Christmas
 2009
Layout

The animation at left shows the design and construction of our 2009 Christmas Layout in order to give some insight into the construction of a temporary train display

We had a L-shaped space of about 12 x 10 feet to work in for this years layout.  In order to aid placing track supports and objects like Xmas trees, we include a layer in our layout that shows all of the obstacles, such as timber frame supports and room intrusions that must be designed around.

The layout base consists of 1/4” thick sheets of hardboard held together with duct tape and covered in outdoor carpet, that is itself held down with staples.

While it is nice to have the multiple train track loops weave in and out with each other, we also prefer to have sufficient straight runs to allow the use of various types of bridges.  These both simplify supporting the upper track levels ( this year we used a 5 ft truss bridge we had not used in seven years) and, when used near the tree, can help with keeping low-lying branches from interfering with train operation.

The elves involved in creating the towns and scenes that bring the layout to life favor using inexpensive ceramic buildings available under a variety of manufacturer’s names for rapid construction; we use these as well as a number of tinplate accessories.  At right we show some scenes from this year’s Xmas layout...

All photos are ©2009 R&S Enterprises.