"Bedford Falls" a wonderful life movie

The Main Question

I am trying to put together my first model RR layout……

 

My suggestion • Show us some photos of what you have and have done. This would be helpful but not necessary. The China Items

 

Thanks

Gary

I have the entire set from Target, they are not truly scale, but who really cares. Set it up as a Christmas Scene and use more traditional sized (not Scale) Lionel items and it will look great

Gary, thanks for getting back so soon. I don't even have a plan as of yet. I an trying to come up with a layout plan that will impress my 8 grand kids, and keep me busy. I have post war Lionel and new MTH trains. I am in the process of including too many things into not enough space. I have a U shaped area about 16' X 17' X 15'. Regards, Mike

Mlewski

That is the first set I gave my Grandson at 6.  and a CD of the movie. I have always thought is was a great Christmas movie.

 

I think he will like it.

Larry

you might be thinking of "a Christmas story" which was filmed in my area ( Cleveland Ohio)

It's A Wonderful Life takes place in Bedford Falls, New York. A Christmas Story take place in the fictitious town of Hohman, Indiana, shot largely in Cleveland, Ohio.

Yep sorry, senior moment.I hate it when that happens.

Larry

I just pulled some of the Bedford Falls stuff out of the boxes, and there is no scale at all. One or two might be 1/4" scale, but for the most part, they are "cute" but all over the scale. Second thoughts? Maybe I should forget about that idea, and use something closer to scale. I'm not that fussy, but I don't want in to look silly.

I think the idea sounds charming. You already have the stuff, so go for it. It certainly would be easy to change-out should you decide it looks silly.

I just pictured the old Lionel trolly running up and down main street, just like the old days. Anyway, I'm just in the planning stage right now, so there are a lot of thoughts and considerations. Nothing final as of yet.

Before I had a permanent layout, every Christmas my son & I would build a "Christmas Layout". 1st set up the tree, put down white cloth (snow) then lay track. It started  small 2 loops around the tree but grew every year till I think we had about 40 buildings & track going up & down the hallway etc. We don't do it any more (my son is 23 now) but some of my best holiday times were around the Christmas layout. I have several 8mm videos of my son playing with the trains on the floor when he was little and every Christmas we watch them.

 

Train Nerd Al 

This picture of me ( the small fry) and my brother circa 1954-1955? shows some of the old trains I still have. Our first "Z" transformer, the Santa-Fee with aluminum passenger cars, my dads 1st freight train set circa 1952? These are some of the trains, plus my new PS3 MTH trains, that I am building around.

I think it would be very nice to incorporate your wife's china buildings in the layout. There's no reason to think it's silly, even if the buildings are a bit off.

 

(And if you decide it looks too silly, you could go with a Frostbite Falls theme instead.) 

One childhood memory I have to this day (that's a long time!) is visiting my Dad's aunt and uncle every Christmas. Each year they turned more than half of their LARGE living room into a big display. They only had one little loop of O scale trains.....all the rest was little buildings, trees, figures and cars. NOTHING was to scale.....and that's kinda what made it great. I will admit I am a little bit of a scale snob......for my layout....but I will always enjoy a nice display/layout that is well done even if scale is all over the place.

 

Set some things up temporary and see if YOU like it. Go from there. Many folks here have 'Dept 54' type buildings on their layout. 

If they're all the same scale (presumably they are) at least it will be consistent. 

 

Just read the Life article on Bedford Falls.  The entire LA set was 900 feet long and it was the first time real artificial snow was made for a movie.  Prior to that they used Asbestos as snow!!!  And all those actors thought they had tobacco cancer!!  wow.

 

Some  neat photos of the shoot.

 

Just google "Bedford Falls movie set"

I have used the "department 56" items to make a small 3' x 16' layout. I have used Christmas Story items and Christmas Vacation. A second level 3'x4' Canadian town as well. One example.