How Many Model Railroaders Have a Train Under Their Christmas Tree?

[Bremner]

I need to get some 3 rail track for my Lionel, and a transformer...as for pets, I have a Mastiff, my wife has a St. Bernard and my 15 year-old has a schnauzer. The dogs stay down stairs, the tree is upstairs, and the 2 cats tend to leave it alone. HOWEVER my bearded dragon is eyeing the tree!

Out of all the animals, the 175 pound Mastif is the one that will not do any damage to the tree

[choochin3]

We have our 6 year olds Lionel trains under the tree this year.
Usually my old Marklin HO does the honors,but the 20 month old messed up the transformer.
Merry Christmas Asshats!

[Bob Bufkin]

This is the largest I ever had under the tree.  For my oldest boy who just got married last month.  Damn, does time fly.  And I used to have black hair!

[Bremner]

This is the largest I ever had under the tree.  For my oldest boy who just got married last month.  Damn, does time fly.  And I used to have black hair!

my youngest is now 5...my wife last night was pointing out all of my gray hairs to her parrents, saying how proud that she earned them

[Freight Train]

So how do you guys keep the cats out of the train room?

Generally yes....Except for one. I have a cat named Macintosh (Mackie) who gravitates for the stool I placed for him under the layout.  Curls up on the seat & goes to sleep.  Seems to know his place inside the train room.  The other 3 stay out beyond the closed door.

[Loren Perry]

So how do you guys keep the cats out of the train room?

I have a very friendly cat who stays close to me at all times. I close the sliding (pocket) door if I want to be alone. But my cat actually "knocks" on the door to get me to let her in. If I'm working on a small project, I'll let her in and she always behaves perfectly. The 48" tall benchwork is beyond her jumping ability so no problems there. To satisfy her natural curiosity, I've carried her around the layout to let her see what's up there and that settles it. She prefers to sleep near me in a small cat bed I placed under the benchwork. Good kitty.

[rswinnerton]

I picked up an O gauge system for the tree this year. Got a S4 switcher and caboose in Conrail, Lehighvalley depressed center flat and NS 30th anniversary boxcar on a circle of Lionel EZ track. It's basic but it does well with the size we have for it. I figure I'll add to it a little each year.

Merry Christmas everyone!

[DKS]

I keep the cats away from the tree with pine scent sticks. I only found them this year; if I'd known about them 4-5 years ago, the problem with the trains would have been solved. (The cats did not bother the trains; they slept on the snow scenery and chewed on the model trees.)

[M.C. Fujiwara]

This is the 4'ish x 4'ish train table my father I built about 25 years ago (when I was a wee lad of 11 or so):



When I got back into the hobby about three years ago, I used it as a practice pad for scenery techniques and as a "gift" to the M & P because my mom kept on about the "F@$&ing Toilet Tube Tunnels".

Thank goodness I got all those bamboo-skewer-&-scrub-pad pines out of the way on this one 







But, as you can see, my son (7) enjoys running the trains, and my grandmother (92!), who use to wait for her uncle to whistle his SP&S steamer while passing by her house on the banks of the Columbia River, got a big kick out of it this year.

One day I'll build my dad a proper lightweight DCC Christmas train table (this one is heavier than my great-great-uncle's steamer and has enough wires and toggles for the power blocks to run a small town), but for this year it worked okie dokie!

Happy Holidays, all!

(now back to cleaning out the garage before New Years'  )