Big Indoor Trains™ Primer Articles

Big Indoor Trains™ (a division of Family Garden Trains™) was started in early 2007 to answer questions about using big trains indoors all year round. Many of our readers bought their first train to run around a Christmas tree or around a holiday village such as those made by Hawthorne Village™ or Dept. 56™. So they often have questions that neither the collectible village suppliers nor the hobby shops can answer. This page and the other Big Indoor Trains™ pages we intend to add were created specifically to "fill the gap."

We will try to answer questions about:

• Hawthorne Village™ train and village collections
• Bachmann On30 trains (these are the trains that the Hawthorne Village™ trains are based on, so they go together very well)
• Lionel™ O-gauge train sets
• Other collectible villages and the trains that go well with them
• Using other big trains, including Large Scale, indoors.

Many questions about these trains and villages have already been answered on the Big Christmas Trains™ Letters to the Editor™ page. But as more people use these trains and villages year-round, we thought we'd add a page that focuses on the "non-Christmas" uses of display villages and the model trains people use with them. In addition to the articles listed below, we also have several articles in the works. So please check back every so often. In fact if you would like to be notified when a new article is posted, please Join our Mailing List.

Two Hobbies Converge

What happens when you combine collectible villages with toy or model trains? - O gauge trains (such as those made by Lionel®) have been around for over 100 years. Christmas display villages, such as those made by Department 56 have been around since about 1976. Both represent hobbies in their own rights, with many magazines, web sites, clubs, and other resources serving their respective hobbyists. This web page is about what happens when the two hobbies converge - when collectible display villages (such as those from Dept. 56®, Lemax®, or Hawthorne Village®) are being "served" by toy or model trains.

Since Bachmann® and Hawthorne Village® On30 trains became available, even more people are combining holiday display villages with toy or model trains. The advantage is that this combination of hobbies gives you literally thousands of choices for what to buy and how to do things. The disadvantage is that the train hobby and the town hobby have two distinct cultures - you could almost say that train people are from Mars and village collectors are from Venus. Until the Big Indoor Trains(tm) site was founded, very few resources were available for people who want to try and learn about both at the same time.

We hope to continue adding articles about all aspects of these hobbies, and we usually have a couple in the works at any given time, so please check back often. Or Join our Mailing List for free hobby ideas and to be notified when new articles are posted.

In addition, you can help by sending us project tips, article ideas, and photos of your railroads and villages. We want this site to be as useful as possible to as many people as it can be. As the hobby grows, we all benefit.

Available Articles:

Our list is growing slowly but surely.

Introduction to Trains and Towns

• Combining Trains and Towns - Why combining collectible village pieces and model trains is a growing and rewarding hobby. Updated December, 2007!

• Sizes and Scales of Big IndoorTrains - Which trains are best for around a collectible village or other indoor use? How much room do these trains take up anyway? - May, 2007

Scenery Project Ideas

• Portable (Foam-Based) Indoor Displays - Using a foam-based portable scenic foundation to display your trains and towns to their best advantage. Updated, October, 2007!

• Easy Indoor Lakes and Rivers - How to get the effect of waterfalls, rivers, lakes, and streams on both temporary and permanent indoor railroads and display villages. Updated, October, 2007!

• Easy Homemade Trees - How to make realistic and inexpensive trees using (mostly) natural materials. Updated, October, 2007!

Building Project Ideas

• Easy Street Scene - This new building project uses downloadable building graphics and a little cardboard or foam board to build up a convincing downtown scene that is only a few inches deep - perfect for shelf layouts, tight spots, and dioramas. We also provide links to high-resolution graphics that will work for any scale. New, April, 2008!

• Build a Vintage-Style Cardboard Stone Cottage - Here's a new building project that is inspired by the vintage cardboard houses folks used to set around their Christmas tree in the early 1900s (before glitterhouses became common). This building uses free downloadable graphic paper to put a realistic stone veneer on an old-world cottage and fence. It works with Christmas villages, or with a little customization, it would dress up any indoor railroad. New, February, 2008!

• Log Cabin Building Flat - This "building flat" uses downloadable graphics and foam board or cardboard to dress up a narrow corner of your railroad or village. December, 2007

• Build a Vintage-Style Barn and Silo - This building project uses downloadable graphics to put realistic shingles and siding on an old barn and silo. Like the stone cottage above, it works with Christmas villages, or with a few changes, it would dress up an indoor railroad. New, January, 2008!

Special Features

• What is a Glitterhouse? - Remember when Christmas Villages were made of cardboard instead of china and resin? Get a head start on celebrating the original Christmas village tradition! Articles on collecting and building authentic, vintage-style pasteboard houses, just like the ones we had growing up. Sure, they're not scale, but they are lots of fun! - New, November, 2007! This section includes several articles on building glitterhouses and typical accessories, including:
  • Building a Glitterhouse - A detailed primer on building your own vintage-style cardboard Christmas house.
  • Winter Trees from Floral Picks - A quick and inexpensive way to add interesting textures to your winter railroad or Christmas village. - New, December, 2007!
• Introducing Spook Hill, a vintage-style Halloween building project in O or S scale, first in a whole new line of projects that will give you a complete Halloween village by October if you keep up. New, April, 2008!

• What Do Trains Have to Do With Christmas? - Have you ever wondered why trains around the tree seem as natural as a star or angel on top? This article explains why the answer may be important to everybody with great Christmas memories. It also explains the history of On30 trains, such as the Bachmann® and Hawthorne Village® trains many people are using with their holiday villages - Updated, December, 2007!

Real Trains We Model

• 30" Railroads - On30 is a fast-growing hobby and the trains are sure "cute." But do you know there is a century of fascinating history behind those "teakettles" and the thirty-inch-wide tracks they ran on? New, April, 2008!

Miscellaneous Related Topics

• Availability and Pricing of Big Trains - Most model trains are made in batches that may or may not last out the season for which they were built. This article explains why products seem to come and go so quickly, and why we gave up posting prices for anything in our "buyer's guides."

• About Subscription Trains - With Hawthorne Village collectible trains, you get the locomotive in the first shipment, a car in the next, a car and the track in the next, and so on. This article explains the whole thing in more detail, in case you're wondering just what you'll get and when, if you order a Hawthorne Village train.

Other Resources

• Note: Most of the articles listed on this page actually began as responses to reader questions, so if you have a question that isn't answered in these pages, please contact us. In the meantime, our Letters to the Editor page includes many of the most-asked questions from Big Indoor Train lovers all over the world.

• Pacific Coast Air Line 4x8 Layout - Articles to Build a Layout - Harold Minkwitz provides a wealth of ideas on detailing a realistic On30 railroad, including how to make realistic dirt roads, bushes, whitewater rapids, and more. Harold has changed scales on the same railroad several times, so not all of the articles on his site apply to On30 railroading, but the collection of original articles on this page is unique and helpful.

Watch this page: more articles are in the works.

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Note: Big Indoor Trains(tm), Big Train Store(tm) Family Garden Trains(tm), Big Christmas Trains(tm), and Garden Train Store(tm) are trademarks of Breakthrough Communications(tm) (www.btcomm.com). All information, data, text, and illustrations on this web site are Copyright (c) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 by Paul D. Race. Reuse or republication without prior written permission is specifically forbidden.

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