Who has a train running under their tree this year? I grew up running Lionel O scale and still running them today!. My favorite is a Virginian FM Trainmaster which was purchased in 1955.

What are you running? Photos??

I always wanted to do that but never did. Is O scale the larger size with the three rails?

My father had a Lionel set that was very elaborate and took up half the basement. My brother took an interest. For some reason it did not interest me. {Not trying to be critical}. It was one of the few things that gave my father pleasure in life.

No but I can just smell the metallic scent from the motors. Trains, race cars on a track, all smelled like metal burning.

quote:

Originally posted by Oz_Shadow:
smell the metallic scent from the motors. Trains, race cars

Oooh, good memories!

Ozone and evergreen, a good combination.

Throw in some melting plastic from having an ornament too close to the floodlamps we had as Christmas light bulbs when I was a kid.

Man. I haven't set up my train in years. I have a large ceramic Christmas village that my mom did years ago, I helped her paint some of the buildings.

We use to set the village and train up under the Christmas tree for years....

Maybe next year I'll set them up.

As a kid, I loved to run the train, the smell, the sound.


ARman

The last time I had a tree, it had a Marklin 1 gauge going 'round. 1 gauge is big enough to go around the presents too.

One time I had an HO setup with the train and slot cars. The crossings made it a pain to set up, but the US-1 Trucking layout was as much fun as the presents.

The wife and I have a 25 year tradition of a Christmas train. It is not a realistic scale model of any standard gauge, but a cheap mostly plastic six C cell-powered four car set (engine, coal car, freight car, and caboose) designed for the purpose. The track is plastic too, and is only long enough to circle the tree skirt once. Runs forward and back, plays a Christmas song, and blows a whistle. The dog has gotten very good at derailing it multiple times a season.

quote:

Is O scale the larger size with the three rails?

Yes, it is 27" diameter circle is the smallest, all the way up to an 84" diameter circle.

I guess I need to get mine out and share some photos. For me Christmas and trains go hand in hand. For 7 years now I've gotten to even help(play) with a big mainline steam locomotive. This year COVID did't allow for that. Here is a prior year photo.

Here's a video of my normal Christmas train. Not my video buy the first 20 seconds tells a lot.

https://youtu.be/iJe-1HtuF_8

Got an O scale Lionel Polar Express for my boys this year. The engine and coal car are substantial but the passenger cars are plastic. Will try to upgrade them in the coming years.

quote:

Originally posted by SOTAR:

quote:

Is O scale the larger size with the three rails?

Yes, it is 27" diameter circle is the smallest....

Here's a video of my normal Christmas train. Not my video buy the first 20 seconds tells a lot.

https://youtu.be/iJe-1HtuF_8

Hence 027 gauge.

Enjoy!!!!!

Just got this a few weeks ago on a trip to Disney. It's hard to see but there's characters moving up and down in the caboose and Minnie is ice skating on the last car. We like it.

This brings back memories from childhood that I've forgotten about.
My grandmother used to set up a train around her tree and I used to sit there and watch it. I still have the train set but it has not seen daylight in decades.

We have the non O scale Polar express around our tree. And this year we found a discontinued lego set and added an engine to it.

Marklin 1 scale under ours this year. Fit between the packages.

1957. It happened to me and my brother. Santa put a Gilbert HO set under and around the tree.
Still have the train set up on the high shelf. Sure would like to have a good HO under the tree today....