HMorgan125 posted:For years I would set up three separate Dept 56 villages (Christmas in the City, Dickens' Village, and North Pole) and drill holes in the plywood bases to conceal the wiring. When I built my permanent layout with all three villages I found an easy way to save time and not drill or cut the wood base for the wires.
I placed all of the buildings where I wanted them and used white duct tape to tape the wires to the top of the wood base. If you can replace the single wires with Dept 56 multiple bulb wire strings (still available on e-bay) you will save even more time. Add roads, paths, water, ice features as needed and then cover all of the wires and other "ground" areas with sheets of white polyester quilt batting available at discount and fabric stores (sold in rolls). Cover wires from the base to a building with torn pieces of batting.
Run the batting under the fastrack as well (this is a bit time consuming and you will need to slit the batting to allow for any track feeder wires). Add trees, streetlights, people, cars, etc. and sprinkle Dept 56 snow around the layout on top of the batting material and you are done.
I hope that the attached photos help to explain this process.
Thanks for the tips. Very nice pics of your layout. I am in a different house this year so my layout will be much bigger than in years past (search youtube for us98na to see previous layouts). I figure I will be able to fit in 12-14 Dept 56 houses and still have room left over for lots of accessories and scenery elements. Always nice to gain inspiration from others' layouts!
