Family Garden Trains
Discussion Forums

Visit our Affiliated Pages:
Return to Family Garden Trains Home page
Garden Railroading Primer Articles: All about getting a Garden Railroad up and running well
Big Christmas Trains: Directory of Large Scale and O Scale trains with holiday themes
Return to Big Indoor Trains Home page
Building temporary and permanent railroads with big model trains
Best-loved railroad songs and the stories behind them.

It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 5:50 pm

All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 1 post ] 
Author Message
PostPosted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 4:03 pm 
Offline
Site Admin
User avatar

Joined: Wed Mar 12, 2014 9:13 am
Posts: 183
A reader writes:

I'm opening an old fashioned ice cream store and thinking about installing a train set with about 200 ft of track to go around the store interior.
Want a large train and thinking about the polar express.......your thoughts please

--------Our Reply - if you're signed in, you may add yours below----------------

Thanks for getting in touch.

Are you thinking about putting the train above the doorways? Most people who do that use "Large Scale" trains because O gauge trains are hard to see when they're that far away.

Any of the trains on our "starter set page" would do for this.

http://garden-train-store.com/begin/ls_starters.htm

You could even use the track that comes with Bachmann for a while, since it will be indoors on a hopefully stable surface. But you'd probably want to buy brass track eventually.

Now here's the "bad news" in a sense. The Large Scale Polar Express is a battery-powered toy that you wouldn't want to use in a permanent installation (I let friends' kids play with mine a few hours every year - it keeps them from wanting to play with the expensive trains). The largest Polar Express train that is made for continuous running is Lionel's O gauge train, shown here:

http://bigchristmastrains.com/o_gauge_x ... e_xmas.htm

Though this train looks big in the box, it is too small to be VERY impressive running near the ceiling. Folks who use O and smaller scales in indoor installations do other things like putting them in long glass cases with scenery. But that WILL cut down on available seating space, so it's mostly done by restaurants that serve alcohol - the only reason to provide a feature that keeps customers there longer than it takes to consume their order.

Hope this makes sense. I'll be glad to help with any follow-up questions at all.

Best of luck with your store - wish I could be there for the grand opening. - Paul


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 1 post ] 

All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 8 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron


Click to see sturdy Lionel(r) trains that are perfect for your Christmas tree.


Visit our affiliated sites:
- Trains and Hobbies -
Return to Big Indoor Trains Home page
Return to Family Garden Trains Home page
Big Indoor Trains Primer Articles: All about setting up and displaying indoor display trains and towns. Garden Railroading Primer Articles: All about getting a Garden Railroad up and running well
On30 and O Gauge trains to go with indoor display villages and railroads
Big Christmas Trains: Directory of Large Scale and O Scale trains with holiday themes
Visit Lionel Trains. Free building projects for your vintage railroad or Christmas village. Click to see Thomas Kinkaded-inspired Holiday Trains and Villages. Big Christmas Train Primer: Choosing and using model trains with holiday themes Visit Howard Lamey's glitterhouse gallery, with free project plans, graphics, and instructions. Click to see HO scale trains with your favorite team's colors.
- Family Activities and Crafts -
Click to see reviews of our favorite family-friendly Christmas movies. Free, Family-Friendly Christmas Stories Decorate your tree the old-fashioned way with these kid-friendly projects. Free plans and instructions for starting a hobby building vintage-style cardboard Christmas houses. Click to find free, family-friendly Christmas poems and - in some cases - their stories. Traditional Home-Made Ornaments
- Christmas Memories and Collectibles -
Visit the FamilyChristmasOnline site. Visit Howard Lamey's glitterhouse gallery, with free project plans, graphics, and instructions. Visit Papa Ted Althof's extensive history and collection of putz houses, the largest and most complete such resource on the Internet.. Click to return to the Old Christmas Tree Lights Table of Contents Page Craft and collectibles blog with local news of Croton NY.
Click to visit Fred's Noel-Kat store.
- Music -
Carols of many countries, including music, lyrics, and the story behind the songs Wax recordings from the early 1900s, mostly collected by George Nelson.  Download them all for a 'period' album.
Best-loved railroad songs and the stories behind them.
Heartland-inspired music, history, and acoustic instrument tips. Own a guitar, banjo, or mandolin?  Want to play an instrument?  Tips to save you money and time, and keep your instrument playable. Own a guitar, banjo, or mandolin?  Want to play an instrument?  Tips to save you money and time, and keep your instrument playable.



Click to trains that commemorate your team!

Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group