Laying The Foundation
Many hobbyists build a solid platform for their holiday trains and reuse them year after year. I have always intended to do this, but honestly I have just never had the time. Therefore, this year's layout, like all before it, is simply laid out on two snow blankets on the living room carpet. The blankets are 30" by 8', and I simply laid one on each side of the center line of the Christmas tree. Don't worry about any lumps as these just represent snow drifts or hills. The ski hills on my display are simply spots where the snow blanket must pass over the tree stand. In past years I have substituted a simple white bed sheet for the snow blankets with good results as well.
Choosing The Track
Unlike my permanent layout, I do not use tubular track for my Christmas display layouts. I use MTH Realtrax sections instead. Since I do not have any turnouts or crossings on my Christmas layout there are no compatibility issues with my Marx and Lionel trains. The MTH track is great for temporary floor layouts because the pieces snap together and hold together well and the molded roadbed helps keep stray carpet or blanket fibers out of the trains. Lionel's Fastrack would also be a good choice if you have that on hand. These track systems are more expensive than traditional tubular track, but I believe in this situation the advantages outweigh the costs and on a small layout the expense is not so great.
My track plan is a simple oval. There are no turnouts, crossings or other special track sections. Only simple straight and curved sections are used. Make your oval large enough to completely encircle your tree, but small enough to avoid your trains being stepped on or encroaching on the living area of the room. In my setup only eight curves and six straights are required, but your layout may vary based on the size of your tree and stand.
Some other innovative layout designs may be found at Thortrains.net. This site was established by a long-time O27 operator and offers many great tips about many O27 train topics, although it has not been updated in quite some time.
Powering Up
Just about any transformer will work for a small display layout such as this. I am using a Lionel CW80 this year. This is a modern power pack that was commonly included in Lionel starter sets of the 1990's - 2000's. I am using only a single pair of feeder wires to the track as solid electrical connections are another advantage of the RealTrax.
Structures
There are literally dozens of brands of ceramic and porcelain Christmas village structures on the market in a wide variety of price ranges and scales. Some are as small as HO scale, while others are larger than O scale. Most, like mine, are slightly smaller than O scale, which makes them just right for traditional O27 trains. My village was purchased at an after-Christmas closeout sale more than 20 years ago but similar ones are available today at various craft and collectibles stores. Choose the style that works for you.
Another option is to use plastic structures like Bachmann's Plasticville line or old Marx plastic buildings - or the K-Line structures made from old Marx molds. These,too, are undersize for O scale, but look great with O27 trains. Plus, these structures can be used after Christmas on your permanent railroad as well.
Still another option is to use do-it-yourself cardstock structures. A great variety of neat and easy to build Christmas structures is available for free download from Thortrains.net. These structures can be downloaded for free and printed from your home computer. Simply print, cut out, and paste together. These buildings are fun and whimsical, and look great with O27 trains. My sons and I have made several of them for their layout.
Choosing The Trains
The choice of trains for your display are a matter of taste and reliability. I like to choose smaller O27 trains that have reliable engines and good-running cars that require very little attention. In the past I have chosen everything from Marx battery-operated sets to premium Lionel passenger and steam locomotive sets. My goals this year were colorful, whimsical and kid-friendly trains.
My choice of locomotives this year is the Christmas-themed North Pole and Snowflake "Beep" by RMT trains. The "Beep" is a fantasy 4-wheeled miniature version of a GP-9 locomotive. Its small size looks great with my Christmas village and its two modern can motors give it reliability and plenty of pulling power. It is also geared to run slowly, so even at full throttle the train will not leave the rails. When we tire of diesel power the back-up locomotive is a Thomas The Tank Engine by Lionel from the late 1990's. With forward-only operation, this locomotive is easy for my little engineers to control.
The rolling stock for this year's display makes up a "mixed" train - one featuring both freight and passenger cars. The freight cars include a Lionel MPC "Lifesavers" tank car from 1978, which looks like a giant roll of candy on wheels, and a red Southern Pacific gondola car by Lionel MPC from 1977 which has been fitted with a Santa with sleigh and reindeer that I recycled from an old Christmas decoration. The passenger cars are Annie and Clarabell from the same Thomas set as our back-up locomotive. These cars add to the whimsy and fun of the railroad, and give my boy engineers a reason to stop the train at the passenger depot from time to time. Pulling up the rear is a red Western Maryland "safety" caboose, also by Lionel from the early 2000's. This is a lighted caboose that adds to the overall fun of the train.
Don't Forget Sound!
Nothing adds to the fun factor of a holiday train display like a whistle or horn on your train. If, like me, you have selected locomotives lacking on-board sound, you can use my BLUETOOTH speaker trick to add horn, whistle, chugging or even Christmas sounds to your train at a very reasonable cost.
Ready For Action
A train around the Christmas tree is as common a holiday tradition as pumpkin pie and sugar cookies. You don't have to spend a great deal of time or money on a fun and functional Christmas tree train. Plan ahead with reliability and fun in mind, and you are sure to have a wonderful time running trains around your tree.
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