Simple Christmas Tree Layout - 2020

Running around the Christmas tree on this episode of Toy Train Tips and Tricks. Today we're going to try something really crazy. 23.9 close enough. These are very close to true O scale. You don't want to try this with a modern transformer. So this is based off of a real V&O caboose from 1916 up to 1938. That is not helpful. Now it is truth or consequences time. Part of the circuit is running through this wire arm here. Very simple but effective animation for the layout. Hello again. This is Mike from Toy Train Tips and Tricks and here is the 2020 edition of the NOEL subdivision of the fun lines the Fantasia, Utopia, and NOEL Railway. So obviously the NOEL division is the version that goes around the Christmas tree. And so I'll take a quick overview of what I've got here and show you this was really a quick and easy setup. I started throwing this together after the tree was up and all together took me about 45 minutes starting from scratch. We have a new house and a new tree this year so I couldn't use the setup that I had used before. So here's what we have. The base is white styrofoam panels bought from Home Depot. These basically it's a four by eight sheet that's cut into one by four sheets. My dog is getting curious here. And so these panels it's marketed as a DIY insulation kit but these one by four in styrofoam panels they're the right color they have some texture that kind of looks like snow and so you just cut them to shape and throw them down. So all I did cutting wise was I cut the corner off of either side here there's the dog again to accommodate foot traffic and I cut a hole in the middle of the panels to accommodate the tree stand. Everything else just slid together. I was considering putting pieces of tape underneath to hold them together but gravity is doing quite well. So there's my base the styrofoam panel it adds texture cover and a little bit of sound dampening as well. For the track this year I used some standard Standard O Lionel O31. The previous years I've used MTH Realtracks. I really like the look of the plastic ballast and such. There's a couple of problems with that track system for this application. One is that the plastic roadbed makes it really loud. It amplifies the sound as the train goes over which if you're putting it in the living room for Christmas time that can be a problem. Adding to that the the way the plastic ties are molded on that some post-war and late pre-war cars have a little bit deeper flange on the wheels than modern cars and that deeper flange actually rides against the top of the ties on the Realtracks and so while it doesn't cause any derailments it does add to the noise factor a little bit more. Thirdly you have to be careful with the Realtracks when putting it together. Same thing with Lionel's Fast Track that the little metal prongs at the end of each piece are out so that you get good electrical contact. So this year however I came upon a modest quantity of new condition Lionel tubular which I had never used before so I thought I would try it out this year and so this is no longer manufactured but you can get it. It's made by Menards. I think Williams also manufactures this now. This is probably 20 year old Lionel but it was still in the box. It's never been used and I thought so why not. So to hold the temporary layout together I simply used small plastic zip ties. I fed it through from underneath one tie up and over to the next piece of track zip them together and the little black tab is tucked away underneath the tie and so the whole layout is attached together that way as one big piece. It holds everything together and make sure we have good electrical and physical contact. For operation I'm using my remote system that I featured in another video so this allows me to control speed direction on and off from anywhere in the room so I don't have to be next to the Christmas tree and so that's what we've got. The power today is an RMT ready-made trains beep that I purchased oh probably 15 years ago now. This is based on old Kusan tooling. They were also made in the 80s by Williams. The RMT version is definitely the premium version. Nice can motors, extra details, electronic reversing unit, nice little engine. As you can see it's very quiet and it can run nice and slow. Matter of fact if I turn it all the way up top speed that's not not very fast so you don't have to worry about the kids coming in cranking up the throttle and derailing the train. So that's my power today. I also have a Marks number 400 steamer that I have repainted that I will be using. I just haven't finished the decals on that yet. That'll be another video. The village is an old ceramic village by Kmart from probably 25 years ago. They're a little bit smaller than the buildings put out by Lemax and Department 56 and the others but they scale out right about to right about to S scale so it looks good with 027 trains. So we were really happy with that. The figures come from multiple places. We've got the Model Power O scale winter figures. We've got some others that actually these little figures here in the back were actually Christmas ornaments for miniature trees. Just take and cut the little ornament hanger stringing off of them and you have some interesting figures. I'd say these are a little too small for scale size but you know they work on this display. So you know a little hodgepodge of you know whatever you want to find. The rolling stock on this is all Lionel. We have a Lionel Gan from the early 70s and part of the Southern Crescent passenger set filling it out. Don't want the train to be too long and slow and so that's what we've got. Let me pan out here so you can see the whole process. Again the whole thing start to finish once the tree was up. This took no more than about 45 minutes to put it together completely and it's a nice looking display and it works and it's something that you can do. The styrofoam materials were less than nine dollars and so then you've got your track your train and then whatever accessories you want to put on it. So here we go. Thanks for watching. Tell your friends, tell your neighbors, Merry Christmas and keep the trains running!