2012 Nov 17 - Dec 29th AoW Christmas Train Layout

Thread to discuss planning for the 2012 America on Wheels Christmas Train Layout in Allentown.

4. Allentown Holiday Train Display:
We have the same space as last year. The meeting room on the first floor. It should allow for a nice train display, about 22’ x 12’, maybe a little longer this year, since we had additional space on the end with the podium? The plan is to run 2 metal track loops, with 2 new push button timers to allow the public to activate the trains. Cale has the transformers and wire leads. Mike T is going to work on the controls?
Important Dates: Setup Day Sat Nov 17th
Teardown Day Sat Dec 29th .
If you have a MOC that you would like to be incorporated into the display, let Cale know. I’m not sure if there is a thread about this yet?

Thanks Jim for creating the thread.

Brian

I've uploaded a rough draft of our layout plan. This is still very early so a lot of things are still open to change.



The Winter Village from last year will be returning again with some minor changes. Eve's Gingerbread House will be in the KoP LEGO Window for December so the spot it was in last year may be filled with an expanded version of the new Winter Cottage set. A new train station with passenger boarding platforms for the trolley and rail lines will be added by Josh. Space for this is not yet finalized. More additions to the Winter Village section can also be worked in.

Brian's farm would normally be placed in front of the rail line however we will already have two sides of the layout not directly in front of public view so the train line is moved to the front here for better viewing of trains. The placement of the farm can be adjusted to better fit the layout if needed.

I'm planing on building a new 1930's Gulf "Ice Box" style gas station for the layout. The size of the station is not finalized yet but I expect it to be similar in footprint to my Mobil station. The placement of the new Gulf station can be moved depending on the needs of the downtown. In the event that the new Gulf station isn't finished the old Mobil station can be substituted.

The downtown section will most likely change based on the Winter Village expansion and what space it takes up. I'm hoping we can use Matt's new depression era buildings in the downtown as well as Brian's NAPA store and either his Chilies or Robs White Castle. I would also like to see as much new content as possible so we can save more of our current buildings for possible use at Kidsfest.

Cale

Cale wrote:
Brian's farm would normally be placed in front of the rail line however we will already have two sides of the layout not directly in front of public view so the train line is moved to the front here for better viewing of trains. The placement of the farm can be adjusted to better fit the layout if needed.

I'm hoping we can use Matt's new depression era buildings in the downtown as well as Brian's NAPA store and either his Chilies or Robs White Castle. I would also like to see as much new content as possible so we can save more of our current buildings for possible use at Kidsfest.

Cale

Can we add the 2 10x30 tables that we have along the back (inside of layout) of the farm? This way, I could add 1 full basaeplate width along the front of the farm, to give a little seperation betweeen the front of the farm, and the rail line. I think that would allow for the farm to be "tucked" into the corner near the rail yard better. I think the 2 tables should fit? (1 block = 1 baseplate?)

And I wanted to have the NAPA store here since it has some relation to the automobile industry

Otherwise, the plan looks good, enough new / different stuff to keep it fresh!

Brian

Brianb wrote:
Can we add the 2 10x30 tables that we have along the back (inside of layout) of the farm? This way, I could add 1 full basaeplate width along the front of the farm, to give a little seperation betweeen the front of the farm, and the rail line. I think that would allow for the farm to be "tucked" into the corner near the rail yard better. I think the 2 tables should fit? (1 block = 1 baseplate?)

And I wanted to have the NAPA store here since it has some relation to the automobile industry

Otherwise, the plan looks good, enough new / different stuff to keep it fresh!

Brian

I think we can use the 10x30s and move the farm back a bit. Were you just intending to move it back or also to the side towards the wall more too? Either way can be easily accommodated. Also I didn't mention this earlier but I want to include my threshing scene as well in the farm area. So if we need to extend things a little bit to make room we can.

Yes 1 block = 1 32x32 baseplate.

That was my thinking on wanting the Napa store too. I think it will go over big with the museum's auto crowd.

Cale

Cale wrote:
Were you just intending to move it back or also to the side towards the wall more too? Either way can be easily accommodated. Also I didn't mention this earlier but I want to include my threshing scene as well in the farm area. So if we need to extend things a little bit to make room we can.

That was my thinking on wanting the Napa store too. I think it will go over big with the museum's auto crowd.

Cale

Yes, I was thinking about moving towards the back wall as well. Basically the corn field would start in the railyard. (I would be taking 2 of the rail yard baseplates because of adding the 10x30 tables.) And there definately will be room for the threshing scene, more towards the front of the display, but still part of the farm area. I can add the Amish in that area as well.

Brian

Brianb wrote:

Cale wrote:
Were you just intending to move it back or also to the side towards the wall more too? Either way can be easily accommodated. Also I didn't mention this earlier but I want to include my threshing scene as well in the farm area. So if we need to extend things a little bit to make room we can.

That was my thinking on wanting the Napa store too. I think it will go over big with the museum's auto crowd.

Cale

Yes, I was thinking about moving towards the back wall as well. Basically the corn field would start in the railyard. (I would be taking 2 of the rail yard baseplates because of adding the 10x30 tables.) And there definately will be room for the threshing scene, more towards the front of the display, but still part of the farm area. I can add the Amish in that area as well.

Brian

Excellent, I'm ok with loosing a little yard space. That just frees up a little more yard track for Kidsfest.

Cale

After a very productive day plotting PennLUG's train future wish Josh we now have a new draft of our America on Wheels train layout.



The farm has been narrowed down to 7 baseplates wide (instead of but has been moved back 1 plate. Hopefully the extra room in front will make up for some of the loss in width.

Josh will be building a few cool things to fill in the lower right corner. First is station at the end of the trolley line with a switch. This will allow us to run two trolleys on this line. The second is a river valley to act as a buffer between the town and the farm.

The new Winter Village Train Station has been refined. Josh will be building the station and platforms to connect to the platforms already on the existing village section. Behind the station I will be extending my Christmas tree stand from the village and adding a parking area for the station.

For the Downtown I'm still hoping we can use Matt's new depression era buildings. We will also have Brian's NAPA store (should be a big hit with the auto crowd) and any of Josh's modular buildings he want's to include. The remaining space can be filled in with whatever buildings we want to use from Tony, Rob, Brian, Nate, KC, etc.

The top left section of the plan (green section to the left of the train yard) is not filled in yet. I would rather not extend the rail yard any more so we can preserve some rail track for Kidsfest. Any ideas for this area?

Cale

Revision #3



Cale

Looks good. That will work for farm / threshing scene.

Brian

Set Up Details for Saturday.

We will start setting up our display at the museum at 10am this Saturday the 17th. We should be able to stay until the museum closes at 5pm if needed. I'm not sure if we could stay later but I don't think we'll need to. Here is the plan for the layout.



Most of the layout is pretty well finalized. The downtown section as usual will be adjusted on site to suit our needs. I've already talked to a few of you but if there are others that have buildings for the downtown you want to contribute bring them along and we'll make them work. And anything we don't use here can go out with us to Kidsfest in 2 weeks. The only bare spot yet is in big green spot in the back corner. This will not be right in front of the viewing public but if you have some thing you want to stick back there then we can accommodate.

As usual we'll need help bringing our tables and MOC's in as well as setting up tables. We will also need to swap the power functions rail out for 9v rail on some of our prebuilt rail sections as I haven't had time to do that.

If you have any questions please let me know.

Cale

I'm planning on staffing Sunday, December 2 while my sister and nephews visit the museum. Happy to have some help/company from anyone not going to Kidsfest. Hoping the control boxes are working/easy-to-use.

I'll see you there Nikki! And I'll teach you how to run the sweet PF trains... first the railyard, second the PF trains...then the world!

joshua sanders wrote:I'll see you there Nikki! And I'll teach you how to run the sweet PF trains... first the railyard, second the PF trains...then the world!

Coolio!

What day do you most need help? P ossible ones are Sun 9th, Sun 16th, Sat 22, Sun 23, Thu 27, Fri 28, Sat 29, Sun 30. When is tear down day? Pick a few of those dates that you could use help, and I will do my best to give you one of them. But I need to know SOON, because my weekends and days off get filled very quickly with family events.

Tear down is Sat Dec 29th.

Brian

The AOW museum has an event on Sunday the 30th, a daytime New Years party. Are you SURE we are supposed to tear down before that event?

Tear down for our display is this coming Saturday, Dec 29th. We will start at 10am. If any one has items in the display but can't make teardown don't worry. Just let us know and we'll make arrangements to get your stuff back to you.

And thank you to every one who has helped with the display so far. This years layout was the best one yet and a big hit with the public. There are still a few days left for the display to be open if anyone wants to come out for a few hours this week and enjoy.

Cale

As I posted earlier, has anyone absolutely verified with the museum that we are supposed to tear down on Saturday? They have a new years party that day, and their calendar lists the train exhibit as still being there on Sunday.

Kreativ Snail wrote:As I posted earlier, has anyone absolutely verified with the museum that we are supposed to tear down on Saturday? They have a new years party that day, and their calendar lists the train exhibit as still being there on Sunday.

Yes it has been verified as this Saturday. I talked with Joel about this all the way back at the November meeting and Joel had talked with the museum. They know we will be taking the display down Saturday and are OK with it.

Cale

Weather Update

Due to the impending snow expected on Saturday we're postponing our tear down of the Allentown train display until Sunday. The weather reports are expecting 2 to 4 inches of white stuff to fall on the area from York to Allentown tomorrow throughout the day. It's not the kind of weather you want to be hauling a trailer in or even driving in at all if you don't have to. So the new plan is to begin tear down this Sunday at noon. The museum is fine with us postponing and if for some reason any one with MOCs in the display can't make it Sunday we can make arrangements to pack up your stuff and get it back to you. If any one has any questions feel free to contact me.

Cale

There is about a 50/50 chance whether I can be there Sunday or not.