Anybody got a winter scene layout?

Sure, lot’s of members have holiday/winter scene layouts.  And a number of guys/gals display their winter scenes year round.  Here’s one I did and put up for the holidays for a couple years.  Now looking to do something different.

I remember seeing in OGR magazine some years ago a beautifully done winter layout.  If you are  a digital subscriber you may find it scrolling through past issues. 

Wow Ted, that is a beautiful layout.

But, it kinda creeps me out a little.  It looks like the German village scene in Frankenstein.  : -)

Mannyrock

Really? He shares his nice layout photos and you respond with being "creeped out"? :-(

TedW, super winter holiday setup!  

Yes, my year-round layout is winter themed, it gives me a perfect excuse to play Christmas music in the summer! 

I will admit mine is not as nice as Ted's layout which is shown above.

If you have Instagram, check out my account (in my signature) which has lots of videos and photos of the layout in action.

There are some more photos down in the attachments box, enjoy!

Bryce

In 2011-2012 I converted my layout to Winter for a few months. It was a mess to take it back the other way so I haven't done it since that year.

Scott Smith

Originally I had planned to make the tinplate layout at the club an all Winter layout. I changed my mind after someone donated the brand new artificial turf that was supposed to go on the Virginia Tech baseball field. They discovered that the lines were put in the wrong place and they pulled it all up. It nice looking ground cover. So I decided only my upper loops next to the ceiling would be Winter.

One wall of my sons around the ceiling layout is winter.

Scott Smith

Scott,

Thanks for the story and great photos.  I grew up in Fairfax, and went to UVA..   But my brother, his wife, and all of his three kids went to Tech.  (Back then, it was "Virginia Polytechnical Institute.")  Frikin fanatics.   Most UVA grads don't end up being enthusiastic alums, . . . they just to get the heck outta there!

Mannyrock

Winter in the Cascades. Don

Don, that is a breathtaking set-up!  I love the old school look. Was that bridge from any particular kit, or did you make it by hand?

Mannyrock

Oscale,

That dog biting the postman in the snow, obviously on Christmas Eve, is a real hoot!.   He just wants to get his route done with and get home!

Mannyrock

I think I'm gonna call my Winter layout "Blizzard on the Nebraska Plains."  Lots of white, very few accessories.  Maybe a drunken man lying around near a siding, and a few frozen animals along the straightaways.  It will be very unique.  (Where can I buy dying cattle figurines?)

Mannyrock

These are all very impressive displays. I enjoy the Christmas theme because as a kid that’s the time of the year when the trains came out.

I was contemplating if there was a method to making a temporary Christmas/winter theme. But that was kind of kaboshed by what Scott had just mentioned.  However, I’ll continue to ponder the dream.

Due to my love of Christmas, and due in no small part for my affinity for the Polar Express, I've made a small area of my layout "year-round wintery." Strict hi-railers and scale modelers would likely scoff at the scene...its the only area of the layout that has "snow", but I thoroughly enjoy it. And, visitors seem to gravitate to the vignette more so than the O-scale parts of the layout. Hopefully, if my job and health hold out long enough, I'll finally get around to building a "Christmas in the City" where my workshop used to be located. That will be totally winter fantasy...with elves.

Mannyrock, built it by hand, glad you like it. Did this one by hand also. Don

@Mannyrock posted:

I think I'm gonna call my Winter layout "Blizzard on the Nebraska Plains."  Lots of white, very few accessories.  Maybe a drunken man lying around near a siding, and a few frozen animals along the straightaways.  It will be very unique.  (Where can I buy dying cattle figurines?)

Mannyrock

Knock plastic ones over in boiling water to stop rigor mortise on legs.

or look for those laying down/sleeping.

Use Teds frozen waterfall techniques if you're intersted in a "Jack"-ed up look like in The Shining.

The floating bovine below the Menards saucer "is dead meat", no? 😈

Drunk figures are an easy find, semi-upright or reclined

@suzukovich 

Lets see if that leads to more snow in the forcast around here! (he says to himself while appropriately singing "Snowmiser's" theme song)

Hi Don,

Could you please tell us about that 2 unit electric E60 that is shown on the trestle.  Is that a MTH product?  Great layout and scene.

Steve

I am, at the present time, looking for more winter scenes and winter-theme layouts to feature in our Dec. issue. This year, in particular, and in light of all that has happened in our nation and the world, it would be really nice to have some "holiday cheer" to add to the magazine and to hopefully give folks a bit of hope and inspiration for a more promising future. If you have photos (or even full layout articles) that you would like to share, and which meet the winter or Christmas theme, please get in touch with me. I will need high-resolution images, but photos taken with most smartphones these days will do a more than adequate job. My email address in in my profile and in the magazine, so please don't hesitate to get in touch with me if you want to help brighten-up the holidays for our readers.

The idea of a winter scened layout seems really cool, but I think as Scott suggested it can be a bit of a mess if you want to convert it back.  On my layout, I have a mountain that has snow on its peak but I don't think that is really what you meant.  

I enjoy seeing real trains go down the tracks where all you can see is the rails.  For me that is most easily accomplished by watching the local Metra passenger trains. 

Only under the Christmas tree. The snow can sparkle by sprinkling "diamond dust" over flat white latex while still wet.

Truth be told, I am not a scenery construction guy.  I get bad migraines very easily, so you can imagine why I can't sit there for hours with a tiny little  brush and magnifying glass trying to paint the people and buildings.   Same thing with paper mache tunnels and hills etc.     I love to look at them though, so I greatly enjoy all of the pictures posted.

I just really enjoy making sparse scenery  (no muss no fuss), with the trains in different colors racing past each other at high speeds in different directions.  I do like those wooden bridges though!  So, maybe I can find a "no headache" wooden build set.  I am very experienced in carpentry and trim work, so I could do that.  :-)

Mannyrock

Steam Guy, yes it's MTH. I have all MTH electrics: three little Joes, one Bi-poler and two sets of GE box cabs. I first bought a three unit tri-color box cab set though I usually run only two units. I just love them so wanted a black version also. MTH came out with a Rock Island version in black but of course the Rock never had any and I guess they didn't sell very well. One of the dealers on the forum sold them at a deep discount. I bought those, took all the graphics off and redid them in Milwaukee Road. Don

Scale Rail,

What wood stock are you using to build those bridges.  I could definitely do something like that, and I can tell you aren't using popcycle sticks.     Seriously.  Is it balsam? Hobby stock?  Something else?

Thanks,  Mannyrock

A few shots of my Christmas layout which I set up on a 6x12 module platform.  The platform allows for easy hidden wiring and snow placement is a snap with easy clean up after the holidays are over.  My regular year long layout does not contain any winter scenes.

@Mannyrock posted:

Scale Rail,

What wood stock are you using to build those bridges.  I could definitely do something like that, and I can tell you aren't using popcycle sticks.     Seriously.  Is it balsam? Hobby stock?  Something else?

Thanks,  Mannyrock

Don't underestimate Popsicle Sticks. LOL

Mannyrock, the large "timbers" are balsa wood and smaller cross wood are coffee sticks. Starbucks has good ones. This trestle is high and has to be strong for the  box motors. They are heavy die cast locos. This is one of my favorite pictures of my old layout. Don

This is my Snow Scene module. Santa's Warming Hut is a modified Lionel diner. The smoke unit is on a timer so that it puffs briefly every minute or so. The other animations are from Dept 56 and Lemax. The animations were sandwiched into 2" thick builder's foam which was then sculpted to the desired form. The module has been a very popular attraction at the Allentown Spring Thaw Train Meet for the last 10 years or so.

Chris

LVHR

Christmas layout from a few years ago 

Trainbob

Putting down the white acoustical tile as a based is pretty darned cool.

But, how did you then nail down the tracks through that tile?

I've haven't laid down my O gauge track yet, but I assume you have to nail it down, just like HO track.  (Maybe I am wrong on that?)

Thx,

Mannyrock

Mannyrock I used Atlas O track screws. That was the first year that I did that don’t know how many times that could be done. After using both ceiling tile and homasote sheets I think the homasote sheets are better. 

@Mannyrock posted:

Trainbob

Putting down the white acoustical tile as a based is pretty darned cool.

But, how did you then nail down the tracks through that tile?

I've haven't laid down my O gauge track yet, but I assume you have to nail it down, just like HO track.  (Maybe I am wrong on that?)

Thx,

Mannyrock

Never use nails into the wood below, removal without damage to track isn't easy.  Use screws. 

We seldom turn our layouts over or sideways, so pinning track from lateral movement in curves or in long straights to keep them straight, is really all that's needed. That may mean a screw becomes a dowel/post or a simple pinning into foam only.(nails work for pinning, just don't sink um)

Layout wood framing also expands and contracts over the seasons. Too much attached firmly, no gap at joints or too much, etc can cause track buckling or wide joints depending on where and when track is put down.

Some small scale folk swear by dabs of cheap caulk, and removal with a putty knife. It usually leaves their (tiny)ground cover pretty much intact from what I saw. (no experience, just a few years of lots of small scale forum reading and tons of caulking in building trades.)

Thanks for the tips.

Exterior grade (APA grade "Exterior" not outdoor treated) plywood, primed and painted twice, is extremely stable.  Lightly nail it down on the table frame, with slightly oversized drilled holds and and use common "framing" sometimes called "sinker" nails that are slightly smaller in diameter, and you will really reduce the wood expansion problems.  I always lightly painted the wooden frame of the layout with primer too.

I had a huge HO layout as a kid, in an unheated and uncooled attic.  Sometimes it was so humid that water would drip down the walls if we didn't leave the windows open.   Temperatures would often rise to 100+ degrees up there. 

I nailed down every inch of track of my HO layout, lots and lots of long curves and straightaways, and did not experience any expansion problems, using the table method described above.  My Uncle was an old school carpenter, shot in the leg by a Japanese plane strafing the deck of his ship in Okinawa, and told me what to do.  (He was a gunner's mate on the pom- pom gun.)

Glad to hear that people are using screws on the tracks, 50 years after my original layout.  That certainly sounds easier!

Regards,

Mannyrock

I helped move that snow scene from the Lehighline a few times. Always had fun at Allentown meet.

This was a winter diorama I built using actual rocks and twigs. It is actually a loop with the train running behind the backdrop and the openings in the scenicked portion hidden by the rocks. I also have a winter prewar layout that is still under construction. ( Set up only for the holidays)  I'll post a photo of that when I get to the other computer.

I agree, winter shows off the trains and accessories very well.

Here is my unfinished winter tinplate layout. Snow and lots of details not yet added.