Some of your favorite toy train Christmas scenes

Model steam engine in Christmas scene

Vintage toy trains in winter holiday scenes bring feelings of nostalgia. Relive the nostalgia with this selection of both current and vintage holiday-themed photos in O and Standard gauge scales. If you have a photo you’d like considered for a future gallery, contact editor@classictoytrains.com […]

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A fun, large-scale Halloween display

A Halloween display layout on a truck

I love collecting and displaying large-scale trains. I also love showing off my 1956 GMC pick up at car shows, or even at the front of my driveway at home. I decided to combine the two and make a mobile display layout! The layout is an easy build. My truck has slots on the truck […]

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Steve Albee’s O gauge layout

Subway cars racing by on an O gauge layout.

Visit Steve Albee’s dual-level O gauge layout that fits in a spare room! This layout is one of many with plans that appears in the fall 2021 CTT special publication Toy train layouts for small spaces. Get your print or digital version here! There are freight trains and subways bringing light, action, and sound to […]

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Steve Albee’s O gauge layout

Subway cars racing by on an O gauge layout.

Visit Steve Albee’s dual-level O gauge layout that fits in a spare room! This layout is one of many with plans that appears in the fall 2021 CTT special publication Toy train layouts for small spaces. Get your print or digital version here! There are freight trains and subways bringing light, action, and sound to […]

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A visit to John Staschak’s O gauge layout

Overview of John Staschak's toy train layout with superimposed cover of September 2021 Classic Toy Trains

John’s layout appears in the September 2021 issue of Classic Toy Trains. It features tremendous trackwork and wonderful scenery (see the plan here), in addition to some spectacular modern trains. Watch and hear freight and passenger consists work their way around it. […]

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A visit to John Staschak’s O gauge layout

Overview of John Staschak's toy train layout with superimposed cover of September 2021 Classic Toy Trains

John’s layout appears in the September 2021 issue of Classic Toy Trains. It features tremendous trackwork and wonderful scenery (see the plan here), in addition to some spectacular modern trains. Watch and hear freight and passenger consists work their way around it. […]

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Design “elemental” layouts in large scale

Scene on a large-scale railway built of wooden blocks

  When I was young, I had an American Flyer train and a set of American Plastic Bricks (interlocking toy bricks made in the 1960s). I liked running the train, but I was particularly drawn to the bricks. I could easily build something, tear it down, and build something else. Years later, I built an […]

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A little bit of the Pacific Northwest

Gary Pearsall’s compact O gauge layout

Gary Pearsall’s layout features Northern Pacific passenger and freight trains. The layout measures 5 x 10 feet and features spectacular mountain scenery as well as a town with buildings by Lionel, MTH, Walthers, and Woodland Scenics. Trains made up of equipment from K-Line, Lionel, MTH, Atlas O, and Williams run on two independent loops of […]

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Modeling a narrow gauge railroad in a small space

Michigan-California Logging Co.

Modeling a narrow gauge railroad in a small space: Modeling a logging camp requires a variety of structures, trackwork, scenery, figures, and activities. The camp includes not only loggers involved in different pursuits, but also woodchoppers, a laundress, checkers players, engineers and mechanics, stable hands and horses, bears, garbage cans, railroad materials, and more, surrounded […]

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