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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

In 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:

http://familygardentrains.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=80

Topics discussed in this update include:

Halloween-Themed Building Projects - It's not too early to start thinking about this. Really - We have enough projects to fill an entire railroad. New and old projects of all kinds, including tinplate-inspired projects, putz-house projects, and scenery details for any railroad.
Halloween Putz Houses - A new member of the CardboardChristmas.com community shares some Halloween-themed building projects that should give you some great ideas.
Big Indoor Trains Forum Activities - New Q&A from readers, new photos, new scans of vintage magazine ads for trains, and more.

Halloween-Themed Building Projects

The following articles are from our collection of Halloween and autumn-themed projects and resources, several of which are shown in the photo above.

Bringing Autumn to Your Railroad or Display Village - How two easy crafts can make your model railroad or display village look like it is enjoying the fall season.
Click on the link below to go to the article
http://halloweentrains.com/primer/autumn_leaves/autumn_appearance.htm

Build Spook Hill^TM! Designer Howard Lamey, together with author and graphics artist Paul Race, bring you a series of free, 100% original Halloween building projects in O or S scale, enough to give you a complete, unique, and totally collectible Halloween village.
Click on the link below to go to the free downloadable graphics, plans, and instructions.
http://halloweentrains.com/primer/spook_hill/welcome_to_spook_hill.htm

Halloween Storefronts A unique vintage-looking Halloween craft inspired by tinplate candy boxes of the early 1900s, many of which found their way to the train table once the candy was gone. Though they keep the vintage lithographed-building look, they have unique colors and signage that will bring a bit of spooky cheer to your own little communities.
Click on the link below to go to the free downloadable graphics, plans, and instructions.
http://halloweentrains.com/primer/halloween_stores/halloween_storefronts.htm

Halloween and Fall Textures - If you want to design your own buildings for a fall or Halloween village, check out these roof and wall patterns for making your own seasonal structures. The Halloween and Fall Textures page includes brick, siding, and roofing tile patterns in colors that are ideal for fall decorating.
Click on the link below to go to the free downloadable graphics.
http://halloweentrains.com/resources/halloween_textures.htm

Sizes and Scales of Halloween Trains - Which trains are best for around a collectible village or other indoor displays use? How much room do these trains take up anyway?

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.

http://cardboardchristmas.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=890

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.

http://cardboardchristmas.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=905

My favorite of the whole series is probably the Black Hat Inn. Lucy has provided a series of photos on how she made this. Every detail is charming and well-thought out. In fact, my contribution to the discussion probably caused her to overthink a few things. :-)

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.

http://cardboardchristmas.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=891

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.

http://cardboardchristmas.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=28

If you want to register for the Cardboard Christmas form, to join this discussion and many, many more, please click the following link.

http://cardboardchristmas.com/html/contact.html

Big Indoor Trains Forum Activities

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.

Our signup is a manual process, the only way we can consistently keep creeps and spammers from joining. So there will be a delay between the time you register and when I get your login information to you.

When you DO get signed up, whenever you log in, you'll be able to tell when new pictures or questions have been posted, because the little icons for each discussion change color.

Click to visit to the Trains, Trains, Trains page of our BigIndoorTrains.com forum..

http://bigindoortrains.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=8

In addition, putz house designer Howard Lamey has started making buildings to accompany an O gauge railroad he is putting together. His buildings are smaller than O scale, because the Lionel trains he runs are smaller than O scale. Also, the Marx trains he runs are much, much smaller than O scale. In this case, we don't have plans or exact measurements, but it's fun to see what a great project he can get out of a few recycled mailing cartons and other scraps.

Frankly, if a Howard Lamey project costs you more than $2, you're doing it wrong. And color goes a long way toward getting that tinplate Lionel "vibe."

Click to see this project.

http://bigindoortrains.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=133

To sign up for the forum please click the following link: (We'll get back to you eventually).

http://bigindoortrains.com/bit_forum_signup.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 February, 2015 (our last newsletter), click on the following link:

http://bigindoortrains.com/trains_n_towns/15_02_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, 2014, 2015 by Paul D. Race. Reuse or republication without prior written permission is specifically forbidden.
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