beacons
Hmm . . . interesting idea. I've been wondering what to do with some old, badly damaged towers (left over from an auction lot) that so far have seemed hardly worth the effort to rehabilitate. I like the idea of just salvaging the structure and creating something else entirely, Christmas layout-oriented or otherwise.
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sorenk
Junior Member
"Come to Enon where the lights of Christmas will always glow."
Posts: 63
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Post by sorenk on Dec 1, 2023 17:29:43 GMT
steveoncattailcreek, "Hmm . . . interesting idea. I've been wondering what to do with some old, badly damaged towers (left over from an auction lot) that so far have seemed hardly worth the effort to rehabilitate. "
I bought a lot of five of six of these from eBay several years ago – just the towers – all non-working – My next project is to create a towser of my snowman snow globe - the snowman has earmuffs – so cute – I will post phots when my brother can help me finish the project
SorenK
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Post by kstrains on Dec 1, 2023 23:49:50 GMT
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Post by healey36 on Dec 2, 2023 14:15:14 GMT
Hmmm...I have that DVD around here somewhere. I'll have to crack it out and give it a look.
I ordered a copy of TM's last Christmas-oriented video a few weeks back, but haven't seen anything. I guess I'll have to give them a call.
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Post by Adam on Dec 2, 2023 14:40:12 GMT
Beautiful story Ken. I need to purchase one of those DVDs if they are still available. Emile gave me a pointer to one possible source.
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Post by kstrains on Dec 3, 2023 2:27:02 GMT
Beautiful story Ken. I need to purchase one of those DVDs if they are still available. Emile gave me a pointer to one possible source. I belive the video is still available on TM's Books and Videos Website. You are can also get it streamed on Vimeo. Amazon has the whole set of Toy Train Revue CD's in Bundle. Toy Train Revue 5 has Marty Frizhenry Train layout on it if you knew him. He passed away several years ago but had a very nice layout too. |
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Post by kstrains on Dec 3, 2023 2:30:04 GMT
A Photo of NW 611 decorated for Christmas at Virginia Transportation Museum  |
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Post by kstrains on Dec 3, 2023 3:37:05 GMT
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Post by harborbelt70 on Dec 3, 2023 6:05:20 GMT
Not sure why I did not think of this before; Brian would have liked these images of SP 4449 in Christmas livery in about 2021:
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sorenk
Junior Member
"Come to Enon where the lights of Christmas will always glow."
Posts: 63
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Post by sorenk on Dec 3, 2023 13:37:45 GMT
From a while back – just trying out ideals on the layout – not really finished – The “Danta and Sleigh,” that is the focus here. On the layout I am adding as many “reminders” as possible to bring back memories of growing up on Enon Road. I then stop and write a story about the new item on the layout. At present I have written over sixty stories. Hudson, a town about 15 miles from where we lived. Every year the four of us – my parents would take my brother and I to see the huge and most beautiful Santa and Sleigh placed on the roof of one of the hosiery mills – We would sit in the car with windows down to hear the Christmas music – So cold – so beautiful and so memorable. 
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Post by Adam on Dec 3, 2023 14:51:24 GMT
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Post by dennym57 on Dec 3, 2023 16:14:52 GMT
Today, during my lunch break, I watched Toy Train Revue 4 by TM Books and Video. Brian and my layouts are on this video. I have not watched the video for a few years. This video was Brian's previous layout in his prior home. It was interesting to hear again what Brian had to say about his layout and how he went about designing it. For every Department 56 building he had the measurements of each building. He worked out of Chicago for his job while living in Maine. On one of his trips to Chicago, he designed his layout on paper and used his measurements to put the buildings in their places on his layout. He had over 100 department 56 buildings on his layout. On this video was my 2014 Christmas Train Layout. I remember reaching out to TM Books and Videos early in 2014 to see if they were interested in filming my Christmas layout. In late September of that year, they contacted me asking if they could film my layout in November. That meant I had about 1 month to put up my Christmas Layout. Since, our Christmas Tree was apart of my layout, I was setting it up the first weekend of October that year! Every weekend in October I was spending the entire weekend on setting up my layout. I remember, TM Books and Video being at my house early in the morning to film my layout and went to 5 pm in the afternoon filming my layout. It was a long day of running trains! They took 2 days to film Brian's Layout. It was through the video of our layouts that I got to know Brian. He was happy that my layout was on the same video as his. I expressed to him how privileged I felt to have my layout on the same video. He also had his 1st North Pole Layout on this video which Elizabeth talks about on the Video. Later he tore down his 1st North Pole layout and made a bigger North Pole Layout in his previous home. That layout led him to do many of the same design ideals to his North Pole layout in his next home. Here are some screenshots from the video... I think I have that video. I'm going to watch it when I go downstairs to run trains.
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