Scenery
Building the Christmas Tree Railroad - Part I
Dec 4, 2013
By Jon C.A. DeKeles
LSOL.com Editor in Chief |
Author
Bio
For over fifteen years we have had a Large Scale Train running around our Christmas tree. I would say that for the first two years we had kind of a Charlie Brown Christmas tree and the holiday was a great excuse to take over the living room with miles of track.
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Every year for about the last fifteen years we have had a Large Scale Train running around our Christmas tree. I would say that for the first two years we had kind of a Charlie Brown Christmas tree and the holiday was a great excuse to take over the living room with miles of track. As my son got older and a little more mobile, we decided to get a new faux tree. Safer for little kids. Safer for us. Working for the local fire department for almost 10 years taught me a few things. There are more than 500 Christmas tree fires each season, killing over 40 people and causing over 21 million dollars in damage. Within 30 seconds heavy smoke will form and the tree will be engulfed. Within two minutes the tree will be little more than a smoldering stick. Not a good holiday picture with a semi-mobile rug rat in our midst. The tree we got was bigger than we had in the past. We settled for a simple loop of track around it. Gone were my long runs around the dining room table, behind the couch and across the center of the living room right of way. We try to add something new each year to make the layout a little better. This year we took the steps of upgrading the roadbed and the area where we set up the display of our town. We kind of got tired of trying to balance little people in the carpet. Also, we have a live steam Ruby and we want to run it without dripping oil and grease on the carpet. We decided that we would set up a five-foot circle of track dedicated just for the Christmas tree layout. We would lay this out on top of a circle of wood so that we could place our little people without having them tip over all the time. Creating the base is the first step in the project. Next time we will show you how we laid out the track and used the new Vacu-Formed roadbed from Aristo-Craft to give it a great look. I hope this set of articles will help you get your Christmas Tree Railroad running just a little bit better this year.
Things you will need for step one of this project: - (2) Sheets - 4' x 8' wood sheets. (We used 1/2" wafer board. You can use what you like.)
- Jigsaw (For cutting wood.)
- Sandpaper (For sanding wood.)
- Paint. (We used some green we had around. Again the option is yours.)
Quick Steps
 Click for larger picture | The first thing we did was to figure out that we needed a circle with a diameter of about 68 inches. This would make the circle about 1 inch larger than a five foot circle of track. We wanted to make this easy to store so we decided we would create four pie pieces with a radius of 34 inches each. |
 Click for larger picture | I found some inexpensive 4' x 8' sheets of wafer board. I chose 1/2" for the thickness. The total cost was less than $12.00. I had the lumber yard cut them into 4' x 4' squares. Easier to manage and saves me a cut at home. |
 Click for larger picture | We measured up each side of the sheet 34" and drew a line. This way we would be able to see where the edges of the circle would be. |
 Click for larger picture | To create our arc we took a piece of scrap lumber and drilled a hole at one end. We then nailed that end near the end of the corner of the 4' x 4' sheet. |
 Click for larger picture | We then aligned the stick with the lines we had drawn on the sheet and marked it. We then drilled a hole in it so we could place a pencil through it. |
 Click for larger picture | Here is a close up view of the end that we will use to mark our arc. It is important to hold the pencil completely vertical when moving and marking the arc for your cut. |
 Click for larger picture | As my son held the stick at the pivot point I was able to move the guide stick around the 34" arc to mark where we would be cutting the wood. We were able to go back and forth on the arc several times to get a dark and clear line for cutting the pie shape. |
 Click for larger picture | The next step is to cut along the line. Take your time and just follow your line. Try to stay just inside the line you have created. |
 Click for larger picture | When cutting always remember to wear safety glasses and take all proper precautions when working with power tools. Having a new jigsaw blade is a good plan too. It will make the cut go smoother and easier. |
 Click for larger picture | Here is our finished piece after we have completed the cut. Make sure you either clamp down the opposite piece of the 4' x 4' sheet or have someone hold it for you. Once you complete this unit just follow the same process for the other three sections. |
 Click for larger picture | Once you have cut out all four pie pieces for your circle make sure you sand all the edges smooth. It will avoid splinters in your hands and snags in the carpet. |
 Click for larger picture | Here are all four pieces cut and ready to be painted. Or, you might choose to stain them. The choice is yours. |
 Click for larger picture | We happened to have some green paint from a project in the den. We thought about white, but decided that we might be able to use this circle at another time of the year so we went with green. |
 Click for larger picture | As the units will be laying on the floor we only had to paint one side. We did make sure to paint the edges as well. It took two coats for us to get even coverage. |
 Click for larger picture | Here is one of the completely finished pie pieces. We found that the wafer board gave it a random finished that looked rather nice. |
 Click for larger picture | The paint is dry so we thought we would do a test run of the units. We measured out from the wall and put our first piece in place. |
 Click for larger picture | By making this a four piece circle we made it so anyone in the family can carry a section. Here is 50% of the circle in place. |
 Click for larger picture | Hey look! It's Pac-Man. Watch out Blinky! |
 Click for larger picture | Step One is done! As there will be a large Christmas tree on top of this and a circle of track attached we do not need to connect these pieces together in any fashion. |
Look for Part Two: Laying track and roadbed. Top of Page
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