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Are they painted too dark, where light wouldn’t show through, as maybe they weren’t meant to be lit? LED lighting is the way to go, but be strategic when making any holes for lighting. Are you familiar with hole saws? If you can, post a pic so we can better see what you’re up against.

I have 5 union reindeer blow molds,made in year 2000, what is the best way to add lighting to them, there's no holes for the lighting,thanks for any Imfo

Below are the ones from Lowe’s site with prices. These are few more….

Wow, love how high you went into the tree. Your placement of decorations is amazing.

That's a neat train there! Thank you for sharing!

Very cool!!! LOVE IT!!!!

Thank you for sharing the video. Very appreciative of the hours spent building and operating this train. Awesome. Hope you’re still using it.

I’m going to try and get me some of those trees. I couldn’t find any last year.

Did you get this working with a motor etc.... I would love to see the finished version before i drool in front of hubby.

Awesome, how long does it take to complete inside and outside and is your weather nice to you during Christmas so it doesnt ruin your displays?

Last of the pictures.

Yellow or maybe some shade of red would look good.

This morning I found a yard sale on Facebook and I could make out a Marble nativity in the garage. I showed up and surprisingly nothing was really sold. I went up to the garage and there it was. and it had 200 scribbled on the flap of the box. I asked the daughter doing the sale if it was $20 or $200? and she informed me it was only $2. I took it and a holiday projector with no questions asked. Once I got home I discovered that while nothing is yellowed it seems the manger is missing (no big deal) but also Marry has a crack on her forehead and it reached to her scalp with a small hole in the center. I could probably patch it up with some light white epoxy but that's for another day. Marry also had a daylight bulb inside of her to make her light up blue. I thought this was a unique approach to the standard bleak white nativity. I already have it planned that Mary can light up blue and Jesus can possibly be gold but my main problem is Joseph. (not to get political/biblical) but I have always disliked the look of Empire's pink Joseph. As far as my knowledge goes pink was a wealthy color back then and was only used at certain times. With Mary and Joseph being depicted poor I have always liked Poloron's paint choice with the brown,yellow and sometimes red. But now I'm at a standstill. What color should Joseph be lit up as? Anyone have any suggestion? Thinking maybe Yellow? I don't want to do a mud brown or army green though.

Rotatorman, there is a link on the very 1st line of this post.

Remarkable, absolutely. This is what most of us think or dream about doing, but you guys did it. And such attention to fine detail. Will we ever see s video?

Looks cool, I have been thinking about doing something like that.

Thanks - I'm working on getting some detail and photos of the past project. I found out last night that a town about 30 miles away has recently finished a project like this. I'm working on getting some details on their finished project. I'll pass that information along in this thread when I have the details if can help anyone else.

Do you have a picture of the previous installation? It would be easier to answer if you can show what was done in the past.

That has got to be the coolest Christmas train ever!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uDV4J81AdQ&t=20s lol 2013... so long ago, I had forgotten this was online still. This train was first built starting Aug 2010 and with the 1st 4 cars ready to go by Thanksgiving weekend. Many husband hours of tinkering after work and 12-15 hours on the weekend to get this done. I was the painter and decorator. We are not the original idea but we used similar technique. Ours is built mostly with a wood base and the other person who is no longer running his train built his with metal. We just dont know how to weld. Wood still works. Start with the mobility wheel chair motor with a limited slip differential if you can find one. This will determine the width of your track. Ours is 14 inches inside to inside. We then made a cardboard cut outs to get a visual how to cut the framework of the train. I going to let the pictures tell the story. The sheet metal is air duct tube and reducer, i searched high and low till i found one that look like a smoke stack. The whole tube opens up to insert the battery. Its hinged at the front by the grill. Each flat car is the same build with diff paint jobs and decorated accordingly and each has flat top that fits into each frame of the car so it can be removed for storing and the cars base can stack on top of each others besting on the castor framework. Lazy susan allows it to bend around the corners and the small castor wheels is what keeps its within the track. the red wagon(garden) wheels are for aesthetics and we can no longer get the 6in red wheels and now have converted to white. Tried painting them red but that came out lousy. About every 2 seasons or 100 miles+/- the wheels will wear down from riding the track, they will separate at their rivots and cause a mini train wreck...lol it just blows a fuse. Always have spare fuses, wheels and an extra battery on hand. We made a templates for the track and used brick stop for the curves and 2x3s for the straights. For the coal I used lava rock and spray painted them and glued to a flat piece of plywood to give the illusion that its full. The coal box is just that, a hollow box sitting on a car. Each car can be taken apart and stored. We have wires that piggyback to each car for added lights and all lead up to the engine car for power. !st yr of laying track was short, since then we have tripled the track length. We made a dolly so we can take the train off the track each night and put away, there are 2 in this pic and today we now have 4 dollies. Connectors to each train and the leash gets connected to provide power to the lights. I need find one more picture of the back of engine where all the wires are connected too. Will post at a later date if it means we have to pull the engine out and snap a new picture.

Hope you can zoom in to see the joints. We spray painted the center tube black, and we removed all the pvc ink so it looks whiter. This is what we use and it take only a few minutes and its quick... we have use it for so so many projects.

That sounds like quite a task. Most people on this forum would love such a challenge. Either you or the city officials need to decide if it will be RGB or white. Then confirm if there is electrical power available at each building. Create a schedule for getting things done ‘cause you really want these lights in place and tested by early November. Get help, don’t try to do it all by yourself. Have fun, it’s what we love doing. Hope to see some pics. P.S. White is nice but you may have more options with RGB. Especially if you’re doing this for years to come.

Hi all - I've been working with residential lights for many years - mostly DIY - and need some help. I've been approached by a local city who would like to add a strip of lights on top of each building, on either side of the street, down an entire city block. Probably a quarter mile or less - it's small city main street. They would be happy with only white, but if they could have RGB with a little "movement" that would be great. They have had lights in the past, all glass incandescent, and were all destroyed during a massive hail storm last year. I'm looking for some advice on a simple option, maybe a metal channel with LED lights? I know they have power outlets on top of each building. Local electricians are not knowledgable on LED, but could install the system if given instructions. Can someone point me in a direction? Thanks!!

One of the tricks for bending PVC pipe if you don't own a bender is to use hot sand inside the pipe. I learned this in scouting reading about how to make DIY snowshoes for winter camp in the mountains. Here is an example of the YouTube videos on the subject.

ok being so new to this site, i am still trying to figure out how to see new posts or where these posts pages are... so i came across my own post by accident...lol Shopping list for snowman. all 1/2 pvc, 90 elbow=6, 45's=2, X's+3, T's=2, 8 footers 1/2=5, Plugs internal = 6. Helpful to have is a pvc bender which softens the pvc. Plus making a jig by drawing out your shape and putting screws or penny nails in a plywood board to hold your shape. H Hope this makes sense...