Holiday Village Gallery

winced36 · Post by **winced36** » Tue Mar 14, 2023 10:31 am

Here's a few shots of our 2022 Christmas village, a combination of home-made, purchased, and contributed cardboard houses, a home-made mountain/tunnel/tree-stand, and prewar clockwork/mechanical O-gauge toy trains:

Lots of thanks to Howard Lamey for his mentoring and contributed buildings. Fun project to end the year on.

winced36 · Post by **winced36** » Sun Mar 26, 2023 10:15 am

We took some friends of ours up to Glen Rock, Pa., this past Christmas to see the train gardens. The guys at the VFD do a great job every year:

Back in the day, they had a big S-gauge display, but sadly that's been replaced by this O-27 style layout (a very nice one at that). The kids sure get a charge out of it.

winced36 · Post by **winced36** » Mon Jul 03, 2023 1:17 pm

Christmas garden at Kenilworth, December 2022:

One of the best annual gardens in and around Baltimore; always draws a crowd.

winced36 · Post by **winced36** » Fri Aug 25, 2023 8:55 am

The Kenilworth garden has evolved considerably over the last ten years or so. A few years back, when the place changed ownership/management, the "real estate" offered to the local club was significantly reduced and the display was much smaller. Attendance was noticeably diminished, and I believe management realized that the amount of seasonal holiday traffic went with it. These last 2-3 years, the display has been expanded, perhaps close to the square-footage it had before (although not smack in the middle as before). It seems the traffic is back.

winced36 · Post by **winced36** » Sun Oct 29, 2023 9:53 am

I guess window displays technically aren't holiday villages, per se, but they sure evoke memories. It's getting to be that time of year:

Looks like a prewar American Flyer Hyde Park station and American Flyer's stamped-tin Zephyr, so I'm guessing 1930's vintage.

winced36 · Post by **winced36** » Tue Nov 28, 2023 11:03 am

Saw this pic out on the web and thought, wow, that's Christmas! It's not rare, but somewhat unusual to see Flyer S-gauge under the tree:

A quirky train headed by a pair of the late-production Flyer F-units, a model I always thought looked a bit out of proportion compared to the offerings of Lionel and others. Nice little grade-crossing signal/bell accessory and lots of Plasticville...pretty vintage stuff likely from the late 1950s and early 1960s.

winced36 · Post by **winced36** » Sat Dec 16, 2023 3:31 pm

An update - the Christmas garden at Kenilworth, 2023:

Another terrific effort.

winced36 · Post by **winced36** » Sat Dec 23, 2023 9:49 am

We set up a few ceramic buildings and a loop of 42-inch diameter O-27 track under the tree this year (2023), replacing the boring tree skirt we typically use with the artificial tree. Here the baby Stephen Girard set eases into the station a couple days before Christmas:

Hope everyone here has a great Christmas and a good 2024!

winced36 · Post by **winced36** » Wed Dec 11, 2024 2:54 pm

The 2024 Christmas tree, complete with a few ceramic houses and a Lionel 290E set from 1936:

The Old Man always used the brick skirting around his displays, so a bit of a throw-back...I'm sure he's smiling down from somewhere.

Hope everyone has a terrific 2024 Christmas.