Christmas Train Thread - 2023 Edition

[Eric_Mueller]

OK, folks, I thought I’d lead off this year’s collection of Christmas and Holiday specials! Looking forward to seeing how your little iron horses help you celebrate the season!

I chose to write mine in the form of and old-fashioned travel advertisement…

The famed Oberammergau, Ogden & Olomana Railroad, affectionately known as the Triple O, is again pleased to announce special Holiday service from the first Sunday of Advent, 3 December 2023 through Epiphany, 6 January 2024. The Triple O offers the discriminating local and knowledgeable traveler alike a bevy of services ranging from rail excursions along our scenic mainline featuring gourmet meals to rustic outings along rustic plantations tracks culminating in a Holiday Luau! Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Years Eve will all feature unique holiday additions to an already packed and exciting itinerary!

North Star, pride of the Triple O, has retired from revenue service. However, this vintage iron horse will again head premier services aboard coaches reserved entirely for the Advent and Christmas season. Enjoy views, cuisine, and hospitality aboard this classic train from a bygone era.

The Triple O heard you, and the Triple O responded! Last year, we buffed Ulaula, burnished her coaches, and placed her in service for the Season. Demand for our popular holiday excursions exceeded our expectations, and this tiny but mighty iron horse will again augment North Start in providing mainline excursions.

The Triple O, in cooperation with our loyal customer, the M&K Sugar Company, will again offer an opportunity to explore M&K’s acreage aboard this converted cane train. Adventurers will enjoy a Holiday Luau at a secret location. Premier excursions that include sightseeing on our mainline with exploring the plantation are available and are a “must do” for any railfan, but seating is limited! Reserve early!

Call now for reservations or let your travel agent know, “Eh! I like go on the Triple O!”

[rmccown-admin (Bob McCown (Admin))]

Got our Christmas train set up!

[Rooster]

Made the boy go get a few things out of the attic tonight BECAUSE of this thread!

I’m game just give me a week or so!

[JRad (Jon Radder)]

We only put up a small fiber optic tree these days since there are no kids around. A 3 car Fn3 train wold be chasing it’s tail, as it nearly did 21 years ago when had a small tree and a table-top layout…

Merry Christmas Y’all

[Eric_Mueller]

@Rooster

I’m game just give me a week or so!

I’m not sure if I should be intrigued or afraid

[smcgill (Sean McGillicuddy)]

Not sure I want to put one out with the two yr old grandson ( think Bam Bam from the flintstones ) nothing is that proof !

[Cliff_Jennings]

I wouldn’t have thought that boxes of trains on the living room floor counted? But hey, I’m fine with whatever does it for you.

Nice Queen Anne!! Or Vic? Either way, gorgeous LR!

[Eric_Mueller]

Be bold! It wasn’t so long ago a two year old earned his nickname for this shot:

• Eric

[smcgill (Sean McGillicuddy)]

The ones out side he can’t catch …yet … the ones sitting there will have no chance…

[Rooster]

@Cliff_Jennings

I wouldn’t have thought that boxes of trains on the living room floor counted? But hey, I’m fine with whatever does it for you.

Nice Queen Anne!! Or Vic? Either way, gorgeous LR!

I told you I was working on it !

The holiday season at least “IMHO abcdefg” is a reflection of the end of a year as another one is upon us and no one… cannot, can’t… do anything about it no matter what you believe in but faith is always good in something you feel is right !

Remember to always look back and remember the good and do good unto others!

[snowshoe (Shawn Viggiano)]

Indoor around the tree and outdoor Christmas layout.

[Rooster]

[Hines (Bill)]

Rooster,

Why are you pulling stock from the attic at Christmas? I see numerous carriages on the shelving in the background? Isn’t it a bit too early to be giving up Amtrak for Lent?

Bill

[Rooster]

@Hines

Rooster,

Why are you pulling stock from the attic at Christmas?

Bill

Because I wanted my 23yr old boy to get off the couch watching football and go retrieve them!

[Hines (Bill)]

Phew! That’s a relief, Rooster.

Tell me it’s a DSP&P!

Yet, I was concerned I might miss out on learning about the special meaning of Amtrak at this special time of year…

Here, the special meaning of the season is greatly affected by the summer solstice which is scheduled to hit full force at 4:50pm on Friday December 22, 2023 . Days will start getting shorter than nights across Australia after this date, and summer will be in full swing. It will be the season for cricket, not football.

Traditional northern hemisphere activities preserved only to some extent. Some mutate. Many still hang icicle lights on their houses, and prepare a traditional holiday meals. But these meals get packed up in an esky to be opened for a picnic on the beach or to take for singing carols in the city park. Christmas trees are assembled, not harvested and yet being one of the first stops of the night, Santa still doesn’t have time to get into board shorts and thongs. He’s in full winter gear here.

To top it off this year your front yard can be decorated with Santa dressed up as Australia’s most famous criminal, Ned Kelly. (Australia’s version of Austria’s Krampus?)

Most importantly unlike the northern hemisphere LSC posts, we run trains anti-clockwise just like the toilets flush! Respect the coriolis.

Hey @Eric_Mueller being so close to the equator, other than traditional excursion train rides, listening to the joyous sound of Oh! Oh! Oh! coming from Triple Oh passengers, what unique traditions have come about in Hawaii that substitute for building snowmen etc?

Well gotta go… carollers are here, and I don’t want to miss the traditional Australian Christmas carol about the reindeer thug, that teaches kids consequences of bullying and name calling.

Set at the North Pole, it’s a song about OLIVE, the other reindeer…. (“used to laugh and call him names ”)

…sigh…

[Korm (Korm Kormsen)]

one of my favorite christmas activities in the nearly half century, i ive in the tropics:

sitting in the pool, strawhat, sunglasses, a cold drink - singing “jingle bells” or other snow related songs…

[PeterT]

@Korm

sitting in the pool, straw hat, sunglasses, a cold drink - singing “jingle bells” or other snow related songs…

Me too. Simple question: what is “snow”? I’ve wondered ever since I found this Florida Snow Globe:

[PeterT]

Thought you’d like this - @Naptowneng found it.

[Eric_Mueller]

@Hines

Hey @Eric_Mueller being so close to the equator, other than traditional excursion train rides, listening to the joyous sound of Oh! Oh! Oh! coming from Triple Oh passengers, what unique traditions have come about in Hawaii that substitute for building snowmen etc?

Bill,

Like you, we see a strange adherence to subtropical themes. Many yard decorations, however, have tropical rifts, like Santa in board shorts or elves on surfboards. Hotels and communities will often feature Santa arriving on a surfboard or outrigger canoe. Beaches will feature sandmen, and marker buoys at the edge of the swim area will sometimes have Christmas trees or Menorah strapped to their tops. Yacht clubs feature parades of boats, and every ahupua’a (land division) will have at least one street that is “all in” with lights. Food will depend on the ethnicity of the family group, and, given he high ration of interracial and intercultural families here, dinner parties can be a bedlam of flavors. Our first year as a married couple, for instance, CINCHOUSE went “all in” Bavarian with goose, dumplings, and cabbage. Her family brought sashimi, noodles, rice, and other Japanese or Japanese-inspired sundries. Like the food, there are a whole host of silly secular songs that celebrate this mish-mash of traditions, too.

Religious practices likewise blend Pacific Island and / or Asian cultural practices with the Gospels. What I find most interesting and compelling is that the churches will usually display the Holy Family in a matter that reflects the faces of the predominant ethnic group that attends at that church. There are unique songs in all the languages present here, and there are translations of European and American songs into everything from Chuukese to Tagalog. Churches will often feature hula or other Pacific rim dances at their services. Some of these cultural mash-ups work only in that faith community, some frankly fail, but some, like Silent Night sung a Capella in Hawaiian and accompanied by hula transcend culture, place, time, and existential plane.

It’s a neat place to live!

Eric

[Rooster]

@Eric_Mueller

Many yard decorations, however, have tropical rifts, like Santa in board shorts or elves on surfboards. Hotels and communities will often feature Santa arriving on a surfboard or outrigger canoe.

Eric,

I sense the child needs me over Christmas and I would like to see Santa myself along with the peanut M&M guys if possible. I can certainly stay in a hotel but the thought of Budweiser cans in Hawaii disturbs me.