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Written by Paul D. Race for Big Indoor Trains^TM and Big Christmas Trains^TM

Click to see new and reissued Lionel trains to celebrate a century-old tradition.

Trains-N-Towns^TM, 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 Trains^TM, Big Christmas Trains^TM, and HalloweenTrains.com^TM web sites.

If you did not get this Trains-N-Towns^TM newsletter through your own e-mail, and you would like to get the newsletters in the future, please join our Trains-N-Towns^TM 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 Times^TM Mailing List.

In this Issue

By now we hope you have most of your holiday preparations under control, and, hopefully, trains running somewhere. Whether you have your trains on a table or around a tree, this is a time when they seem especially important. But did you know that trains around Christmas trees actually predate electric trains? A little over a century ago, Christmas mornings for some families included running a miniature lamp-oil-powered steam locomotive around a cut Christmas tree decorated with real burning candles. Is it any wonder the fire departments were so busy this time of year?

Thankfully, we have safer ways to celebrate and to enjoy our trains and trees these days. But, just to reminisce about all of those "good old days" between then and now, this newsletter includes a link to a previously-published history of the relationship between trains and Christmas.

Of course, my experience with trains doesn't go back a century. But it does go back to a train table in the 1960s, where Plasticville and homemade cardboard structures gave my American Flyer trains communities and industries to serve. Recently I became aware of an internet community of folks who were carrying on that grand old tradition as well. I've added an index to the most popular paper-and-cardboard buildings on our sites. That exercise was helpful even to me - thanks to the diligent efforts of craftsman Howard Lamey, we have so many projects I even have trouble keeping track of them all.

This update also discusses the Race's sixth Christmas-themed outside open railroad. The NMRA dropped their support for the November open railroads this year, so we didn't get as many strangers as we'd like, but we were as busy as always. Our report includes some photos of snow on the railroad that fell (fortunately) after the "main event," so be sure to click on the article just to see the pretty photos. Not that I'm recommending you move your "indoor railroad" outside just for the cool effects.

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:

Paper-and-Cardboard Building Projects - Give your trains some communities to serve for a few cents per building.
Report: Christmas Train Day, 2013 - A report on our our sixth annual Christmas-themed open railroad
Christmas Train Update - If you still need a train for your tree or town.
What do Trains Have to do with Christmas? - A reminder of why Christmas trees just seem to need trains around them.
Why Our Culture Needs Santa Claus (and the Easter Bunny) - A nod to the season from our sister site FamilyChristmasOnline.com

Paper-and-Cardboard Building Projects

This month, the BigIndoorTrains.com reader list has gained a number of folks who make paper buildings that are tributes to the plastic and tinplate structures of the "golden age" of tinplate trains. We'll have more news about that next month, but in the meantime, here's a reminder that you don't need a lot of cash to put buildings of all kinds on your railroads. All you need is a good color printer to take advantage of dozens of projects. Most have free downloadable plans and instructions from master craftsman Howard Lamey. Many have free downloadable professional-grade graphics from Paul Race. Projects range from photo-realistic, to tinplate-inspired, to Christmas "putz" house structures. Even if you don't use any of our projects on your own railroad, certainly you can get lots of ideas from them.

To learn more, click the following link:

http://bigindoortrains.com/primer/buildings/paper_n_cardboard.htm

Report: Christmas Train Day, 2013

Our sixth November open railroad is over, and we had nice weather for the sixth year in a row, pretty good for this time of year. We had lots of visitors with small children, and lots of fun. Plus we've had two snowfalls since, so we included some eyepopping photos as well.

To see the report on our Christmas Train day, 2013, please click the following link

http://familygardentrains.com/newbost/13_11_christmas_train_day/train_day_2013.htm

Christmas Train Update

If you still need a train for your tree or town, you can still get them, especially if you order soon. Our buyers' guide pages include links to vendors who can get you a train lickity-split. Let's talk about trains for trees first.

If you have a really big tree and a lot of room, consider a Large Scale Christmas train, such as those shown in the following link. Some of them are downright "jawdropping" indoors:

http://bigchristmastrains.com/ls_xmas/ls_xmas.htm

The other major option for trains around trees is classic O gauge, such as Lionel. The Lionel Polar Express is a rugged, charming set you'll be tempted to leave out all along, but several other great sets are still available:

http://bigchristmastrains.com/o_gauge_xmas/o_gauge_xmas.htm

If you're looking for trains for your Christmas village, you should know that O gauge trains will work, but modern On30 trains were developed especially for Christmas villages. Almost all of them are made by Bachmann, whose trains have been flying off the shelf this year. In fact, when I checked last night, I could only find a handful in any of the online stores I usually refer folks to. The good news is that they also mak a very nice trolley setup that goes back and forth, so you can set it up almost anywhere. Click on the following link to see some of Bachmann's offerings:

http://bigchristmastrains.com/on_30/on_30.htm

Most Hawthorne Village trains come a piece at a time, so it's too late to get a whole train for Christmas with a few exceptions. One Kinkade-themed train, one Coca Cola-themed train, and several of the Sports-themed trains are available in "super starter sets" so you get the first three "issues" at the same time - a locomotive, two cars, and a circle of track and power supply. That is enough to run trains the first day, then the other pieces will follow, about one a month. As always, you can stop whenever you want to, and return any pieces you don't want.

To jump directly to the Thomas Kinkade-inspired villages and towns, click the following link:

http://bigchristmastrains.com/hawthorne_trains/kinkade_train.htm

To jump directly to the Coca Cola-themed trains, which are also going fast, click the following link:

http://bigchristmastrains.com/hawthorne_trains/coke_train.htm

And for the sports fan in your family, you can always start an NFL, MLB, or NASCAR collection by clicking on the following link:

http://bigchristmastrains.com/sports_trains/sports_trains.htm

What do Trains Have to do with Christmas

This article was first published in 2007, but it bears another read from time to time. I grew up with trains around the tree, a tradition that dates back before electric trains. For a lot of folks, trains and Christmas just seem to go together, although most folks today have never ridden on a train. Prepare to take a "Sentimental Journey" while we connect the dots between history, technology, and Christmas fun for all ages.

http://bigindoortrains.com/primer/trains_n_christmas/trains_n_christmas.htm

Why Our Culture Needs Santa Claus (and the Easter Bunny)

From our sister site FamilyChristmasOnline.com - Santa gets blamed for a lot, including taking people's eyes off of "what's really important" about Christmas. But if we didn't have Santa, things could be a lot worse, even for those who claim to have a "corner" on the one, real, true "meaning of Christmas." Warning: this article contains big words and facts, and just might make you more understanding about the ways other folks celebrate the holidays.

http://familychristmasonline.com/musings/santa/santa.htm

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-Towns^TM newsletter for November, 2013, click on the following link:

http://bigindoortrains.com/trains_n_towns/13_10_newsletter_indoor.htm

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Note: Family Garden Trains^TM, Big Christmas Trains^TM, Big Indoor Trains^TM, Big Train Store^TM, and Trains-N-Towns^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, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 by Paul D. Race. Reuse or republication without prior written permission is specifically forbidden.
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Trains-N-TownsTM, the Official Newsletter of BIGIndoorTrains.com, BIGChristmasTrains.com, and HalloweenTrains.com