I have started a Christmas Train Layout this year as a community service project...and thanks to Jake (SantaFe158), the planning for my version has progressed very smoothly. Having lost my wife of 48 years this past July...I needed a project to help me get through Thanksgiving, our Anniversary in November and of course, Christmas. First, I was able to secure a store front window on the Main street of our small town, it's going to be our "Macy's" window, if you will. I also was looking for a way to raise funds that will be designated for our town Christmas Light Fund. Originally, I was going to have a space that would be open to the public and accept donations. However, that would have been a part-time venue, probably on weekends and limited on hours of operation...dependent on volunteers. So my latest concept...was to have the display in a storefront window and only viewable from the sidewalk...again, similar to Macy's. Now, instead of taking donations...I have been offering local businesses, the opportunity of showing added community support, by purchasing a Lionel billboard sized ad which will include the business name and logo. Those billboard ads have been received well at a $100.00 price point...my original goal was $1000.00...so probably 10 or more of the billboards will be spread around the display. It is a 7 ft X 9 ft layout...with 4 trains, 3 of which will be operational. About 20 Department 56 buildings and other accessories make up the design. The buildings will be lit 24 hours a day. I will be using 2 LionChief Plus locomotives on 2 of the tracks and just added LionChief Thomas the Tank which will run on the 3rd track. I'm setting all of them on timers...so they won't run all of the time...but will run as programmed into the timers. They most likely will have various run times in the afternoon and early evening. Most of the downtown merchants in our small town (pop. 7500) close by 6:00 pm, so the trains will be off all night. The display has been assembled in my basement to make sure all systems are go. We will break it down this week, pack it up, then transport everything to the storefront and reassemble it there. I have taken plenty of photos, measurements...and have diagrams, so it should be like putting a jigsaw puzzle together, only easier. The current plan is to have it available the night of our town Christmas Parade on November 30th and will run through Christmas. We usually have more than 100 floats and participants in the parade...the main street can be 3 or 4 deep with families who come to see the end of the parade...and of course, who else, but Santa Clause. I told the owners of the storefront...and I hope it comes to fruition...that that only problem that I can foresee...is they will probably want to have their window cleaning service on call...just to get the nose prints off the glass from all of the children (and adults) trying to get a closeup view!
