I own a modest collection of train ornaments by Hallmark. As a fan of steam locomotives and other historic engines and trains, these are my favorite ornaments to put on the tree each year. I will admit, though, that I'm also quite partial to my SR-71 Blackbird, WWII Willys Jeep, Back to the Future DeLorean, and others as well. All are, of course, representations of actual Lionel O-gauge toy trains. Most of those toy trains, and thus the ornaments too, are representations of real prototype engines and cars.
The regular ornaments are roughly N scale, which has a scale-to-prototype ratio of 1:148. In my photos, these are posed on N-scale model railroad track, specifically Kato Unitrack.
Most of the miniature ornaments are roughly Z scale, which has a ratio of 1:220. These are posed on Z-scale model railroad track, specifically Micro-Trains Micro-Track.
The miniature Blue Comet locomotive and tender are actually smaller than Z scale and their ratio is unknown. They are posed on Z-scale track, but do look a bit small as a result.
The ornaments are shown below in two groupings. Miniature ornaments follow the regular ones. Within each group, they're in chronological order of release. At present, the information about each ornament is sparse, but as I investigate further, I'll update this page. I plan to mention which ornaments are based only on Lionel toys and which are also based on actual railroad prototypes. Either way, I'll try to specify when, where, and by whom the train was originally used, along with any other interesting information I can find.
-- Stan Cleveland, McMinnville, Oregon
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