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Trains-N-TownsTM, the Official Newsletter of BIGIndoorTrains.com, BIGChristmasTrains.com, and HalloweenTrains.com
This newsletter is for people who like O scale, O gauge, S scale, and Christmas trains, including people who combine On30 or O gauge trains with collectible villages. It is produced in conjunction with the Big Indoor TrainsTM, Big Christmas TrainsTM, and HalloweenTrains.comTM web sites.
- If you did not get this Trains-N-TownsTM newsletter through your own e-mail, and you would like to get the newsletters in the future, please join our Trains-N-TownsTM Mailing List
- On the other hand, if you don't want to receive our e-mail updates, please e-mail me with a "Please Unsubscribe" message (worded any way you wish), and we will graciously remove you from our list.
- If you would like to subscribe to our free newsletter for garden railroaders (people running big trains outside), please join the Family Garden Trains Mailing List. By the way, you can subscribe to either, both, or neither, and we will just be glad to be of service, no matter what you decide.
- Finally, if you would like to subscribe to our free newsletter about Christmas traditions, please join our Christmas TimesTM Mailing List.
In this Issue
Many houses built between 1870 and 1920 had parlors, rooms you could shut off with pocket doors from the rest of the house. In parts of Maryland, it became a holiday tradition to decorate the parlor for Christmas with a "train garden," that is, an elaborate, but informal temporary railroad that took over the room and usually centered around a Christmas tree and nativity. Tinplate buildings from the toy train manufacturers, cardboard candy boxes shaped like houses, toy cars from the nursery, animals from the farm set - just about anything smaller than an icebox could be used to decorate this room and populate the little towns that the railroads "served." (The photo above is very bare, compared to most of these, but I included it because I love the old Standard Gauge trains it shows.)
Often the setup started just after Thanksgiving, and continued through 'till Christmas Eve. In Baltimore, where it seldom snowed hard until after Christmas, the fire departments would park a truck outside and devote a bay to their Christmas gardens. They would compete with other fire departments to see whose could be the most elaborate.
In "Pennsylvania Dutch" country, these temporary Christmas villages were called "putz," from the German word meaning "to put" (or "to putter").
Today, of course, houses don't have parlors, or even "rec rooms" - those are being turned into "home theaters" or "computer rooms." But the "trains around the tree" tradition still exists in many homes, and some families still add scenery, buildings, and accessories to their holiday railroads.
This month's newsletter starts with links to a few articles that would help you inexpensively add scenery to such a railroad. Or, if you are setting up a ceramic or putz house village on a table somewhere, they will help you establish a setting for that village without having to spend a fortune on accessories.
There are also links to projects from folks who rehabilitate, collect, or reproduce those cardboard Christmas "putz" houses which found their way to countless temporary Holiday villages and railroads. The CardboardChristmas.com discussion forums have become an online collection of many great resources, examples, and ideas.
And of course, we have to squeeze in one final reminder that if you have your eyes on a particular train to add to your village, tree, or railroad this year, don't wait too long.
As always, we have more projects in the works, so stay tuned.
Finally, please accept our wishes for a great rest of the year. And please enjoy any time you can spend with your family in the coming months.
Topics discussed in this update include:
Here's a quick list of scenery suggestions that are inexpensive, easy to store, and useful for temporary railroads, whether small and simple or big and elaborate.
- Portable (Foam-Based) Indoor Displays - Use a foam-based portable scenic foundation to display your trains and towns to their best advantage. Click the following link to see the article:
- Making Winter Trees from Floral Picks - Add interesting textures to your winter railroad or Christmas village. Click on the following link:
- Easy Homemade Trees - Learn how to make realistic and inexpensive trees using (mostly) natural materials, including dead flower and weed heads from your winter garden. Click on the following link:
- Easy Indoor Lakes and Rivers - Add the effect of waterfalls, rivers, lakes, and streams to both temporary and permanent indoor railroads and display villages.
Click on the following link:
Our sister site CardboardChristmas.com has a large collection of articles about those little cardboard houses with the colored cellophane windows and the hole in the back for a C6 or C7 light bulb. There has been a revival of interest and many reproductions, but this is the site where the most talented and informated putz-house builders, restorers, and collectors I know hang out.
The discussion forums, which started in 2011 and have been growing ever since, have so much information coming in from members, that I don't even have time to catalog it all. But if you ever want to get involved with any kind of "Cardboard Christmas House" hobby, this is a great place to get some inspiration.
As examples:
 Master putz house builders take on a "simple project" - building the putz house patterns from a sixties recycling magazine. One builder revises two of the published patterns and takes photos for the rest of us to work from. Click on the following link to see folks' progress
 A well-known putz house restorer reports on an unusually tiny church made in occupied Japan:
 Another builder replicates an early-1900s candy-box house with an unusual shape, including the original Santa figure on the roof:
 Another builder replicates a vintage putz house that had a cardboard candy receptacle glued to the base:
These are just four recent examples. Other members have contributed photos of their own creations, tips and tricks, links to other resources, sources for materials and little figures, and much more. The best part - I think - is how encouraging everybody is. If this hobby has ever interested you at all, take a look.
To sign up for the discussion forums, please click the following link:
Good Trains are Still Available
In our buyers' guides, we are still taking down links and descriptions of trains that we featured only a few weeks ago, and I'm still getting e-mails asking where certain trains that were recently available have "got to." This will get worse in a hurry after Black Friday, because folks who were thinking about getting a train for a present or for under the tree realize they're out of time. Even if the train you want is still available, you might see the price jump by $100 or more. (Vendors that are offering big discounts sell out first, leaving vendors who don't.) So, once again, the moral is "Don't wait too long."
Here's a quick recap of where "Big Train" markets stand as of November, 2014:
 O Gauge Trains in Railroad Names - Lionel has issued a number of new trains and has reissued several existing sets with a different locomotive or different cars. This year, trains pulled by F (streamlined) units and freight diesels are also available. I expect the diesel trains to sell quickly - they always do. Several of the other sets are getting "thin" as well. If you were thinking about getting a Lionel set or adding to a Lionel railroad this year, don't wait too long.
To see the Lionel trains that are painted for PRR, NYC, UP, and other "real-world" railroads, click the following link:
 O Gauge Trains in Christmas Colors - This year, Lionel has more trains decorated for Christmas than they have ever offered at one time. Again, some of the units are already in short supply. And I expect others, like the Peanuts-themed train, to sell out quickly. Big and sturdy.
 Large Scale (Garden-sized) Trains for Kids - Last year, several of the trains we posted disappeared very fast. Fortunately, the suppliers have reordered, and some delightful trains are available as of this posting. If you want individual cars to add to the train, they're catch-as-catch can - some are already gone, and some are still in good supply.
To see Large Scale trains that are designed to be kid-friendly, click the following link:
 On30 Trains in Christmas Colors - Hawthorne Trains used to order specially painted On30 train sets from Bachmann to sell in "collections." They featured art from folks like Thomas Kinkade and Al Agnew, as well as cultural icons like Coca Cola and "Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer." Several of these classic collections are still available new, although I don't think any new sets have been ordered since 2010. So once they sell out, they are gone forever.
These come one piece at a time, except in some cases you can order a "super saver set" in which the first three "issues" come in the first shipment, and after that, the subsequent pieces come one at a time. To see which collections are still available, click the following link:
 On30 Trains in Railroad Names
- These are almost non-existent this year. If you haven't got into On30, you don't have as many choices right now as you did a couple years ago. On the other hand, if you have an On30 railroad, several very nice individual pieces are available. Click the link below and scroll down to see the links for those products.
 Large Scale Trains in Railroad Names - Bachmann "Big Hauler" train sets are still available. For a time, the stocks were looking pretty thin, but I think the vendors are starting to dig a little deeper, and posting sets that were impossible to find a month or two ago. So you have a wider array of choices that you usually get this time of year, but stocks are still shallow. Starter sets from Piko are still available. On the other hand two sets that were on this page in September are gone now.
To see our best currently-available recommendations, click the following link:
 Large Scale Trains in Christmas Colors - These are perfect for big displays in bank lobbies, etc. And they are "jaw-dropping" around the tree. A couple of the most popular Bachmann Christmas-themed Large Scale sets are still available. A Bachmann "Lil Big Hauler" Kids train decorated for Christmas might be the best solution for folks who want a real train around the tree, but whose kids still have "pokey fingers." The Piko Christmas set that is available this year has a very nice paint job as well, and seems reasonably solid. Two other trains from this page have sold out in the last three weeks, so don't wait too long.
To see the Large Scale trains that are decorated for Christmas, click the following link:
In April, we announced a new discussion forum for folks who want to share projects, float ideas, ask and answer questions, etc. relating to garden trains.
Since then, we've had several nice discussions about tinplate trains, and I've posted a lot of answers to reader questions. The links below are just to give you some idea of the kinds of discussions we have. Caution: Two different Pauls are participating on the forums listed below, so our notes back and forth have been known to confuse some readers.
To check out a discussion of American Flyer trains, click the following link:
To check out some photos of Lionel tinplate, click the following link:
To sign up for the discussion forums, please click the following link:
Keep in Touch
Each month, we get more interest in this newsletter, in the site, and in the trains and towns we discuss. We welcome your questions as indicators of what we should be working on next (also, we always try to answer reader questions quickly). In addition, if you have any photos, tips, or articles you'd like to share with your fellow hobbyists, please let us know. All of the hobbies we report on grow best when we all learn together.
In the meantime, please accept our very best wishes for a great autumn and holiday season!
Paul Race
BigIndoorTrains.com(tm)
BigChristmasTrains.com(tm)
HalloweenTrains.com(tm)
FamilyGardenTrains.com(tm)
To view the Trains-N-TownsTM newsletter for October, 2014, click on the following link:
http://bigindoortrains.com/trains_n_towns/14_10_newsletter_indoor.htm
To read more, or to look at recommended Indoor or Garden Railroading products, you may click on the index pages below.
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Easy Scenery for Temporary Railroads
Putz House Forums Explode