Christmas Village 2020 with Steam

Our 2020 Christmas Village! Let two steam trains guide you through animated Christmas shops, decorated homes, and the snow festival. Then up to Lookout Mountain with its ski slopes and mountain chalets. Finish your tour with a couple beers and a song at the local brewery, then wander over to watch and listen as the “Coke-‘n-Bud Express” engineer shovels coal, takes on water, and blows off some steam before shutting down for the day.

Most buildings are either Lemax or Department 56 collectibles. The “Dickens’ Row” buildings along the front edge are mostly Dept. 56 “Dickens’ Village Series” pieces. Be sure to see the comparison between the similar Lemax and Dept. 56 synchronized light-and-sound homes.

There are five operating/animated trains on this holiday layout:

1. Outside loop around village and through the mountain tunnel. This train is the Thomas Kinkade Christmas express, with a coal steam locomotive/tender, 12 cars each bearing unique Thomas Kinkdade paintings, and a caboose. The locomotive is fully functional, with synchronized engine chuff and remotely controlled headlight and sound (whistle, bell, various steam sounds, etc.).

2. Inside loop through the village. Affectionately known locally as the “Coke-‘n-Bud Express,” this train is a holiday beverage train for the villagers, with 5 Coca-Cola Christmas cars and 6 Budweiser beer cars, and a Coke caboose. The coal steam locomotive and tender have action and sound similar to the Kinkade loco. Both of the above two trains can interact between the inside and outside loops via track switches.

3. The villagers have their own Garden scale "Peppermint Express" model railroad, running down Main street and through its own tunnel under the carousel. It is a fully-functional diesel locomotive (DC, no sound) with 7 cars (peppermint and supplies, and a few "12 Days of Christmas" cars).

4. & 5. Two of the buildings have their own trains running around their towers. Yeah, maybe a stretch, but hey, they are animated trains!

The mountain is scratch-build and hand painted, with a waterfall, creek, rock wall trail, and full ski area on one side. At the base of the mountain is a sledding area with dog park, skating rink, and lots of activity.

The main two steam locomotives are customized versions of the Bradford Exchange’s collectible Christmas-themed train sets. I’ve modified the locomotives by converting each chassis to Digital Command Control (DCC) with on-board sound, for more realistic operation. For the nitty-gritty details on how I did this conversion, see my web page at:
https://sites.google.com/view/marksmo...

Enjoy the tour!