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Department 56's Impact on Our O-Gauge Hobby

7K views 43 replies 21 participants last post by  Passenger Train Collector 
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#1 · (Edited)
The year was 1984 when D56 introduced their Dickens Village. It was their first offering of their porcelain structures.This village took off in popularity immediately and it was not long before a train station was introduced into this village. With the success of the Dickens Village, D56 followed with Christmas in the City and the North Pole series. I immediately recognized the fact that the new Christmas in the City series was an excellent fit for our O-Gauge trains. The architecture of the structures was interesting and filled with details.

At one point, I lobbied the President of D56 to work with Lionel as I saw the potential where they could help each other. I might as well have been talking to the wall. Allied Trains eventually Licensed the D56 name with a line of trains and a Lionel Train Store. But this effort did little to promote the marriage of these two product lines.

D56 eventually offered a new line called Seasons Bay that was void of any snow effect. I loved it, but it was a classic failure as the typical D56 buyer was accustomed to use their products for just Christmas displays. This village however contained some of the nicest buildings they have ever produced. With no snow effect, they could fit perfectly into an O-Gauge layout.The problem was the O-Gauge hobbyist for the most part never saw it before it was quickly discontinued.

So where is D56 today with most O-Gauge folks who do use it? It is by far only seen in Christmas Layouts and is very seasonal. Right after the Christmas season ends, the D56 buildings and accessories are packed away not to be seen again until the next Christmas season.

I reached a point with our last layout that I was sick and tired of all of the packing up each year. Just in the Christmas in the City collection, I had some 160 buildings. So I decided that I would dedicate a significant part of the last layout to a year-round Christmas in the City display. I was happy with this idea as I really like this village. But what would visitors to the layout think when they came to visit in July? The answer actually came easy, THEY LOVED IT. During the time they were visiting the layout, it took them to a happy time. This reaction was universal. They always left with a smile on their faces. Sure, they loved the trains running, but they really liked the scenery.

Seasons Bay was a no-brainer. I grew up near the water and a significant waterfront area was a must. Seasons Bay was a perfect fit. So with the past layout, you could go from winter to summer with D56 and it worked very well with appropriate separation.

Our new layout will continue with the summer/winter themes. We will have more room to work with the villages and we learned from the past effort that it is very important to have everything closer to the visitor so that they can see all of the details easily. This time the Polar Express with the D56 North Pole village will be part of the new layout, so all of the trains and accessories will be under the same roof. We are so happy about this and we hope our visitors will be as well.

I have been and still am a big advocate of Department 56 villages. I wish their was more of a presence with it in our hobby year-round. So much of other building structure products that are offered to us are a lot of the same with their square or rectangular design and have so many similarities. D56 architecture has produced very interesting structures, all very different in appearance.

I gave this subject some thought when I read the response to the scenery thread by Bill Webb this morning.

D56's first porcelain train station:

View attachment 255353
 
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#38 ·
Thank you for your kind comments.
I have a thread on this Forum "Dream City Railway" but I have mainly just put video links to it. The latest video is a walk round this railway and runs for just under half an hour. The railway does run through six interconnected sheds a 300 foot walk with 25 scale miles of running track.
I will post some more photographs on that thread.

Roy.
 
#37 ·
My collection consists of mostly Lemax structures besides my Dept 56 Lionel store (which is obviously one of my favorites), but they definitely go well with O gauge trains. I do use my brothers Dept 56 Christmas Story collection on my Redford Theatre display which people always get a kick out of, especially when we show the movie.

My Christmas layout building "career" got it's start as my simple O-54 circle around the tree with my starter set, and my mom putting her set of 6 or so village buildings up on top of our entertainment center. Eventually she lost interest in doing that, so I combined them with the trains under the tree and things kind of got out of control from there. For the former home display, my dad and I built several different display platforms to fit all the buildings on, beneath and next to the tree. We've added buildings and other accessories almost every year, and it certainly makes a nice display. I've seen plenty of train-less villages and though they're nice, they definitely don't have the same appeal as one with some motion of the trains does.
 
#43 · (Edited)
I was first really turned on to Department 56 by Brian's posts on another forum sometime ago. I must have been living under a rock because I was really blown away how beautiful they can be.
Every Christmas, I always set up my "Rudolph" themed D56 buildings that are from several different runs, but look great together.
 
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