My Disney Top 5 - Things I Love About My Disney Village Christmas Collection by Chris Barry
Chris gets lost in the holiday spirit as he counts down what he loves most about one of his most treasured Disney collectibles.
Read it here!
My Disney Top 5 - Things I Love About My Disney Village Christmas Collection by Chris Barry
Chris gets lost in the holiday spirit as he counts down what he loves most about one of his most treasured Disney collectibles.
Read it here!
What? No train set to put your village by? We have the latest Disney train and it is a pretty cool little set.
Merry Christmas!
Thank you Chris for continuing your Top 5s in 2020. They were a nice reprieve during this rough year. I love this village per your photos. If it was on my radar back (but with my current income since I was still in school then), I would have bought the whole set. I didnt know Disney made Park Christmas Village outside of Dept 56. I checked your village on Ebay and there was either nothing or too expensive for used pieces. I bought all the Dept 56's Disney Parks Village pieces via Ebay and started collecting the Dept 56's Mickey's Christmas Village pieces. Although Mickey's Christmas Village isnt Disney park specific, they remind me of Disneyland's Toontown.
So, I have my Lionel train set - non-Disney, perish the thought - under our tree. We have always set up a smaller Christmas tree in our family room which is "for the kids." That tree traditionally has the monorail under it. So, yeah, surprisingly no Disney train! I guess it's because I've had the Lionel set since my first Christmas with my wife. She bought it for me. So i never thought of getting another set.
Merry Christmas to you Chuck!
It's my pleasure. Writing them was my own reprieve as well. Thanks for always reading and commenting!
Yeah somehow these houses seem to have flown under the radar for a while. I'd love to know the reason why. There has to be a reason. It's funny how you will see some things for sale year after year and other things will come out and then disappear. I think these would sell like crazy, but who knows, maybe they didn't?
I checked on eBay as well. I was surprised to see two Train Stations - both between $150-$200. And then there was I think an Emporium or a City Hall for around $350!! The big winner, if you look at it that way, is the Haunted Mansion which is more of a Halloween decoration. There's one on eBay right now for $1,000!
Enjoy all of your villages and your holiday season.
Curious what kind of set you've got running? (I'm as much, if not more of a train nut than a Disney nut! )
Something from the early to mid-90's?, or maybe an older classic Post World War II era (from the Lionel trains heyday when they very popular as toys) train?
There are lotsof Disney Lionel trains these days (well over the last 30 years or so, but there actually have been a lot of offerings over the last 3-4 years). I've got some examples of modern ones, some being Christmas themed.
-Dave
I know nothing about trains except how to set mine up and get it running.
It's a Lionel "O" gauge I believe. Set number 1113WS
IMG_3602 (1).jpg
This was a gift from my wife when we were first together. So that would be mid to late 90's.
Last edited by cbarry; 12-20-2020 at 10:16 AM.
Looks good. I'm not familiar with that exact set, but from the artwork style of the box, I would have guessed that was when it was from. It is indeed an O Gauge train, though the track may technically be what they call "O-27". (it's just a slightly smaller diameter curve than the smallest size for "O Gauge" track, and the rail height from the floor is just a little shorter than the "O Gauge" line of track).
The only reason I asked if it was maybe from what Lionel train enthusiasts refer to as the "Post War" era, is sometimes people have a connection to the past with trains (father's or grandfather's trains, etc). There are people today who still prefer the older ones due to nostalgia.
If you don't consider it too much of a divergence from your article topic, I'll post a pic or 2 of a Lionel Disney Christmas train once I have things set up.
-Dave
That is a great set, Chris. Isn't it a shame they don't still produce nice collectibles like these?
I literally JUST completed the Dept 56 Liberty Square set a couple of weeks ago. Found a great deal at an antique mall. I love those too.
I had the entire Toon Town set - the first version when the area of the Park was still new - and dumped them. What was I thinking? I never gave credence to Toon Town as a "True" land. And look - it's now over 25 years old.
Train-wise, I have several of the Pride Lines trains but have never tried to operate them. They just display in a curio cabinet
OK. I got way delayed in posting these, my apologies for that...
Not the greatest shots (I don't have a current account on any photo sharing sites to really show the higher resolution versions easily - so I reduced these until they would fit in my attachment space here on MP)
Here is the steam engine and tender from the set.
Attachment 9271
Here is the boxcar from the set and also an "add-on" car (you can barely see it, but there is a little Pluto figure on the roof - he moves back and forth when power is applied to the tracks - I should have taken the pic with him not hidden by being a similar color to the Griswold house behind the train )
Attachment 9272
Here is a "chasing" gondola and the caboose. The figures of Mickey and Minnie "run" around the boxes chasing one another as the car rolls around the track.
Attachment 9273
The remaining 3 cars shown are also "add on" cars, not part of the original set. The mint car really probably doesn't match the set, but the hopper car and tank car were meant to complement the set.
Here is a Donald Duck tank car.
Attachment 9274
Here is a hopper car. It has some small gift boxes that are meant to be the load, but I don't have them set up here. (nothing fancy, basically little colored foil wrapped cubes)
Attachment 9275
One more in next post (system won't allow more than 5 pics per post....)
{edit: not sure if I'm doing something wrong with the attachments... when I initially posted, they showed up as images in line (that's how the single pic in the below post looks to me on my screen), not just links. Editing a few times seemed to reset it, but then it went back to links again for this post. Oh well.}
Last edited by Dave1313; 01-05-2021 at 07:09 PM.
-Dave
Here is what is known as a bullion or "mint" car.
These series of cars have generally got simulated gold bars as the load that show through the windows. (in traditional Lionel trains, the originals offered over many years were named for real US mints, hence "mint" car. Fort Knox being the most popular version of this type of car, but they were made for most mints that ever existed in the past or present) Sometimes other things are inside the car, and it's then decorated for whatever the subject is.
Having gold bars as the load, obviously Scrooge McDuck from Mickey's Christmas Carol is the character featured on this car.
IMG_3729_lo-res.jpg
Oh, and I forgot to call attention to it in the 1st post, but note the water tower with the ears in the 1st pic of the engine and tender. It's not quite the same as the Earful Tower that existed at DHS before TSL was built, but it's got the spirit of it.
There are tons of other Disney Lionel trains. I'll try to post some different examples one day in another topic.
-Dave
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