Hello Gentlemen,

Are we too serious about our "model trains" to enjoy some holiday fun with our "toy trains" too?

How many of you make a circle Carpetbahn around your Tannenbaum?
... would love to see photos and just what R or track you use?

If you really wanted to have serious fun, why not five circles?

- Mark


Update Dec 24, 2014: Would love to see new additions to this thread.
I will have to add at least one of our own! We have all kinds of video bits that I was going to cobble together... but all more time.
Nonetheless at least a photo or two is warranted as Christmas greeting.

Edited by user 26 December 2014 03:35:50(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Nostalgic! Thanks Marco!

Hi Ian,

Wow, that was a beautiful Christmas tree.
Were that true presents, or just large empty boxes wrapped in Christmas gift paper for decoration ??

Hi Marco,



Ian.

That's sounds like good fun Witzlerh.... Please add photos to this thread as they come up.
I'll do the same.
- Mark

Hello,

For decades going back to my childhood, the Christmas layout was the only time I was able to play with my beloved Märklin trains. Up until a few years ago the floor bahn in the formal living room (Mom never let anyone in except for special occasions) had standardized on a dual M-track layout: around the tree and piano, in front of the fireplace, through the study behind the fireplace and then back under the piano to the tree (two doors, one on each side of the fireplace made this possible). The Christmas layout hit its zenith three years ago after renovation of the family house added a connecting family room. It took every last piece of M-Track and C-Track I owned at the time, to connect the three rooms!

Then the little ones came along. First my grand kids (currently 4 1/2), followed by my twins (now 2 1/2). The grand kid’s first Christmas here two years go went very well. For some unknown reason they quickly learned to leave both running trains and the layout alone, though it became impossible to keep my granddaughter from sneaking in and firing up the trains. I eventually had to remove and lock up the transformers to prevent her from playing when nobody was around! The floor bahn was safe … until last Christmas!

The twins actually learned the “Don't touch a running train” lesson by the time they could crawl. This probably had something to do with me putting their bouncers (small half chair / half beds for infants) in the middle my permanent layout and using the running trains to lull them to sleep. My current problem is they can't resist the temptation to pull tracks apart and then put them back together in new and interesting ways. The fact is they love to play with C-Track almost as much they love train watching. This is both a good and a bad thing. Ii bodes well for the future but right now it is very bad for any layout they can get their hands on.

So this year the Christmas layout has been banished to the top of the piano and a nearby large TV stand ... two small ovals. The traditional Christmas E69 and passenger cars (LAG blue and white) work well on the piano. Unfortunately the other holiday train, my Blue BR18.4 with the Rhinegold passenger cars doesn't fit on the other oval. They take up about 60% of the available track and look very silly; like a dog chasing its tail! So this will be first time in many years that the Rhinegold hasn't run at Christmas time

I hope everyone has a great holiday season!

Bye,

Hi Mark

Christmas and trains always went together when I was growing up. That is when Dad would get the old M trains fired up. The last several years we have set up a small layout at the house to play with.

Here are photos from the one we did 2 years ago. Note the homemade ginger bread houses the kids made and decorated along with assorted christmas decorations to make the layout very playful (like large ferris wheel in the middle). Everyone enjoys moving the figures and accessories around to make new and changing scenes.

You can also see that that year we set up a Maxi train around the perimeter which enabled many different things to travel the layout in style

Laxman

Hi Rob,
Four girls, 3,5,7,9.... we will not do the four sets business. This Christmas its "one for all and all for one."
I know that presents has a lot to do with a child's love-language, but aside from financial limitations we are also trying to teach the love of sharing and working together. Working together they form the Mädchen-Eisenbahn.
Different of course being the parents... I am an older Dad but being a grandparent gives you special spoiling rights at Christmas.

Anyway, they will have more C-track then they need for carpet-bahns... they already have a little lok of their own each among 3 of them, and we play with supervision. So yes, we use an analog transformer for this. The two oldest can manage things pretty well. The youngest is getting a Percy this year ...ssssh... (So each having one in this case.) I was not going to do Thomas until a local friend's set was nearly given to us. His convincing argument was that he loved it himself (he is now in 2-rail) and it the thing the visiting kids always remember seeing..."Daddy, I saw Thomas!"... a battle lost and won I guess.

- Mark

Thanks Ian

The kids really enjoyed playing with it and the gingerbread house construction was a big hit.

May have to do a repeat this year.

Do you put a train around each of the 3 trees you all put up?

I know you have mentioned you will be putting an o gauge set up in the new train room. IMHO there is a great entertainment value to a large train on the living room floor or around the tree and the kids love playing with one. Do you have any 1 gauge stuff?

Years ago I bought a MAXI set when the kids were quite young and we would get it out and set it up from time to time running from room to room and using their other toys for props. We made bridges out of books and houses out of cardboard boxes complete with decorating them with paint and construction paper. The MAXI trains were great for kids--all metal-- and essentially indestructible. I still pick one or two up when they come up on ebay and even got a MAXI christmas set the other year.

Laxman

Hi Laxman,

I've only got HO and a very small amount of O gauge, but I hope to add to the O gauge, now it's out the boxes and I can see what I've got/need.

Again this year, it will be the My World Set under the Xmas Tree.

Ian.

Mark...very nice how you formed the loop between this and my Christmas Tree thread that I started today....

We had the Christmas Tree trains while I was growing up also. My dad had (3) 4' x 4' platforms that we set up in an 'L' shape. We spent a lot of time setting up the tracks for the three trains. I'm going to have to did through old pictures to see if I have any of that set. I took about a 25 year break while I was in the service, I had to wait until I retired, had kids and was not traveling all over the place before I could restart this tradition.

We have an 'O' gauge and a couple of 'Z's also

Thanks David!....

Of course you could put a tiny conifer in the middle of that circle.

Peace to you!
- Mark

Would love to see new additions to this thread.
I will have to add at least one of our own! We have all kinds of video bits that I was going to cobble together... but all more time.
Nonetheless at least a photo or two is warranted as Christmas greeting.

- Mark

Ok, here are the promised images: Tannenbaum with Carpetbahn 2014.
One loop is analog, the other digital with a siding yard and reverse loop.

Image list:
1. The gifts make tunnels as "Postie", DP's V160 rushes by on extra duty.
2. Zoe mixes in her playmobil in the yard along with her Kirchenstadt Train Station in the corner.
3. Four young railfans of the Madchenbahn.
4. "Can we open this gift early Daddy?"
5. The gift is a kit that reminds me of the 60s/70s kits, only this one can be done be a 5 year old.
6. & 7. Maddy's new train car ends up in the "Thayls" and she calls it the "Dining Car" because it carries candies.
8. Speeding up the "Thayls" with the remote as it whizzes around the tree.
9. Random selection of cars in the yard with night lighting.
10. The tree in the sleepy hours until tomorrow when the tunnels dissappear.


[Eventually a video clip of several years worth of Tannenbahns]

Very nice carpet layout in a confined area. Congratulations !

But when I saw it, all presents were no longer there ... I suppose I was too late !

Pierre.

Hello Rob,
similar here. I don't have to protect the layout against the children (6, 11 and 13 years) but against my wife! I know, she doesn't care about what is under her feet. Therefore, I always took care to park the locos in anarea, which can't be reached by her feet.

I'm happy, everything went well, no break, no damage allthough we had up to 9 locos on the small layout.