I trained my tree

"this is not matt farah's foxbodymiata" (fantastic-mr-foxbody) 12/25/2015 at 17:21 • Filed to: Jalopmas

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Merry Jalopmas! Thought I’d share my rather unique Christmas decorations. I put a working HO gauge model train setup in my tree.

We have this massive collection of HO stuff. A whole box of tracks, at least 10 locomotives, a couple dozen cars, houses and other props like road signs galor (all in varying states of disrepair). It’s part of a tradition dating back almost 60 years, to when my 8 year old dad got a tiny starter set for Christmas. Ever since, the nerdy men in the family (re: him and then me) have seen the collection grow. Every year something new is added. It’s a really fun family heirloom, especially because my dad’s first locomotive is still running just fine. A little ozone and some sparks still counts as fine right?

Side note: don’t run sparky trains in a Christmas tree. That’s called a fire hazard

Every year for as long as I can remember we’ve laid out an increasingly elaborate setup around the tree, which eventually included a custom built plywood base with room to hide lights for the houses.

However, last couple years have left the trunk full of trains to gather dust, because there is really no room in the tiny house I live in now. This year I decided I was going to make it work. I bought a set of kind of cheesy tracks with snap together plastic beds because no real base would fit, and laid out a bare minimum circle. It was still a little too big. Scale trains have a scale turning radius. Also, there’s a certain very assertive house rabbit that has decided that under the tree is his and his alone.

So that makes it hard to keep tracks in place without nailing them down. I was about to give up, my mom jokingly said “why not just put it in the tree!”

Two hours later the train was in the tree.

[Note awesome $50 fake wood stove]

All it took was some strategic twine to streghthen the branches, and pulling as much weight out of the train as possible (model trains have ballast to maintain stability).

I used spare change to reach a minimum. Before:

After:

The houses make good decorations too:

It honestly works quite well, the branches flex a little still, but it’s kinda cool to watch. As long as I keep the trains to a two or three car limit (and the cars have been lightened) it works suprisingly well. It’s such an absurd sight to see I never get tired of it.

Bonus jalop decorations

Anyhoo, hope everyone is having a great non denominational holiday.

Oh also, I hope y’all appreciate how much I care about my fellow Oppos. I composed this entire post on mobile, just for you.

$kaycog > this is not matt farah's foxbodymiata 12/25/2015 at 17:34

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I love it! Great job! I also like your house rabbit.

daender > this is not matt farah's foxbodymiata 12/25/2015 at 21:03

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OFF DA RAILZ

daender > this is not matt farah's foxbodymiata 12/25/2015 at 21:15

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Call me impressed, I always run my trains around the base! I really dig the DIY train ballast, that’s pretty smart.

I also dig the emotional attachment to you running your father’s locomotive. I keep and maintain my deceased uncle’s Santa Fe switcher and Scotties box car (2nd to last car in the video). At least one of them makes a Christmas debut each year.

this is not matt farah's foxbodymiata > daender 12/25/2015 at 23:09

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Lights only light when power is applied. Makes for blurry pictures unless you derail the drive wheels haha

this is not matt farah's foxbodymiata > daender 12/25/2015 at 23:13

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Thanks! The reduced ballast in the cars is pretty entertaining, they lean a bit and occasionally lift off one track all together haha

I’m a huge proponent of heirlooms and traditions and antiques etc. that you can actually interact with. Makes it much more meaningful than a dusty memory taking up room on a shelf somewhere.