Scenery
Building the Christmas Tree Railroad - Part II
Dec 5, 2013
By Jon C.A. DeKeles
LSOL.com Editor in Chief |
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Bio
In Part One we showed you how to get a great base for your Christmas Tree Railroad. In this part we want to show you: How to assemble a loop of track. How to use Aristo-Crafts' Vacu-Form Roadbed. How to add ballast to your track for a better look.
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In Part One we showed you how to get a great base for your Christmas Tree Railroad. In this part we want to show you: - How to assemble a loop of track.
- How to use Aristo-Crafts' new Vacu-Form Roadbed.
- How to add ballast to your track for a better look.
Several of you have emailed us telling about your Christmas Tree Railroad. Please send your pictures and descriptions to and we will share them in the third and final part of this series. Things you will need for step two - Aristo-Craft Track #30110 USA Style (12 pieces)
- Aristo-Craft #12202 5' Diameter Curved Vacu-Formed Roadbed. (9 pieces)
- Medium size Chicken Grit, or ballast of your choice.
- Small nails for track
- Hillman's Power RailClamps (2 each)
- Wire to power track
- Hammer
- Plastic Measuring Cup
- Clean one inch Paint Brush
Quick Steps
 Click for larger picture | Here is the base made out of our four pie pieces of wood. I have added a 5 foot circle of track on top. This is 12 pieces of Aristo-Craft #30110 USA Style track. |
 Click for larger picture | Once we have the track in place and we like the way it looks we use the screws provided with the Aristo-Craft track to keep it all together. |
 | The best way we know of to get power to the track is to use Hillman's Power RailClamps. There is no solder, just crimp the wire to the connector and put in place. |
 Click for larger picture | You will need two Hillman's Power RailClamps: one for each rail. Crimp your wire in the connector and then attach to the track. You put them on the rails between the gaps in the railroad ties. |
Quick Steps
 Click for larger picture | We thought we would try out the new Aristo-Craft Vacu-Formed track bed. These pieces are longer than the actual track. This is nice as you can offset the joints of the roadbed with the joints for the track. |
 Click for larger picture | They were very simple to install. As the track was all connected together with the Aristo-Craft joiners, my son was able to just lift the track and place each piece in place. |
 Click for larger picture | It took nine pieces of roadbed to complete the circle. We used eight full pieces and then trimmed the final piece with a pair of sharp scissors. |
 Click for larger picture | Here is a close-up view of the track sitting in the roadbed. We made sure that each piece of track was pushed all the way into the roadbed. Once in it holds the track very secure. |
Quick Steps
 Click for larger picture | To attach the track and roadbed to our base we got some small flat head nails. We use the holes that come with the track and hammered through the roadbed into the base. |
 Click for larger picture | We did not use every hole in the track as we wanted to make it easy to remove at the end of the season. We figured that every other hole should work and it has so far. |
 Click for larger picture | Since the Aristo-Craft roadbed is raised we could add some ballast with out it ending up all over the place. We got some medium size Chicken Grit at the local feed store. We find that it is cheap, looks nice and it is easy to clean up. The $5.00 bag should last for several years. |
 Click for larger picture | The Aristo-Craft roadbed is perfect for holding the ballast. We just used a kitchen measuring cup to place the ballast. We just poured it in place to fill all the space inside and on the outside of the track. |
Quick Steps
 Click for larger picture | We went all the way around the circle of track. We did not worry about the extra ballast as we would be able to just vacuum this up later. |
 Click for larger picture | We use a clean paint brush to brush away the extra rocks. We made sure that there were no rocks up high on the inside of the rails. These rocks could cause the cars to derail. |
 Click for larger picture | Here is a close up of the finished track, roadbed and ballast. The roadbed and the ballast gave our Christmas Tree Railroad a more realistic look as compared to other years. |
 Click for larger picture | Once we completed the full circle of track we use a small shop vacuum to clean up the extra ballast that was on the outside of the roadbed. Make sure to also vacuum the carpet. |
Quick Steps
 Click for larger picture | Here is our finished roadbed ready to try it's first train. We did not glue the ballast. Gravity will hold it all in place inside the well of the Vacu-Formed roadbed and it will be easy to clean up. |
 Click for larger picture | We created a tree riser out of 2" x 4" to get our tree up higher. Notice how we placed the stand off-center, near the back. This will give us more room in the front of the base to display buildings, people, etc. |
 Click for larger picture | This stand was also painted green to help it disappear under the tree. Cement blocks or bricks could also be used to increase the height under the tree. |
 Click for larger picture | Here we are testing the stand with the first layer of branches. The large branches at the bottom would now be about 3 inches higher giving better clearance for the train and buildings. |
Quick Steps
 Click for larger picture | The golden spike has been laid and we take our first test run of the Christmas Tree Railroad. |
 Click for larger picture | Clean-up tip: When taking down the railroad, just use a shop vacuum to suck up all the Chicken Grit. If you want to use it over again make sure to clean out your vacuum before you start. |
| Retaining the chicken grit |
| Jon, another way to save the grit is to put cheesecloth over the end of the vacuum nozzle and empty the grit into a container every so often. Nice article. All my best to the DeKeles family, Carl |
| Carl Ford - 11/10/2010 - 07:31 |
| Vacu-form roadbed outdoors? |
| Can the vacu-form roadbed be used outdoors? e.g. is it weather and UV resistant? |
| Joe Austin - 11/10/2010 - 19:25 |
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