How to turn your Santa's Express Train Set into a magical winter wonderland scene
So, you’ve purchased a Santa’s Express Train Set and it’s running merrily underneath your Christmas tree – lovely!
But if you’re the kind of family who likes to push their Christmas decor to the next level, you can take your Santa’s Express and create a full festive train set display. There are no limits to how creative you can get with this.
This simple guide will give you the basics, so you can get the kids and any beginner railway modellers involved, and then you can create a custom Christmas scene that will delight your guests.
About your Santa’s Express train set
Our Santa’s Express Train Set has had a facelift this year and it is the perfect set for under the tree or as the centre of a winter wonderland display.
The bright red locomotive is complemented by a green closed Santa’s Workshop wagon and a red open present wagon. It comes with rechargeable batteries and is accentuated with festive lights and sounds. Assembly of the white, oval track is quick and easy, so you can have it set up in time for Christmas dinner.
It makes a great gift for family or the ideal Christmas decoration.
We recommend setting all our model railway layouts up on a baseboard for the smoothest operation. This also means you can secure your winter wonderland accessories without damaging your floor. For this kind of layout, you’ll want a thick baseboard that can also hold the weight of your Christmas tree and space for a 770mm x 770mm circle of track.
For more information on appropriate baseboards, click here.
Setting your Hornby Christmas train scene
Step 1: snow
Once you’ve got your train set up underneath the Christmas tree (or in another space in your home), you can start to create a snowy scene. You can find modelling snow or use felt or cotton wool to create a thick snowfall look. Make sure to keep these materials off your tracks to avoid them getting caught in your train wheels but cover the baseboard for maximum effect.
Step 2: Christmas model railway scenery
With your snow in place, you can start to place seasonal accessories. This can be anything you like, but we think a few fir trees sprayed with fake snow would look amazing glued into place. You could also add fairy lights around the centre and some model figures wrapped up in warm clothes.
You could leave it like that or get as detailed as you like, accentuating the layout with Hornby buildings and accessories.
Step 3: personal touches
Now’s the time to get creative and add your own spin on the layout. You could make tiny snowmen out of cotton wool or wrap up some matchboxes to look like presents. Encourage younger children to make tunnels out of cardboard or add their own small toys to the display.
This is the step that makes your layout special and helps to create a tradition kids will want to acknowledge year after year.
Step 4: lights, sound, action
Now’s the time to turn on the Christmas tunes and fire up your Santa’s Express. To operate, simply press the brightly coloured dome on top of the locomotive, and off it goes!
The strong magnetic couplings make connecting your wagons easy, and you can add more wagons if you want your locomotive to pull a longer train.
Your train will make sounds as soon as it starts running, but you can press the dome again to turn them off. And the light at the front guides the way, so Santa can see where he’s going.
The battery inside the locomotive lasts around two and a half hours. You can then use the included cable to recharge the battery for two and a half hours so it’s ready to run again. This also means you don’t have to add any extra wires under the tree – bonus!
A Christmas tradition for the generations
Santa’s Express is a simple train set perfect for Christmas fans old and young. The tradition of having a train set underneath the tree goes back centuries. You can discover more about the history behind this decor here.
Send us your pictures
Now that you know how to create a winter wonderland scene using Santa’s Express, we’d love to see your pictures. Share your model railway set-up by tagging @hornbyofficial on Instagram or Facebook or send an email to marketing@hornby.com for your chance to be featured on our Christmas page.
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