Toy Trains & Christmas

Traditional Christmas songs mixed with toy trains running around elaborate Christmas exhibits - a large G scale display in Chicago's Hancock Building lobby, a Christmas layout featuring Marx trains, and another with Lionel trains zipping around four different Dept. 56 Villages. Captures the joy, mystery, and excitement of toy trains and Christmas.

Artist Angela Thomas' paintings capture the essence of why toy trains are so popular today - they take us back to a time when a toy train chugged around our Christmas tree. Along with husband Bob, they built a Christmas layout and a replica of a 1950's hobby shop. Also a layout featuring American Flyer toy trains and Dept. 56 buildings plus the original music by James Coffey.

Bill Kern is an authority on Dept. 56 and Lionel trains. He combines both on a beautiful, snow-covered layout. Bill covers the history of Dept. 56 starting with Snow Village in 1976. Dave Baumgartner tells a poignant story of how he lost and found the prewar Lionel trains he and his dad set-up every Christmas. Plus an entire cottage filled with Lionel toy trains and over 200,000 lights.