Here's a bunch of pics showing the progression of this year's Christmas layout. Enjoy! Opa Fritz
It started with the Lionel Wisconsin Central Highball Freight Set: track, transformer, train and all!
Years ago I bought a bunch of sheets of Lemax cobblestone street material. I cut it into 4" widths and made roads for Snow Village. Admittedly, they're not actually wide enough to accomodate the larger Marx cars I'm using here, but they'll be fine for the smaller O-gauge sized cars should I have a need for cobblestone streets.
It started when my oldest daughter got me an LED-lit acryllic tree from the dollar store. I waited too long to send her back for more and when she got there all the lit trees were sold out. Instead, she bought a bunch of these cheaper craft type trees. A serendipitous find! I luv 'em and they look great in what would evolve into the 'North Pole' area (BTW, that snow flossed tree was not a dollar store find)
Trees, trees, everywhere trees!
The 'North Pole' has been fleshed-in. The two wooden buildings were also Target finds from last year.
Those candy colored trees are new additions from Target this year
An overview without the train blocking the view
The deer and Santa figure are cheap Christmas tree ornaments bought in Germany in the '80s
I had meant to buy some Lemax animations all along and once I got this North Pole skating rink, I was hooked! I ended up buying several more.
The gazebo turned out to be temporary - being replaced by Lemax buildings after my plans changed
A Scott and Bobbye Moss custom. The duo would take beater Marx buildings and re-purpose them for holiday use. I love what they did to this Marx Girad Station: snow, trees, figures, and all!
Out with the Wisconsin Central Highball Freight, in with the RMT North Pole and Snowflake Express!
I got this years ago and it has been featured in old Christmas videos of a smaller layout. It's a wonderful set that will fit in anywhere because of its small sized
Before and after...
...there is now trolley servide in town. Runs are short and fast, and dependable
The MTH/Railking Christmas Trolley is fairly new to the roster- perhaps only two years old now
Chnages to the layout happen daily
The Layout Grows
One day I was standing out in The Cave and mulling over the next round of changes when I turned to the right and looked at Tintown. "Hmmmm", I thought, "Why can't I expand the Christmas layout here?". And I did. The Marx Skscraper and the row of Pre-war German houses were moved off and the Lemax Carousel and other buildings placed down on the layout
First rendition of this area
A custom Marx engine and tender bought years ago on FleaBay
More Scott and Bobbye Moss creations: Marx flatcars decked out for the holidays
These two New Marx/Modern Marx/Ameritrains/Marx of Miami (hey, you pick the name you're more comfortable with) were ordered about a week after I brought out the custom train
The last two animations are in place
Snow Village now has a Christmas market with the addition of three Lemax stalls. I didn't take 'daytime' shots of these
I bought this at Target last year and now I'm regretting not picking up at least one more. In size it matches just nicely with the other Marx cars on the layout
Here you can see Tintown's Main Street finished. The Pre-war german tin buildings now replaced with cookie containers/houses from various manufacturers. The two animations in front right have awkward cords on them which have the 'on/off' switch, and those cords just hang out everywhere and get in the way of things. It would have been much better had Lemax just placed the 'on/off' switch directly on the units
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