The annual Tidewater Big Train Operators (TBTO) Holiday train show is the largest and longest lasting display that our club sets up. We take over an entire gymnasium and the show runs for eight days.
2019 was our year of taking it easy with our holiday show layout. No tricky track work, no electronic wizardy and we were limiting ourselves to an 8′ x 8′ layout. Simple.
The best laid plans of mice and men (and women)…
A.S. Fowler’s Toys was the Christmas front window display for a toy store circa 1965 in one third scale, complete with aluminum Christmas tree and color wheel, “A Charlie Brown Christmas” showing on a TV, Lionel trains, EZ Bake Oven, etc. And it kept growing. We collected vintage toys and dolls for nine months. The store front architecture itself took on a life of its own. In the end it took a Chevy Suburban pulling our trailer plus another car load of stuff to get everything to the show. Taking it easy it was not. But the display looked great and people enjoyed it. And that’s what really counts.
Still trying to figure out how we are going to incorporate this vintage EZ Bake Oven we now have into a future layout…
Dismal Creek Railroad 