Written by Paul D. Race for Big Indoor TrainsTM and Big Christmas TrainsTM |
Trains-N-TownsTM, the Official Newsletter of BIGIndoorTrains.com, BIGChristmasTrains.com, and HalloweenTrains.comThis 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.
In this IssueIs it hard to believe that it's almost November! Once again, I'm getting the newsletter out "under the wire," but I wanted to get some of the announcements out while they're still valid. For example, at this moment, you can still get commemorative trains for both the Red Sox and the Cardinals. At least one of those is likely to sell out in the next few days, but I won't guess which one.Also, since Halloween is tomorrow, I included an article of "musings" about the holiday that we published on another web page to some very appreciative response. On the trains front, we are in the last 11 days of preparation for our annual Christmas-themed open railroad. We call it "Christmas Train day" in our neighborhood, because phrases like "garden trains," and "open railroad" don't mean anything to them, but "Christmas" and "Trains" just seem to go together naturally somehow. Though the railroad was still in pretty good condition from our June open railroads, many of our structures haven't been re-illuminated since I refurbished them for that event. So there will be lots of soldering and wiring over the next few days. If you are anywhere near Springfield, Ohio, be sure and sign up, then come by. After November 9, we'll be more focused on indoor railroading, I promise. In the meantime, many folks found BigIndoorTrains.com because of our articles on building vintage-style cardboard Christmas "putz" houses. In 2011, we started a separate site so putz house fans could find the information they need more easily. But a surprise benefit of that site was the discussion forums we installed - the best working putz house restorers, builders and designers I know are participating, often on a daily basis, with tips and tricks, and jaw-dropping projects. For this newsletter, I've included links to a few methods and resources that are useful in any kind of scale modeling. 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:
Tribute to TinplateDo you run vintage trains? Do you enjoy the look of the century-old lithographed "tinplate" buildings that were built to go with them? Would you like to go back to when they were all shiny and new? Our Tribute to Tinplate articles give you enough free plans, instructions and graphics to build a whole vintage-inspired community for your vintage trains or Christmas village.Click on the following link to see the lead article in this series, with links to the individual projects. We are working on Christmas versions of some of our most popular "faux tinplate" buildings, but right now we have a Christmas version of Howard Lamey's shorty diner project. And our tribute to the Hornby switch tower just happens to be mostly red and green, because that's what the original used. Click on the following link to see our "Tribute to Tinplate" switch tower project, which just happens to be in Christmas colors. Click on the following link to see the faux tinplate diner project, which includes Christmas-themed graphics. ("Donner's Diner") Christmas Building Textures Resource Page - In addition, we have several lithograph-inspired patterns for inventing your own tinplate-style structures. Brick walls, wood siding walls, and several roof patterns are included. Click the following link to see the free Christmas-themed building graphics you can download and print: In addition, our Tinplate Textures page includes more roof patterns, as well as door and window patterns that you just have to cut out and glue onto your buildings for a finished, authentic look. Click the following link to see our Tinplate Textures page: World Series Trains Still Available (For Now)Hawthorne Village has been making HO trains that commemorate Major League Baseball for years. At the moment, those are still available for both the Red Sox and the Cardinals.But the big news (big in more than one sense) is that this year Lionel introduced a handful of O gauge trains that commemorated a handful of Major Leage "major market" teams. No, my team isn't included, nor are the Cards. But the Lionel Red Sox trains are available now. They are selling so fast that it will be all I can do to get the word out before they are all gone. The Lionel Baseball Trains have the largest steam locomotive they put in any train set and fantastic graphics. If you're a fan of the Red Sox, Cubs, Yankees, or Phillies, start at the followng link. (Some nice NASCAR-inspired trains are also shown there). To see the Hathorne Village HO scale sports trains, which include the Red Sox, the Cardinals and the rest of the Major Leagues, as well as NFL, a bit of NASCAR and more, click the following link: Tips from Putzers"Putz" houses are those cardboard Christmas houses that decorated so many mantels and Christmas railroads between 1929 and 1964. We first got acquainted with the modern world of putz house collecting, restoration, and building about six years ago when putz-house designer Howard Lamey contacted Paul about using a stained-glass window pattern in a vintage-style mica-coated cardboard church he was building. Paul and Howard then partnered on a wide range of putz house and tinplate-style structure projects, which they published on BigIndoorTrains.com and LittleGlitterHouses.com.About two years ago, Paul established discussion forums on CardboardChristmas.com, the internet's premier site supporting this hobby. And the folks who contribute keep sharing original ideas that have applications outside of this specific hobby. Often the tips come when folks are talking about something else, so the subject lines don't always tell the whole story. We hope to expand these into separate articles at some point in the future, but in the meantime, here are some ideas that could have application in indoor model railroading as well as putz house restoration and recreation. For example, Molding Small Figures - Tom Hull, Howard Lamey, and Brian Bloodgood have all shared tips for modeling and molding putz figures. No you may not need a Santa, but the same technology applies to a lot of small pieces. Click the following link to see Tom Hull's original take on the subject: Click the following link and keep scrolling down to see a Santa that Howard made and - further down - some tips for molding him. Click the following link to see Brian Bloodgood's effort to replicate a little boy and little girl figure that occasionally appear on putzes but are hard to find today. Making Miniature Windowframes - Several folks have shared their takes on this subject. One of the most useful came from Stephen Sharp - using automotive striping tape over mylar. No, you don't have to use gold tape and red mylar. Click on the following link to see Stephen's tips (which we've compiled into an article format): Making Miniature Trees from Luffah Sponges - In a discussion of a building project, Howard provides several references to resource on this topic: Why haven't we put all these great tips into an article format like we did Stephen's? Because we are getting so many we literally couldn't keep up if we tried. "Papa Ted's Place" Archive "Carries the Torch"-Much of what we know today about putz house history is due to the tireless work of dedicated amateur researcher Ted Althof. We lost Ted in October of 2012, but when he realized he was ill, he gave us permission to archive his web resource "Papa Ted's Place." Sadly, the domain name for Ted's web page, which was owned by a third party, has expired, so now when you click on PapaTedsPlace.com, you will only see a list of ads for unrelated merchandise. We are more glad than ever that we took the many hours to make certain that Ted's resource would be preserved. If you have been missing Papa Ted's Place, or if you're new to the world of cardboard Christmas "putz" houses and wonder why Ted's name keeps coming up in conversations, please use the following link. And add the page to your favorites once you get there. Christmas Train Day, 2013We're still preparing for our sixth annual Christmas-themed open railroad with lots of entertainment options for the whole family, including trains for kids to run. If you're are going to be anywhere near Springfield, Ohio in early November, put November 9 on your calendar.To learn more about our November 9 Christmas-themed open railroad and a few other regional Christmas-themed railroad activities, or to sign up to help in any way, please click on the following link: "Thoughts About Halloween"In the Family Christmas Online newsletter last month, we included some remarks about the bad and the good side of Halloween (yes, we found a "good side" or two). To my surprise, all of our reader feedback was very positive. But several of the responses were also worth sharing as well. So we copied the link here, just in case you've been thinking about or confronted with some of the same issues regarding this misunderstood and much-abused holiday. After you've had a look, use the contact link at the bottom of that page to let us know what you think.To see this article, click on the following link: Hawthorne Trains UpdateBetween 2002 and 2008, Hawthorne Village trains made many heirloom-quality On30 train collections featuring art and iconic images from Thomas Kinkade, Al Agnew, Disney, vintage Coca Cola Santas, the original Rudolph TV special, and many more. Not only were those trains attractive and highly collectible, they also used frames and motors from Bachmann, the world's largest manufacturer of model trains. Bachmann incorporated high quality into each chassis; they also provided a lifetime warranty on the locomotive. Sadly, in 2008, the mortgage fraud recession prompted Hawthorne Village to start ordering trains from another provider, whose trains are, frankly, not the same quality. I ordinarily wouldn't point that out, except that several of the most popular Bachmann-manufactured trains are still available as of October, 2013. Top-quality collectible trains like these have always been limited editions, but now they really are going to disappear, permanently, once the stock on hand has sold out. I know this must seem like a hard sell. But every year we get e-mails from folks who waited too long to order a Hathorne Village collection and tell me that if I don't locate a set for them somewhere I will have ruined their Christmas. (It doesn't help when I try to point out that Christmas is about more than buying stuff for people.) But "unavailable" means you can't get them any more. It also means that I can't get them for you. By the way, we have never gotten an e-mail from a customer who is disappointed with the product. I know I'm happy with the pieces I own. And, no, they're not for sale. For more information on featured trains and towns, with links to other Hawthorne Village products, please, click on the following link: Keep in TouchEach 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)
To view the Trains-N-TownsTM newsletter for September, 2013, click on the following link: http://bigindoortrains.com/trains_n_towns/13_09_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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