Why I Oughta...

  Before we got too far into December, I wanted to put down a marker in memorializing that we set up our Christmas Train.  Well, the KotBT and I set it this past weekend and used his brand new train (more on the train in a later post as the train was given to him from my Dad for his birthday this year and is pretty neat.) that features a diesel locomotive and three passenger cars.  We made a simple Lionel Fasttrack oval on the floor upstairs and set up my transformer.  We spun it around a few times, but this is a vintage train, so it both LOUD and an energy hog.  We didn't set up our Christmas train last year and this year, with the basement being what it is, had to put it upstairs.  This is our fourth Christmas in our house, but I'm pretty sure this is just the third time we set up the Christmas train:  2017, 2018 and now 2020.

We were at Menards recently (of course we were) and in addition to all their Christmas decorations being out on display , we took a spin through their other seasonal section including the O Gauge train setup.  There were a few interesting buildings that I haven't seen before including a branded Starbucks store and this vintage-looking Wally's Shell station .  But, this grocery store - the Piggly Wiggly - is one of the standouts.  The product listing on Menards site is here where you can find all the details. (Well... maybe this UFO scene with an animated claw device pulling a cow into the belly of the ship is a standout, too!  Or...maybe this odd Taco Bell with a drive-thru ? The Piggly Wiggly is a nice Wisconsin-centric addition to the line of buildings that Menards continues to put out every year.  There are more than 50 Piggly Wigglys in Wisconsin - including the only one I've ever been to in Lake Geneva. Here, below, is Menards video that shows off that lit

With our Christmas Train (The Mantleburg Line) set up down in the basement for the first time in a few years, I've been able to go a little deeper into the archives of Lionel O Gauge cars and accessories than before.  One of the cars that I picked up over the years is this Operating Barrel Car.  It is in this weird gold and brown Lionel box listed as "Limited Edition Series".  This is the only car that is in *this* style of box. It runs on the Union Pacific line and is Lionel #6-9290. Inside the box is the car.  Along with six barrels and the little tray that the barrels land in when you operate the car. In the most ideal situation, you wouldn't use that little tray, but instead have a barrel loader accessory (which we don't have!).  To give you a sense for how it would work together, here's a video showing the operating car (that we have!) along with the loader. We're going to get this car up and running on the Mantleburg line tonight, so

In addition to all the Christmas Village buildings from Lemax that I posted last week, Menards has also introduced their holiday toy section including a lot of HO and O Gauge train items.  They have a bunch of cars (I've posted about some of them before ) and buildings .  But this year, one item caught my eye:  this Lighted Billboard .  You can see it in the photo above.  But also here on the Menards site . It comes with 26 different signs that you can put in the billboard ranging from vintage scenes to modern, current logos like Pepsi and Mountain Dew.  Menards describes it thusly : Pre-lit and prebuilt, this O-scale billboard features 26 interchangeable decals. Decorate your billboard front and back with an assortment of colorful decals, including popular brand names and railroad advertisements. This backlit billboard also houses over 25 LED lights, ensuring your chosen decal will come to life with beautifully saturated light! Constructed of wood and metal for maximum

When the 2017 Lionel catalog came out early in the year, like most years, I ended up pre-ordering a few items from TrainWorld that I knew would trickle in throughout the year.  That's what most often happens - starting around Halloween, the cars start to arrive.  But, just like last year, a car that has Christmas theme'ing arrived in January...post-Christmas. Here's the post from last February showing the Buddy the Elf boxcars that arrived late .  This year's late arrival is the car you can see above:  a Tell-Tale Reindeer Christmas Car. If you look closely, you'll see that this is part of the "North Pole Central Lines" and is marked with "Reindeer Transport Express" on the sides along with some drawings of Christmas symbols like teddy bears, drums and a brass instrument. So, you're probably wondering...what is a "Tell Tale" car?  Welp, it is a car with an animal inside that kind of 'ducks'.  In this case, it is a r