Sunday, December 06, 2015

SANTA TRAIN 2015

WHAT A WEEK THIS HAS BEEN getting ready for the Santa Train – and then a showing at Ker Place (Onancock) next week. I feel like i have been at the Station everyday this past week – but seeing the kids enjoying it all makes all the aches and pains worthwhile. And, even better, my ego has enjoyed all the adults complimenting what we have done.

Best of all, the weather was with us yesterday. Temps in the 50s – no wind – sun to warm folks up even a bit more. Jackets left in the car… and we started with a heavy frost on the empty trailer waiting for a G scale layout. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the sizes of model trains, G scale is the size of the trains that are made to run outdoors in the Garden. It is double the size of the familiar O scale Lionel trains. We had a couple of those running in the Station, also some HO (Half O) and my little N scale in the show case – which is again half the size of the HO.

The day started with moving the boat (now Train) trailer into the sun to melt the frost, covering it with a garden cloth and 6 big bags of mulch into which we “planted” 7 live baby trees – cedar, juniper, ilex, and one I forget the name of. duh. Then the guys laid the track and we positioned some buildings and a covered bridge, a papier mache type hill and some more “plantings.” Add some more finer mulch and cover with moss from my backyard and, voila! Well, i added a few people and animals just for fun. The kids loved it!

We had some great people helping out – Marsha and Billye D made hot chocolate, Susan and Shannon (Shore Bank) made popcorn, Shannon’s son Luke helped pass it out, Debbie (PNC) took charge of the cookies. Chuck ran the O guage, Tom the HO (and the candy express!), Donna took charge of the G scale. Thanks to all the folks who helped by making/bringing cookies and brownies. You all made this Happy Day a success! I am not ignoring Niall who helped all over the place, from one end of the Station to the other.

So, here are some shots, starting with the not quite finished G scale:

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Meanwhile, inside the Station…….

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And finally, the train arrives, an exhausted Santa and Mrs Claus make it to the station thru the crowd…

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And, 100 kids later, Santa heads out and on to Parksley.

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2 comments:

Caddie said...

I enjoyed all the pictures. A good time was had by all is plain to see.

Ginnie said...

You're back !!!! Love the post and all the pictures. Those are lucky kids and it must be a wonderful feeling to know how much you contributed to it all. I remember what it was like before you and the "crew" did your magic !