Let's talk about cardboard Christmas houses and accessories

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PostPosted: Sat Mar 09, 2024 8:22 am 
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This is a link to a Kalmbach page, just to show the kinds of trains people are using with their ceramic villages (Dept. 56, Lemax, etc.)

With the caveat that most ceramic village structures and accessories are much larger than traditional putz houses, maybe it will give you some ideas of how Lionel O gauge trains might be incorporated into your towns.

You don't have to belong to Kambach's expensive monthly plan to see the article, but you may have to be on their free e-mail mailing list.

https://www.trains.com/ctt/videos-photo ... n-layouts/


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PostPosted: Sun Mar 10, 2024 2:41 pm 
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Paul, thanks for posting the link. Quite a few interesting photos there.

At one time, we had a decent-sized collection of ceramic buildings that we used on the basement layout, but we've drastically reduced the number, sending most to other collectors or folks in the neighborhood that expressed interest. We kept about a dozen of our favorites, but hadn't used them for years. Then this year (2023), with the price of real Christmas trees through the roof, we decided to use an old artificial "pencil" we have (it was stored in the garage and hadn't been out of the box for so long I feared there might be badgers living in there, lol). It proved to be in satisfactory condition, so that's what we used for a tree.

I never liked the look of that four-legged stand that anchors it, and the two or three skirts we have just don't look so great, so we decided to use some white felt cut to fit around the tree, the stand, and over an old 48-inch round platform I made. To hide the stand, we broke out the ceramic houses and stacked those around the base of the tree, then a loop of 42-inch diameter O-27 gauge track. I ordered a roll of that corrugated brick paper skirting that's sold around the holidays, but it didn't come in until a week or so after Christmas. No worries, as what we had done proved serviceable.

Here's a few pics:

Image

Image

Image

Image

It turned out okay, masked the stand well, and visitors seemed to get a charge out of seeing the trains run. I'm hoping to have enough appropriately-sized cardboard houses by Christmas 2024 such that we can use those instead of the ceramics. We'll see...

Paul Too


Last edited by healey36 on Mon Mar 11, 2024 9:53 am, edited 2 times in total.

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PostPosted: Sun Mar 10, 2024 4:43 pm 
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Very nice photos, thanks! Love the tinplate!


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Note: To ask a question, sign up for our "Christmas Times" newsletter, or learn how
to apply for membership to this forum, please visit our Contact page.


Note: All content on this forum is Copyright (c) 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 by Paul D. Race
and by the posters who have contributed specific content. All material is for your personal use only. No content
or plans may be republished or sold, nor may any plans be used to make products to sell without prior written
permission from Paul D. Race and the individual who contributed the content or plan in question.
For permissions or for questions about this policy, please contact us using our Contact page.



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Visit the FamilyChristmasOnline site. Visit Howard Lamey's glitterhouse gallery, with free project plans, graphics, and instructions. Visit Papa Ted Althof's extensive history and collection of putz houses, the largest and most complete such resource on the Internet.. Click to return to the Old Christmas Tree Lights Table of Contents Page Click to sign up for Maria Cudequest's craft and collectibles blog.
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