CIRCUS TIME, TRAIN TIME: April 1st 2022 Circus Parade in Deer Crest on the Edge of Town Layout

Hey guys and gals, let's have some fun with all these circus toys! :-) 

Back in April I was getting just as antsy wanting to post circus toys on Y'allTube as I was to start posting them here on the blog, so for a few weeks I just went at it full speed ahead and did what I could with the limited amount of space available. If you've been following the blog for any amount of time, you'll knoew that my Edge of Town micro-layout has been host to a number of events or has seen a number of themes play out on it. After so many years having this layout, it was finally time to see what I could do to bring the circus to the little town of Deer Crest. Pulling ou wagons, figures, and anything else that would fit into the small space I came up with this scenario:

Just out of camera sight to the south are farmer's fields. These were used as a staging area for the circus wagons, while others were still on flat cars on the siding. The other performers were staged there as well. The parade then marched in a general northwest direction through the edge of Deer Crest. Once crossing the railroad tracks it would head a few hundred feet up the road, and turn right onto Main Street where most of the citizenry would enjoy the parade. After passing through Deer Crest (it's not a very large town), the parade would end up at the circus tent erected just north of town on an empty lot. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

TRAIN TIME: This Year's Final Christmas Set-up: Kristkindl Markt, Lionel Polar Express Train Set & Running Trains on Two Layouts

This year's Christmas display wasn't nearly as elaborate as last year's I'm afraid. A bit of Christmas burn-out and a bit of lethargy set in and the desire to go big and bold just wasn't there. Last year of course, the train board was an empty slate on which I could do what I wanted really. This year though that 'empty slate' board was beginning to transition into my permanent layout and options were a tad limited. Deciding to go with a 'big city Christmas market' look seemed to work well. I initially planned to put Lemax Christmas streetlights around the downtown area but cost overruns prevented that this year. One addition that I'm particularly stoked about is the acquisition of Lionel's LionChief The Polar Express train set. It's not Bluetooth enabled so I can't run it off the LionChief app on my phone, but it's still a very nice set. It's an older version from 2014 with plain black roofs (vs. the 'snow' covered roofs of the more recent versions). Here's hoping and praying that 2022 will be much better than the last two years! 

Enjoy! Op Fritz

Here's the final Christmas market. Six different Lemax stalls all but one lighted (the stall on the far left is an older unlit stall). A few winter activities like skating rink, train, etc, round out the display. Easy to set-up these were just the right thing for my energy-less year.

During the period of setting this up I ran perhaps four or five different trains - picture here is the tail end of a Lionel Santa Fe set.

A little night running

(L) RMT's North Pole and Snowflake Express (R) Lionel's The Polar Express

The Edge of Town layout got in the fun as well. I pulled out a red Modern Marx engine (from their work train) and Marx Christmas cars and ran them simultaneously with the trains on the larger layout.

TRAIN TIME: An Update To My Edge of Town Micro-Layout and This Year's Marx Christmas Train

The American Model Builders gas station is now on the Edge of Town micro-layout. It still needs weathering and the area around it needs scenicking but that's all for a future project or two. For this year, I'm running my Marx Christmas train on the EoT. Last year it was run on the larger layout. The engine I was using to pull the Marx Christmas consist gave up the ghost so I pulled this bright red train from my New Marx (aka Modern Marx) work train set. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

The train is a mix of Modern Marx and custom pieces