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Written by Paul D. Race for Big Indoor TrainsTM and Big Christmas TrainsTM |
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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 IssueIn pro sports, when the owner of a team that started out the season claiming that they were going to "go all the way" realizes halfway through that they don't have a prayer of getting to the playoffs, he changes his tune to, "I always said this would be a 'building' year." Well, apparently it's been a "building year" for most of our web pages. Early this year, a vendor broke about a thousand links on our various sites, and we didn't get them all fixed until August. More recently, a web hosting vendor convinced me to upgrade servers on one site, then confessed that they didn't know how to make my forum software work on the new server - so I spent many hours hacking my own site back into operation. It seems to be working now. but I've been spending most of the time I would usually dedicate to writing about my hobbies fixing site issues that shouldn't have broken in the first place. Hopefully things are back on track now.But the world of indoor trains hasn't stopped. Our Tribute to Tinplate projects, which appeal to tinplate collectors who don't want to spend the rent money on rusted overpriced eBay items, are still making converts. And in the holiday village category, several folks are ramping up for Halloween with some exceptional "putz house" projects. This month, our newsletter features our Halloween projects for indoor trains and towns. Why so early? So you can get the ones you like done before Halloween. On the train availability front, Lionel produced several new sets last year, most of which which are still in stock. And they sold well enough that we have reason to believe several nice new sets will be available this year, as well as some reissued items for the serious collector. The On30 supply from Bachmann still seems strong as well, although a few of my favorite sets were pretty much unavailable by Christmas of last year. I plan to spend some time between now and November sorting out the winners of both lines. If you're an S gauger, you might be surprised that most questions I have about S gauge recently have been about using S Gauge trains outside. The flange depths on standard Flyer would probably allow it. So I might track down some weather-resistant high-rail track and try it myself. Of course, like Lionel, you don't want your trains out if it's damp, you don't want them sitting in direct sunlight too long, and you need to make certain they're stored in a very dry place. To see one reader question about S Gauge outside that went to our FamilyGardenTrains.com forum, click the following link: Topics discussed in this update include:
![]() Halloween-Themed Building ProjectsThe following articles are from our collection of Halloween and autumn-themed projects and resources, several of which are shown in the photo above.
Halloween Village Putz Houses"Putz" houses are those cardboard houses with the holes in the back for C-6 bulbs that decorated many mantles and seasonal railroads between 1929 and the mid-sixties. We have a whole site dedicated just to those, complete with a very active discussion forum. A number of the putzers use techniques that carry over to home-made railroad buildings. But this month, with our emphasis on Halloween, I want to show a few Halloween-themed putz houses that might give you some great ideas for turning your railroad a little "dark" this October. Most of these are from a very talented contributor called "Lucy."The first batch includes a "steampunk" house featuring key and lock iconography, a Victorian with a clock and patterned roof, and a shabby-looking cottage with a flying witch hovering above. Comments following the photos include questions about Lucy's marvelous fences and other details. Click the following link to see the first batch of Lucy's Halloween houses. The next batch includes three houses inspired by the shape and color of candy corn. Click the following link to see Lucy's Candy corn houses.
There are at least two other projects by Lucy on the forum, plus a number of projects and ideas by other folks. Lucy doesn't provide plans, but if her postings don't get your "wheels turning," you don't have "wheels." Thanks again, Lucy for sharing all of these brilliant ideas. Click the following link to see Lucy's Black Hat Inn and the steps she went through to create it. Keep scrolling down and hitting "next" to see the whole project. If you want to jump to the top of the Halloween forum and see the rest of Lucy's contributions, as well as the contributions of several other folks, please click the following link. If you want to register for the Cardboard Christmas form, to join this discussion and many, many more, please click the following link.
We are still getting cool photos of vintage trains, as well as scans of vintage ads for trains. We also post Q&As from readers in the various categories, so you never know when you'll come across the answer to a question you haven't got around to asking yet.
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Note: Family Garden TrainsTM, Big Christmas TrainsTM, Big Indoor TrainsTM, Big Train StoreTM, and Trains-N-TownsTM are trademarks of Breakthrough CommunicationsTM (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, 2014, 2015 by Paul D. Race.
Reuse or republication without prior written permission is specifically
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