# 2016-2017 Redford Theatre Christmas Layout



## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

Well, it seems like it was just the end of the last Christmas layout season at the historic Redford Theatre in Detroit, MI, but I'm already working on this year's edition of the annual display. I've spent way more money in the past month than I ever intended to this year... (funny how that works) but I think I'm in good shape to make this year's display a bit more fun. Our goal is to usually make it a little different/better each time we do it so it's not the same display over and over again. I've slowly been collecting things since the end of the last season to include on this years display.

For those that are newer and haven't seen my posts, the Redford Theatre is a nearly fully restored 1928 neighborhood movie theater located in Detroit, MI. It is one of only a handful of neighborhood theaters left in existence and is even more rare because it contains its original Barton Theatre Pipe organ from the silent movie days. Today it is run by the Motor City Theatre Organ Society. They are a nonprofit organization who purchased the theatre in the 1970's with the purpose of restoring it and keeping the original organ intact within the building it was originally designed for. Classic movies are shown regularly with all proceeds going into the maintenance and restoration of the theater.

Train display's at the theater are a tradition at Christmastime that goes back far before my time as a volunteer. Many volunteers used to put on a very elaborate large scale display, but were unable to starting about 8 years ago. I picked up the project several years later using pieces out of my own collection, and it has grown ever since. A friend of mine started helping with the display and is now more involved in the theater than I am  We still do most of the display with things out of our own collections, though several theater members have donated buildings and money to help further our limited budget.

As is typical, the layout will probably be about 8'x20' this year and located in the orchestra pit of the theater auditorium. It's operated for an hour before each show, a half hour at intermission and about a half hour after each show depending on the evening. Obviously this isn't a 24 hour/day operation and there are usually three show times every other weekend which leaves plenty of time for maintenance.

Reliability is always a concern of ours. The display is set up to be turned on by the auditorium light board operator without supervision being necessary. People have been good about reporting the rare derailment or other issue so this has not been an issue in six years. We also usually include a Lionel Legacy base so that we can run fancier engines out of our own collection when we're in attendance to supervise the operation. We were lucky to get a nice donation by the Detroit Historical Museum last year which included several high end MPC sets that were deemed surplus to their collection. They're fun to run, but not exactly what I like to rely on for normal operations without supervision. Obviously pullmor motors need a bit more maintenance work to keep reliable than can motor equipment. I also like to keep a good selection of locomotives on hand so they can be rotated in and out of service to reduce the wear on them. We frequently run some of our high end stuff when we're there, which also helps some of that.

New things this year are more in the equipment side of things. I tried to keep it inexpensive, but still reliable. The goal here is to reduce some of the wear on more meaningful pieces of my collection that I've been running for the last few years, while also including some newer fun stuff that I didn't have previously.

Lionel Ballyhoo Circus Set








Lionel Bugs Bunny/Yosemite Sam Stock car








Lionel Lionchief Christmas Docksider








MTH Christmas Trolley set. This is something I bought on a whim. I'm not sure if it'll be included on the layout or another idea I'm toying with for elsewhere in the theater.








Williams Peter Witt Car (eventually to be repainted to represent a Detroit street car)








Custom model of the Greenfield Village "William Ford Horse Barn" by Andre Garcia (River Leaf Models)









As a reminder, here is a video from last year's display.


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## Magic (Jan 28, 2014)

Good luck with this years display. 
Last years was great and I'm sure you have a good plan for this year.
It's a neat thing you do for the kids and the hobby. Good Job.

Magic


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## Spence (Oct 15, 2015)

I may be wrong but I seem to remember in previous years reading about this layout on the OGR forum! Always an interesting post.


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## PatKn (Jul 14, 2015)

Good luck with this year's exhibit Jake. I'm anxious to follow your progress.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Love what you're doing Jake, very nice!


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## Lee Willis (Jan 1, 2014)

Oh my, you guys are having so much fun, already!!

Cool trains. The video of the 2015-2016 layout was great! I'm sure this year will be just as grand.


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## Guest (Sep 22, 2016)

Best wishes for a successful Christmas season at the theater.


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## MacDaddy55 (Aug 19, 2008)

*Absolutely AWESOME!!*

Jake that is very impressive and good luck with this years layout!!


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## Guest (Sep 22, 2016)

That's a great way to celebrate the season and expose a lot of people to the hobby. Plus, it looks like a lot of fun. Good luck with this year's display.


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

Spence said:


> I may be wrong but I seem to remember in previous years reading about this layout on the OGR forum! Always an interesting post.


I'm a member of several forums and typically create a similar post across all of them, so you probably did read about it there 

Thanks for the encouragement guys. My head is definitely spinning right now trying to figure out how to cram school, work and layout building into my schedule.  We'll get it done though and I'm looking forward to having a place to run trains again.


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## AG216 (Sep 28, 2011)

I can't wait to see the display!

Andre.


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

AG216 said:


> I can't wait to see the display!
> 
> Andre.


Thanks Andre. I'm looking forward to showcasing the barn in addition to the theater model from last year. I have a project or two in mind for you for next year after my wallet recovers from my spending for this year


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## cole226 (Feb 8, 2013)

great looking holiday display jake. :smilie_daumenpos:


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## towdog (Oct 2, 2015)

I look forward to following your progress on it every year. It's pretty neat that you created a new tradition that many visitors of all ages likely look forward to each year. It has to be very satisfying to do. I think my problem would be always wanting to go bigger and do more each year to the point of it being over top. There is a fine balance between shaking it up and expanding each year vs keeping it both simple to operate as well as not too "busy" and over the top. Look forward to see what you guys come up with this year.


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

towdog said:


> I look forward to following your progress on it every year. It's pretty neat that you created a new tradition that many visitors of all ages likely look forward to each year. It has to be very satisfying to do. I think my problem would be always wanting to go bigger and do more each year to the point of it being over top. There is a fine balance between shaking it up and expanding each year vs keeping it both simple to operate as well as not too "busy" and over the top. Look forward to see what you guys come up with this year.



Thanks again.

The past few years I've been keeping the track layout and wiring about the same since it seems to work out well. Changes have been mostly limited to building placement and lighting effects in addition to new pieces being added to the collection. I have some slightly more elaborate track plans involving a bigger second level and long bridges planned in my head, but haven't yet found the time or money to allow for that expansion. Someday...


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## Mark Boyce (Jul 22, 2015)

Looking forward to the Redford Saga again this year!!


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

Thanks Mark!

I completed a model of a small company town type of house yesterday. Not the greatest model, but not bad for a $15 kit I found on eBay.


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

Made a few more modifications to the house kit in regards to the windows. Since it'll be mixed in with ceramic village buildings, I'm not too worried about the interior being detailed, so I covered the openings with parchment paper with paper shades mounted behind those. I added a small strip of 12V LED's as well.

















I also worked on illuminating the interior of the barn model I built awhile back. I'm not fully satisfied with how it looks due to the lack of proper interior detailing so that will be a work in progress. My girlfriend and I are discussing creating stall partitions and such to break it up a bit inside like the prototype. Being able to see straight through the windows is a bit unrealistic  That being said, I may (at least temporarily) give the windows the same paper treatment I gave the house above.


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## AG216 (Sep 28, 2011)

Nice little house . The price is reasonable too!

the display will look fantastic.

Andre.


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## PatKn (Jul 14, 2015)

That barn screams for interior detailing.


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

PatKn said:


> That barn screams for interior detailing.


It's in the plans, and I took a bunch of interior shots of the real deal shortly after building the model. I just haven't quite had time to plan it all out yet 

My girlfriend is pretty creative and knows the real one much better than me, so that may be her project :laugh:


Thanks Andre. It's definitely not one of your fine kits quality wise, but I couldn't resist trying it out for about $15. It's a nice little model for the price. I'm toying with the idea of buying a few more and creating a small company town scene


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

Hopefully this link works. I'm not sure if I shared this in the past, but Google Maps did a 3D tour of the theater a couple years ago. The trains were still up too at the time which is pretty neat. You can do a virtual walkthrough of most of the building.

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.417...NxZhZu2My8YAAAQZZaPJYA!2e0!3e2!7i13312!8i6656


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

I just made a couple more purchases for the layout today. First off are 50 LED C7 bulbs, which theoretically will replace all the incandescent bulbs in the ceramic village buildings. Heat from incandescent bulbs has always been somewhat of a worry for me. We haven't worried so much about the power consumption as there are many other lights in the theater that use a lot more, but heat was a factor. I experimented with backlighting the snow with miniature Christmas tree lights a few years back (incandescent) which looked great but got rather warm. I replaced all those with strings of LED's over the past couple years and it looks fine. I'm hoping these bulbs will remove some more heat from the layout and save a little energy in the process. They will also give me the option to light up some more of the plastic buildings I use but haven't lit up because of the heat issue. Price-wise on eBay they came out to about $1 per bulb. I didn't think it was too bad of a deal considering you probably can't buy the incandescent version at that price.

I also purchased a new 5'x60' roll of quilt batting to replace the rolls of snow material we've been using for years (which date back to the original layout from 10 years ago). It's been getting pretty grungy looking so I figured it was time to freshen things up again. The previous layout builders used the quilt batting which looks great, so I figured I'd use the same. Cost wise, I think it's also a better deal than buying a bunch of little rolls of the Christmas village snow material because it's basically the same stuff. I did buy some that's a bit thinner than what we've been using which I think should make track laying a little easier.


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## towdog (Oct 2, 2015)

I think that's smart to convert to LED for a public layout that is largely unattended. It's just peace of mind, more than anything. I should do the same for the buildings I use for my own Christmas layout. Are they the harsh white or can you get them in a softer yellow to match the incandescent look?


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

towdog said:


> I think that's smart to convert to LED for a public layout that is largely unattended. It's just peace of mind, more than anything. I should do the same for the buildings I use for my own Christmas layout. Are they the harsh white or can you get them in a softer yellow to match the incandescent look?


Thanks!

I have no idea how they'll look in person or work in the buildings. I found them on eBay and they're supposedly warm white and should look similar to the incandescent ones. They're also dimmable according to the listing, which is a feature we do sometimes use on the layout since we can use the building lights to accent the theater's Christmas organ concert.


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

My LED bulbs arrived today and I think they're going to work out OK. They're not quite as bright as a real incandescent bulb, but I've had one plugged in for about a half hour now and it's barely warm to the touch. I assume any heat thrown off by it is from the resistor inside, and there's nowhere near as much given off as a regular bulb. I'm not worried about the brightness issue as it looks plenty bright. Some of my buildings always seemed too bright anyway so this should give a little nicer glow (hopefully). As I mentioned, price wise they were about $1 per bulb. Idk if there will be any noticeable difference in the power bill at the theater this year, but for a home display it might make a bit of a difference. Obviously they should also be less breakable in storage vs the filaments of regular bulbs. Luckily we have a whole bin full of C7 incandescent bulbs at the theater from old stage sets I use to replace burned out ones, but now I probably won't even have to do that.

Incandescent bulb








LED Bulb


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## PatKn (Jul 14, 2015)

The LEDs look great Jake.


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

Thanks Pat!

Picked up a new carousel for the layout on Ebay as well as a K-Line Ford Motor Company ore car Plymouth train set.























Also the owner of Tony's Mower Shop and Trains in Northville, MI donated a couple items to the Redford Theatre for use on the Christmas display. These will join the theater collection that was started with a donation from the Detroit Historical Museum last year and will hopefully keep some of my own locomotives off the layout to reduce wear and tear. One of our volunteers introduced me to Tony at the Three Stooges festival while I was working this past weekend and he told me to stop by and he'd try to help us out. This was definitely a generous donation and very much appreciated.









A Williams GP38 and a Lionel Charlie Brown Psychiatric Help Booth


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## towdog (Oct 2, 2015)

That Ford set is perfect for Detroit and even the iron ore fits well with Michigan and Lake Superior. As for the carousel, I've always wondered with the longevity is on some of those. Some of them feel so cheap. 

Great additions.


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

Thanks! The Ford set is something I've looked at for awhile and finally broke down and bought. Its definitely a favorite.

As for the carousel, I already had to repair it. There are little rollers that are part of the mechanism that makes the horses go up and down and they had all fallen off and jammed the motor when I first turned it on. For now it works OK, I greased the heck out of the track they rubbed on and their axles are pushing up and down on it. If it ends up being an issue, I'll just remove the axles completely and the horses will be stationary. The actual rotating mechanism should last quite awhile with no issues. I contacted the Ebay seller and got some of my money back since it had been sold as working like new.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Jake, I'd run the Plymouth somewhat sparingly. Those little motors don't last as long as you might imagine, so you're liable to be replacing it if it is left to run for hours a day.  The Plymouth and Porter share the same motor, I get enough of them to repair that I keep a spare motor always in stock.


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

gunrunnerjohn said:


> Jake, I'd run the Plymouth somewhat sparingly. Those little motors don't last as long as you might imagine, so you're liable to be replacing it if it is left to run for hours a day.  The Plymouth and Porter share the same motor, I get enough of them to repair that I keep a spare motor always in stock.


Thanks for the heads up John. My porter has been going strong for the past 4 year on the display, but I suppose I should look at getting a spare motor or two. Do you have any recommendations as to where to find one?


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

You get the motors at Lionel, they still stock them. They're the dual-headed motor with the worm at each end.


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

gunrunnerjohn said:


> You get the motors at Lionel, they still stock them. They're the dual-headed motor with the worm at each end.


Are there any other frequently needed parts for these engines I should look into ordering while I'm getting motors?


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

That's the most often replaced part for me. I've had a couple of board failures, but I replaced components and got them running again.


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

Thanks for your help!


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

The platforms are up. This year we covered the platforms in sheets of hard board to give a smoother surface to mount track. This also allowed us to paint the panels white to leave a better base for the polyester snow material. There's a long way to go, but it's a start. Now I'm committed


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## Mark Boyce (Jul 22, 2015)

White indeed! Looks like a great start! 


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## Guest (Oct 14, 2016)

Great start, smart move on the panels.


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

Thanks! We think the smooth transitions over the panels will make a huge difference in how our trains run this year.


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## Pebo (Sep 27, 2015)

Jake......I always love what you do with this every year.......looking forward to the pics of the finished product!
Peter


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

Pebo said:


> Jake......I always love what you do with this every year.......looking forward to the pics of the finished product!
> Peter


Thanks Peter. I was going to work on some wiring today but got called to work instead for an engineer that couldn't come in. Finding time to work on the layout is becoming a challenge :laugh:


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

Well, the layout hasn't gotten any further yet unfortunately. I was planning on going to the theater Wednesday evening, but ended up getting called in to run the 1:1 scale locomotive at work since the scheduled engineer called off.

I did take possession of a new Kato N scale F7 set though. Last time I was at the theater I rummaged through some of the pieces of the original G scale display and found a small section of the layout. After a phone call with one of the original layout builders, he confirmed that it had been a small park scene for the old display. Currently it's just a basic circular shaped piece with a loop of Kato N scale track around it and a few Lionel lamp posts. I had already thought about putting my carousel in the middle before the other layout builder had said that's what he had done 

Anyway, I ordered this set to run on the N scale track as sort of a ride on miniature park train. This is definitely an experiment as I don't have any idea how N scale equipment will hold up at the theater. It's a project I've pondered doing for several years, but finally went ahead and bought a small starter set. I also have some seated figures coming which will be glued to a flat car for riders.

Kato is a pretty well known brand and the F7 set my dad bought us awhile back is a great runner. A far cry from the N scale set we had when I was young. It's fun to dabble in other scales.


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

A crappy cell phone picture of the finished park train. The figures are the cheap ones sold on Ebay from China. They don't look as bad as I expected them to, though they were the best out of the 30 that came in the package  I just cut pieces of wooden dowels, "painted" them black with a sharpie and glued them to an N scale flat car with tacky glue. The figures also got glued down.


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## Magic (Jan 28, 2014)

Pretty cool Jake.

Magic


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

That looks great Jake. I use those passengers for cars, they look fine zipping by in a passenger car too. One thing I've done for a few is to put a tiny red blip for the lips and black dots for the eyes, makes them look slightly more real.


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

Thanks guys.

I still have 26 more from this set that I'll probably install in my MTH cars. If it goes well I'll probably get some more too


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

Today we made some major progress on the display. A feature that's been complimented many times in the past few years is my backlighting underneath the snow sheets. I've gradually added more lights to it every year and I think we've got it pretty well covered this year. Installing the strings of lights was todays project, which took way longer than I intended it to 

Anyway, we started about 3:30 this afternoon and wrapped things up at about 11:00 tonight (with a dinner break and Menards run in there). Overall I think we're pretty well along, considering I was getting nervous about running a bit behind where I usually am at this point in the season. I'm thinking another couple days of work, maybe three at most and we'll have things up and running for the season. Right now the tracks are laid out, awaiting wiring. Once the feeder wires are dropped through the table and mounted to the screw terminals, we should be ready for buildings.

We initially laid the track out so we could work the lights around them, then pulled them all up and laid the snow over the lights, followed by the track again. This year I also experimented by adding a set of colored lights and I think it looks pretty good. All the strings are LED lights, and I plan to convert all the building lights to LED's as well. Not so much as an energy saver, but mostly to reduce heat output. Energy savings will be an added bonus, though in the long run it probably won't amount to much on the total theater electrical bill


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## Todd Lopes (Nov 11, 2015)

Jake, Congrats on your progress so far. Looks great. The lights underneath has always been a favorite of mine of your layout. What type of "snow" blanket do you use? And have you found that the fibers ever get caught up in the wheels of the trains?
Thanks!


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

Hi Todd, I actually used batting that's normally used for stuffing quilts since I was able to get it cheaper for a much bigger roll. I used a thicker coarser stuff for a base layer (mainly for sound deadening) and then covered over the top with a thinner finer material for the finished surface. All in all, the non packed down thickness is probably about 3/4" thick, but it does squeeze down when I screw the tracks down over it. I haven't had too much of a problem with fibers and train wheels, mainly because of the fastrack keeping it where it belongs.

I like the lighting because it helps highlight the exteriors of the buildings that don't show up very well in the dark auditorium, even with interior lighting on.


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

I'll post footage in the final youtube video for this year, but as of tonight all five tracks are wired and operable. For the first time since I've been doing the layout, no major hangups were found in the track work and everything ran smoothly on the first try. Now onto the village portion


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## Guest (Nov 8, 2016)

Good job Jake. Thanks to you, many folks get a lot of enjoyment from your hard work.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Sounds good, too bad I live too far to come see it.


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## Bob Phillips (Nov 25, 2014)

GRJ I'll split the driving with you. Oh and fuel.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

I think it's an airfare trip.


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

Thanks guys! Maybe I need to make this a traveling display... 

Hopefully the pictures and videos I'm trying to take as I go will help give some idea of what it's really like. Although you simply have to be there during a show to witness the crowds that pack the aisle in front of the layout just to see it. Seeing that definitely makes it all worth it.

I also talked to the guy who started the tradition of trains at the theater and he's working on getting together some pictures of their old display for me to check out. I only have faint memories of one of their last ones. He's also going to look for some more of the light up features that they created for that display like a running river and a lake, which if located will probably be incorporated into a small extension of the layout next year.


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## Pebo (Sep 27, 2015)

Spectacular, Jake!
Peter


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

Thanks Peter!


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

I went ahead and posted the video clip to youtube.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

That's great, that will be really cool with the scenery on it!


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

Thanks John, now I get to look forward to unpacking 30+ buildings... still a lot to do. In looking at pictures from last year, I'm unsure about how I'm going to fit all my new additions for this year, so some stuff may be left out and included in an expansion next year. I think we've finally outgrown 8'x20'


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## Guest (Nov 9, 2016)

The video is* terrific*, Jake.


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

Passenger Train Collector said:


> The video is* terrific*, Jake.


Thank you!


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

We unpacked the buildings tonight and started laying them out and playing with the placement. For the first time I've run into the dilemma of not having enough room for everything so I've been having to be selective about what gets displayed. Next year there will probably be an expansion so more can be out at once. We're still shooting for an unveiling in about a week.

This was also the first time seeing the beautiful barn model on the layout, which is a custom kit by Andre Garcia's River Leaf Models as mentioned in the past.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Filling in very nicely Jake. :thumbsup:


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## Bob Phillips (Nov 25, 2014)

Looking good. That barn is beautiful. Might be good to put a little snow on top like the houses. Fantastic work on the whole layout.


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## PatKn (Jul 14, 2015)

Looking real good Jake.


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## raleets (Jan 2, 2011)

LOVE the lights underneath the "snow". :thumbsup:
Bob


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## Mark Boyce (Jul 22, 2015)

Looking better and better!! I agree the barn looks great!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

Thanks guys! Hopefully we'll get things finished by Thursday evening.


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## Tucgary (Sep 21, 2015)

Jake, The barn is truly an example of creator and builder coming together for a perfect image. It will be interesting to see how many people will recognize it. Looks great.:appl:
Tucgary


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

Tucgary said:


> Jake, The barn is truly an example of creator and builder coming together for a perfect image. It will be interesting to see how many people will recognize it. Looks great.:appl:
> Tucgary


Thank you! I missed seeing your post until now so I apologize for the late reply.


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

Well it was a bit of a hectic day yesterday, but I went from a layout nowhere near show ready at quitting time on Thursday night to a 98% finished display for the show last night. I still have a few more transformer powered accessories to wire up and place on the display, but it was presentable for the showing of "The Sound of Music" last night.

Here's a rough and quick video I took of the activity last night during the show


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

That's great Jake, I love the way it came together. The lights under the "snow" are really special!


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## Magic (Jan 28, 2014)

That looks super nice Jake.
Going to be a big hit with all the kids, young and old.
Congratulations on a fine project very well done.

Magic


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## Guest (Nov 20, 2016)

The layout looks fabulous, Jake.


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

Thanks guys! I attended last nights show just to see the movie with my girlfriend, but talked to a few patrons while she looked at the layout. Many of the "regulars" spotted most of my new additions for this year which was nice. Seeing the huge crowds viewing things makes it all worth it.


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## Todd Lopes (Nov 11, 2015)

Jake, Congratulations! It looks fantastic. Killer set up. I hope you are able to enjoy your efforts.


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## PatKn (Jul 14, 2015)

It looks fantastic Jake. :appl::appl::appl::appl::appl: The lights make it look magical and the organ playing SoM Music is the perfect backdrop. Nice Job.


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

Todd Lopes said:


> Jake, Congratulations! It looks fantastic. Killer set up. I hope you are able to enjoy your efforts.


Thanks Todd, I ran trains for a little while on Friday evening and got to sit and watch them run on Saturday, so it was nice to be able to take a breath and enjoy my progress so far. Still a little bit to go, but now I'm in the home stretch.


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

PatKn said:


> It looks fantastic Jake. :appl::appl::appl::appl::appl: The lights make it look magical and the organ playing SoM Music is the perfect backdrop. Nice Job.



Thanks Pat. It's definitely nice to be able to enjoy the organ while running trains. Two of my favorite things. Dave Calendine was the organist that evening and he's definitely fun to listen to.


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## Tucgary (Sep 21, 2015)

Jake, It sure looks great again this year. I have let my family and friends in the Detroit area know it is up and running. Tucgary


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

Tucgary said:


> Jake, It sure looks great again this year. I have let my family and friends in the Detroit area know it is up and running. Tucgary


The more the better. Thanks for the compliment. It should be up and running through at least the end of January depending on my schedule.


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## towdog (Oct 2, 2015)

I really like the colored lights under the snow. Are those just normal LED colored lights? It really makes it come alive. Did you do anything else different this year besides the new buildings?

Great job once again.


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## Pebo (Sep 27, 2015)

Jake....you have done a fantastic job!
Peter


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

towdog said:


> I really like the colored lights under the snow. Are those just normal LED colored lights? It really makes it come alive. Did you do anything else different this year besides the new buildings?
> 
> Great job once again.


Thank you! And yes, they're just regular LED Christmas light strings I bought at the local store. About $20 a roll for 150 lights I think.

The main additions this year were the lights, new buildings, an N scale train that's made to resemble a small scale ride on park train, the carousel and we also worked hard to smoothen out the platform surface before building to help with some issues we've had in the past with uneven track. In the long run, nothing terribly major, but our goal is to never have it be exactly the same way twice. Some things are similar to the past few years, such as the track plan and certain building placement, but many things have changed to the point that regular visitors have noticed and pointed them out.


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

Pebo said:


> Jake....you have done a fantastic job!
> Peter



Thanks Peter!


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## balidas (Jun 3, 2011)

santafe158 said:


> Well it was a bit of a hectic day yesterday, but I went from a layout nowhere near show ready at quitting time on Thursday night to a 98% finished display for the show last night. I still have a few more transformer powered accessories to wire up and place on the display, but it was presentable for the showing of "The Sound of Music" last night.
> 
> Here's a rough and quick video I took of the activity last night during the show


You did an amazing job with this. I really like how you did the lights underneath the cloth. Incredible!


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

Thanks!

Everybody loves how the addition of the colored lights look, but they don't quite light things up as brightly as I had hoped. One of our theater volunteers has been generous the last couple years and always chips in a little money to add new things to the display. Coincidentally about 2 minutes after I had the thought about the lighting issue when I finally got to study the display last night, he came up and asked what we needed this year. I placed an order for four sets of MTH lamp posts last night upon arriving home and they will be placed around the layout (in addition to the few I finished wiring last night on the upper level) to help add some more light to things thanks to his donation.


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## AG216 (Sep 28, 2011)

What a beautiful video and set up Jake, you did a superb job.

Sorry i didn't answer you early but I was outside the country.

Really well done, congratulations!!

Andre.


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

Thanks Andre! Hope you had a good trip.

The model of the theater you designed for me has already received many, many great compliments this year from visitors and volunteers alike. A couple volunteers keep trying to talk me into working on it some more so we can keep the marquee lettering updated for current movies... 

The barn isn't quite as commonly known, so I wasn't anticipating too many comments about it, but it looks great too and my girlfriend loves seeing it there.


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

A successful second weekend of running the layout for the public at the theater. I've received many wonderful compliments.

Had a few issues with kids touching everything in sight that made me a bit nervous (and no parents around ) but I diffused the situation by swapping out engines with my Lionchief dockside switcher and handing them remote. There was a whole line of kids wanting to run the train  I'm loving the Lionchief concept since I can limit the power to the track so they can run it as fast as they want without derailing it. They loved it. Might have to look into a couple more of those for the future.


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

Well this was a very successful weekend at the theater. We had over 600 people for a Saturday matinee showing of "The Polar Express" as well as over 1000 people for two evening showings of "National Lampoons Christmas Vacation." These may not seem like terribly large numbers compared to some larger theaters, but for our operation this was a huge weekend.

There were several times you couldn't even see the layout from the back of the auditorium because of the crowds viewing it. There were also several times I had to remain at the layout simply because I couldn't work through the crowd to get anywhere else  It definitely makes all the effort we put into this display worth it though.


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## Guest (Dec 11, 2016)

What a terrific service you are to your local community, Jake. Your willingness to give back to the many who frequent the theater is impressive.

*Great job, Jake!!!!!*


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

That's very cool Jake, I'd love to see that in person.


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## Tucgary (Sep 21, 2015)

A standing ovation for Jake! :appl::appl::appl::appl:
It must make you feel great to see your efforts so well received.
Tucgary


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

Thanks guys. The response from fellow theater volunteers as well as patrons has been nothing but positive which makes it all worth it.


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

Well, we're nearing the end of the train season at the theater. 

According to some numbers I just received, we had over 13,000 visitors to the theater between October and December. Though not everybody comes to see the trains, it's still pretty amazing to think of how many people have actually viewed our display in the past 6 years. I knew it was a lot, but I hadn't thought it would be that many. I'm also not sure that number includes the private events that have rented the theater and had the trains running.

I'll take that though. It makes all the work worth it 

Sadly it'll probably come down sometime in the next few weeks. My friend and I are hosting a private gathering for members of our modular train club this weekend and that's probably going to be one of the final showings for the season. Then it'll be time to plan for next years display. I already got the go ahead to submit some material receipts to the theater treasurer to cover the costs of some expansions I've had in mind for the past couple years. It should be even better next year.


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## Guest (Jan 31, 2017)

This project must be very rewarding for you Jake. You are to be commended for all of your efforts. Elizabeth and I applaud you.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Nice to know that you had a good number of people to appreciate the layout.


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## PatKn (Jul 14, 2015)

Congratulations Jake. You sacrificed your time and effort for a good cause. You should, rightfully, feel very proud of yourself. The reward is seeing the joy you brought to others. :appl::appl::appl:


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

Thanks guys. I'm sure you're sick of me bragging by now 

I knew we had a lot of people come through this year, but I had no idea it was that many.


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

The end of the 2016-2017 season is here. Now less than 8 months until we start the 2017-2018 display!


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## Bill Webb (Sep 14, 2015)

Jake thanks for sharing this. It has been really enjoyable to watch. Hard to believe it is over for another year.


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## Magic (Jan 28, 2014)

That's such a great project, looking forward to 2017.
Must hurt to take it down.

Magic


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