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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.
- Also, 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.
In this Issue
As we start looking toward cooler months, many of our readers start thinking about indoor activities, such as model railroading, display villages and the like. If you're thinking of setting up a Halloween village/railroad this year, you may be glad to know that we've expanded Halloweentrains.com with new projects and products. If you're more of a Christmas village person, you might appreciate knowing that we're approaching the 2-year birthday of CardboardChristmas.com. This site started out as a way for fans of our Glitterhouse articles to access that content more easily, but it's become a way for fans of cardboard Christmas "putz" houses to keep in touch and show off their collections and creations.
On the model train front, we've added an article about masking and painting plastic storefronts to get them to "come to life." Though we use Large Scale storefronts for our examples, the principles we show will work on most scales (I've used them on HO structures before).
Speaking of storefronts, if you want to learn why so many old downtowns look so similar, you'll appreciate the "storefront" catalog produced by an iron manufacturer in the late 1800s. Or if you're more interested in a mid-century look, you may get some ideas for classic neon signs from a blog Maria Cudequest sent me last month.
Finally, during our never-ending site revisions, we also realized that we needed to update the article "Getting and Keeping the Kids Involved." Since I wrote the original article, the world of toy trains has changed. I've also come to realize that kids need a little more encouragment and direction than they used to when everybody knew what trains were "for." So we've expanded that article with many new suggestions. If you want to keep the next generation (or the next) interested in trains, this article is for you.
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:
- Getting and Keeping the Kids Involved - Update - new tips and recommendations for helping the kids stay interested in trains after the Brios and Thomases go into the attic.
- Detail Painting Storefronts - prepping, masking, and spraypainting techniques that will bring interest to otherwise less-than-impressive buildings.
- Old-Fashioned Neon Signs - Graphics to inspire your "mid-century" communities.
- Iron Storefront Catalog - A hundred different ideas for designing your own 1870-1930 business facades, from a century-old catalog of building fronts you could buy.
- Cardboard Christmas Forums, 2-year Birthday - I like those cardboard Christmas "putz" houses that brightened so many homes when I was growing up, but I really like hanging out with the folks who collect, restore, and reproduce them.
- Halloween Trains Update - Expanded resources for Halloween-themed trains and towns.
- Christmas Train Day, 2013 - A "Save the Date" for our sixth annual Christmas Themed open railroad, with outdoor trains, kids' trains, snacks, music, and more.
Over a decade ago, I wrote about getting the whole family involved with garden railroading. Recently I've realized how many kids - even kids who grew up on Thomas videos - have no idea what trains do or how to play with them appropriately. Though I still have a lot of Large Scale examples, I've added some hints on how to bridge the gap between Brio/Thomas and real model railroading. Whatever scale you model, your kids can benefit from creative, instructional play, using trains and appropriate accessories. And if they stay interested in trains long after they've outgrown Thomas, is that a bad thing?
To see the article, please click on the following link:
If you've ever detail-painted a car, you know that "detail-painting" is really all about masking. This article, from Family Garden Trains(tm), explains how to use easy masking and spray-painting techniques to turn "generic"-looking structures into a delightful, unique community. Though we use Large Scale model buildings as examples, the techniques we describe have been used in every scale.
To see the article, please click on the following link:
 Old-Fashioned Neon Signs
Blogger Maria Cudequest has published links to some great mid-century neon signs that might give you some great ideas for your railroad.
To see the article, please click on the following link:
I've always enjoyed the look of the Design Preservation model buildings for indoor railroads, because they captured the look of the towns I grew up in so well. But no matter where I go in the U.S, I see similar structures in every "downtown" that dates to the late 1800s or early 1900s. Why do many vintage storefronts in so many towns and cities across America seem so similar? Believe it or not, a lot of them were ordered from the same catalogs. And the ones that weren't ordered from catalogs were influenced by the storefronts that were.
Before the 1870s, there was really no such thing as "window shopping." Windows on brick storefronts could not be all that wide - wooden or stone lintels (the bar across the top of the windowframes) could only be a few feet wide and still support the walls of the upper stories.
But starting about 1870, big ironworks companies started designing iron posts and lintels that would support the upper walls of a brick building no matter how wide the windows were. Store owners liked being able to display more of their goods to folks strolling by. The growth of "window-shopping" as a recreational activity let retailers snag potential customers who might otherwise have passed the store without a glance.
Many of the new stores boasted indented entrances with even more windows to coax window-shoppers right into the store. Transoms for ventilation, elaborate preformed cornices, and many other common features followed. Although the ironworkers who made all of this possible didn't get all of the storefront-building business, they heavily influenced it for decades.
Once again, we have blogger Maria Cudequest to thank for a glimpse into the past - she sent us the link to scans of the Mesker Brothers Metal Store-Front catalog, which lists hundreds of products, large and small, for outfitting a state-of-the-art 1880s- to 1920s-era store. If you like modeling old buildings, and are looking for ideas for your next project, this resource may bring you a wealth of ideas.
Click on the link to find downloadable pdfs.
September, 2013 will mark the two-year birthday of our CardboardChristmas forum, where you can meet and interact with people who collect, restore, and reproduce those classic cardboard houses that brightened so many houses during the Christmas seasons between 1929 and, say, 1965 (when the television set took over the living room). Since our founding, we have had thousands of posts and tens of thousands of visits, so we can't help feeling like it was worth all the work setting up. Whether you've read our Glitterhouse articles, or just seen the modern imitations in TJ Maxx's seasonal displays, if you want to meet the folks who are carrying on the tradition, please stop by.
To visit the Cardboard Christmas Discussion forums, click on the following link:
We started our first HalloweenTrains.com page in 2007, to provide resources for folks who like setting up Halloween-themed towns and trains every year. Since then we've moved servers twice, to get more room for photos and projects, and to get more bandwidth for readers. Sadly, the recession caused some of the great products we featured in the "early years" to disappear, but there are still great products available, and our collection of free projects and resources is larger than ever. If you want to see what's available this year, or if you want to "roll your own," this is a great place to start - and, frankly, Halloween isn't that far away!
To visit the HalloweenTrains.com pages, click on the following link:
Every November for the past five years, we've decorated our garden (outdoor railroad) for Christmas, with hundreds of lights, Christmas themed trains and more. Since we started, we've added Christmas music, outdoor train or Christmas movies after dark, a movie-style popcorn popper, three trains that children can run, and more. This year, the "big event" is planned for Saturday, November 9, and we wanted to give you as early a notice as possible, in case you are going to be anywhere near Springfield, Ohio in early November.
To learn more about our November 9 Christmas-themed open railroad, and maybe sign up to visit or to help, click on 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 grow best when we all learn together.
In the meantime, please accept our very best wishes for a great holiday week and a prosperous and joyful 2013!
Paul Race
BigIndoorTrains.com(tm)
BigChristmasTrains.com(tm)
HalloweenTrains.com(tm)
FamilyGardenTrains.com(tm)
To view the Trains-N-TownsTM newsletter for July, 2013, click on the following link:
http://bigindoortrains.com/trains_n_towns/13_07_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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Getting and Keeping the Kids Involved - Update
Detail Painting Storefronts
Iron Storefront Catalog
Cardboard Christmas Forums' 2-Year Birthday
Halloween Trains Update
Christmas Train Day, 2013