Each year I try to get in one post about my Christmas village and railroad. Here it is using Sway. Click on the article to see the pictures. You can expand the picture to full screen. Then in the lower right corner are arrow buttons to click to advance the Sway through the pictures and text parts.
Tag: model trains
How it started
One of my hobbies is model trains, specifically, O-gauge trains running around my Christmas tree. Yes we had a Lionel train which we three Jones brothers shared when I was a boy. But what really started me back in this hobby was the gift of a Lionel train much like the one we had which I received from Bill Quick while I was serving as Pastor at Kirkville Community Wesleyan Church. I promptly ran it around the tree the next Christmas and I’ve been running trains every Christmas since on increasingly more complex set-ups.
The first evolution
One big evolution happened when I moved the trainsets upstairs to the remodeled living room at Kirkville. I was already running two trains. I decided to build a second layer and started collecting ceramic buildings, little figures and antique car models. I had two long bridges too. Then I started inviting children from church over to see the trains. I let them run them too. Of course, they would wreck them occasionally, but I have only had to make major repairs on two cars in all the many years that I have been doing this.
Children in CT love it too
When I moved to Connecticut, God blessed us with a large parsonage living room and my set got even bigger. In the gallery you can see the first two steps in building the multilayer setup. I found my first Dept. 56 buildings (the Cadillac of ceramic Christmas buildings) on a yard sale in our own neighborhood. Again, I invited children from church to come and run the trains. They have so much fun and it is a joy to work with them. This set has only one bridge but it has more room for vignettes. In the gallery are pictures of Shannon and Sam playing with the trains. The Mandirola boys, Schantz family and the Griffin’s also stopped by to check it out but I didn’t have my camera going.
Sam went for hands on
My grandson, Sam, was much more interested in the train set this year too. But he had his own way of investigating it. He wanted to get right in it and touch things. I learned from the preschool teachers that this is a preschooler’s tactile way of learning so I tried to facilitate it as much as possible. It was great fun.
New this year
This year I purchased my first engine specifically decorated for Christmas, a Lionel Santa Flyer. I also added a city block of stores that I made from Ameri-town parts. I started it years ago but this year a change in configuration of the upper track made room for it for the first time. In addition, I purchased new track for the inner lower loop. Last year that loop was hardly operable. This year is was a star. The fastest engine did not derail on it even though it was the tighter loop. It was Lionel Fast Track. If it holds up to the wear and tear of being assembled and disassembled for a couple years I will be a fan for sure. Also new this year, and something I have been watching for, was a ceramic building train station. At last I have a train station for the upper level too.
Like many northerners, I enjoy seeing a little snow around Christmas but soon afterward begin to wish it were springtime. But, alas, there are still three months until spring if it arrives on time. Then if we have a cold snowy February like this year, it seems like winter goes on forever. So how does one make the time fly by? I was thinking about that today. My wife and I must be doing a particularly good job this year as I have hardly had time to wish for spring yet. Here are my recommendations for making a long winter shorter.
First, be sure to make a big deal of Christmas and by all means, don’t tear all the decorations down on Dec. 26th. For ourselves, we never take any decorations down before Epiphany (Jan. 6) which is the traditional end of the Christmas season in the Christian Church. Then, since I invite children from church over to see my trains around the tree and there are usually some children who haven’t come by Jan. 6, I leave the trains up longer until all have had a chance to see them. So what if it is sometimes February by the time I get it all put away.
Second, I suggest having some winter-only hobbies. We have two. One is feeding the birds. Here in rural CT, bears will tear your feeder apart, I’m told, if you feed birds while they are awake anyway, so bird feeding makes a great winter hobby. It’s also a very cheerful thing watching chickadees, juncos, cardinals, nuthatches, woodpeckers, etc. outside your window. Occasionally a hawk may visit seeking a fat junco for a meal. This year I have a cute and perky Carolina wren visiting regularly.
Another activity that JoAnne and I save for winter weeks is putting together jigsaw puzzles. We both enjoy the challenge. After we complete one, we carefully bag up the puzzle and put it back in the box for storage. We’ll get it out and put it together again in a year or two. Some become favorites and go together faster every year. Essentials for this hobby are a spare dedicated table spot that doesn’t need to be disturbed often, a small collection of puzzles you like in sizes you like, and a handy puzzle lamp. We like 500, 750 and 1000 piece sizes the best.
In addition to our work at church and our interaction with our daughter and her family, these 3 winter pastimes keep the cold days passing quickly. Before we know it, it will be spring. And I haven’t even resorted to pulling out the seed catalogs to make garden plans yet—well, maybe a few times.
Our annual Christmas display is a highlight of the season. I’m a little late getting it up since we visited Keely and Mark over Thanksgiving weekend. However, I finally have three trains in motion again around our tree. One of them is the new (to me) 1776 bicentennial engine that my brother Phil purchased in a deal and let me buy from him cheaply. I have since found a caboose and three cars to match. It’s always just a little different from the year before. Here’s a rough video of it in motion. The clunks are because the cameraman got too close to the action and nearly derailed a train.
I always wondered what went on in those houses where Christmas trees remained visible in the windows many weeks into January. Well, now we’re one of those houses. So I can share the secret inside our house that keeps the Christmas tree up so long.
(Psst!) I’m a small time railroad hobbyist that sets up multiple O-gauge trains under the tree in a display that takes up half the living room. I can’t bear to take the whole thing down right away! It is a three level display that includes a Christmas village, farm scene, bridges and tunnels, and the Christmas tree is built in. It can’t come down until I move enough train stuff so we can reach the tree. Thankfully, my wife tolerates, maybe even enjoys just a little, my affection for model trains and associated Christmas villages; so she doesn’t object too much that I take up some floor space for two months of the year.
But that is only one-half of the story. The other reason for the display staying up so long is this. The most fun comes when I invite children over to play with the trains. And everyone is far too busy for that to happen in December, so we wait until January. All during the month, JoAnne and I invite children from church to view and play engineer with the trains. Well, yes, it is a little dangerous to the train cars and parts and model vehicles because there are wrecks, but it is so much fun to watch the boys and girls having fun that it is definitely worth the risk. JoAnne bakes cookies and I get down on the floor, give instructions in how to operate things, take pictures, and try to keep the trains running. It is the best part of the hobby.
So now you know. In case you still don’t believe me, here are a few photos for evidence. But now it’s February tomorrow and I really do have to take down the Christmas tree…
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