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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 IssueMoving disrupts hobbies. If you saw last month's newsletter, you know we were in the process of moving. Well, we have moved. With a vengeance. Now the "new" (old) house is full of boxes, and we're hoping we can get it looking less like an episode of Hoarders by Christmas.If we get a train around the tree this year, that may be as close to being "train people" as we may get. In the meantime, friends and family are asking us if we're going to have our annual Christmas-themed open railroad this year, and I'm having to explain that the "New Boston and Donnels Creek," as well as the rest of the Large Scale, O27, On30, S, and HO trains are all in boxes and likely to stay that way for a while. But then again, I am hopeful that when the dust settles - literally - there will be more room for some of the trains. More of the trains we had set out before, in fact. Time Flies When You're Helping People Have Fun. - At this point it's hard to believe that it's been twelve years since I started the Big Indoor Trains(r) site, and its sister sites, BigTrainStore.com(r) and BigChristmasTrains.com. At the time, I was mostly just trying to figure the best way to publish answers to reader questions about indoor trains that kept coming in from my site about outdoor trains - Family Garden Trains(r). My target was always folks who were just starting out and had no idea where to turn for advice, as well as folks working on a limited budget who could take advantage of things like the printable resources here: https://bigindoortrains.com/indoor_resources/resources.htm That hasn't changed. What has changed has been the markets and the kinds of trains available. For example, Hawthorne Village has stopped using Bachmann to produce their collectible trains, so I haven't been recommending their newer products. On the other hand, Lionel seems to be offering better varieties of train sets, but in smaller batches. So some great sets have come out, but some of them have sold out by the time I got them posted on my sites. As a result of many such changes, even the basic organization of BigIndoorTrains.com and its related sites has become outdated. I could certainly stand to spend time reorganizing and updating the sites overall. Plus, I am still finding broken links from this year's mandatory site migrations. Sorry about that. That said, if you don't mind surfing through a site that has a few "hiccups," you can find many excellent seasonal projects. This newsletter also includes a couple seasonal links that we hope you enjoy. We certainly wish you the very best holiday season! Topics discussed in this update include:
Christmas Railroad ResourcesThis is a reminder of some of the resources we have that can help you put together charming and inexpensive settings for your Christmas trains.To make a Christmas-themed downtown with a color printer, some acid-free paper and a few pieces of poster-board-thick cardboard (like you can get for free from cereal boxes, click the following link: The same page includes links to many other projects for inexpensively adding other buildings and accessories. To access printable sheets of walls and roofs that you can use to make your own custom holiday-themed buildings click the following link: Doors and Windows that you can literally cut out and past onto your creations are available at the following link It's The Real TrainAs many of you know, in 2006 I wrote an article for one of my train pages about why people relate trains and Christmas. I've since moved that article to the Family Christmas Online site, plus I've expanded it based on reader input and more information coming to light.Since then, I've added other articles and even one site specifically about Christmas trains. I haven't updated the article much in the last few years, but it's obviously reached a lot of people, since I see bits and pieces of it all over the Internet (uncited, of course).
Of course Christmas and Coca Cola have a longstanding relationship as well - for over a generation, the Coca Cola Santa advertisements defined folks' expectations of what Santa was "supposed" to look like. One of my favorites is the ad to the right, showing Santa playing with carefully detailed contemporary Lionel train set. I told the journalist that she should use this image, because it was the "trifecta" - Santa, trains, and Coca Cola. (There's a pizza, too, but I'm not sure how that fits in. I hope Santa washes his hands between eating pizza and handling the train, because pepperoni oil is pervasive and that train was destined to be a collector's item.) Update: When I published the newsletter, the article wasn't out yet. It has since been published at the following URL: My original article "What Do Trains Have to Do with Christmas?" is at the link below: And in case this discussion got you interested in trains with Coca Cola colors and logos, the following page has a couple that were still in stock the last time I checked:
Here's a link to a commercial that Coca Cola funded back in 2014. I never saw it on television, but I tend to DVR everything and zap commercials. At any rate, it's especially fun for me because it features a Nickel Plate Berkshire, the same model of engine as the Pere Marquette Berkshire that inspired the Polar Express. And it was my father's favorite locomotive, in part because his father used to drive one. To see the video, click the link below:
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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, 2016 by Paul D. Race.
Reuse or republication without prior written permission is specifically
forbidden.
Big Indoor Trains(tm) is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. |
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