Full steam ahead!

Keepsake Artist Matt Johnson’s tabletop piece celebrates the 125th anniversary of Lionel® Trains.

Lionelville®
LIONEL® Trains

The long-standing partnership between Lionel® and Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments has always been about celebrating Christmas. This year marks 125 years of Lionel® Trains, so Keepsake Artist Matt Johnson created this tabletop piece to mark the milestone. Matt shared some of his favorite things about the process of creating the Lionelville® Table Decoration releasing in July at Ornament Premiere.

“Our original idea was just to scale up an ornament created back in 2004 by retired Keepsake Artist Ken Crow. But I soon realized that was not going to work, so l actually had to rebuild it to get it to stay within the parameters of the mechanics we wanted.

“Getting everything to function correctly was a challenge for me because I’d never done a magic ornament so complex. We didn’t have digital assets so I resculpted it digitally to rough in the shapes I wanted. It’s like hand-sculpting, pushing and pulling and adding and then using different textures, especially with creating the rocks.

“The most challenging part of the project was making sure the train tunnels would actually work. Our engineer, Samantha Heryford, gave me a 3D model to work from and I used that to make sure everything would fit. It took a couple iterations, but we made it through getting the sizes and mechanics just right. Once we figured that out, then I really got into sculpting the rocks. And there’s a certain point where you get in this flow state and you’re just really enjoying the process. I really liked even just painting it. When you get past the process of getting the mechanics and lights and everything to work, then detailing it all out is the enjoyable part for me.

“And what I really like about this piece is that you can control it. You can have it on without music, so it’s just moving with light. And you can also activate sound, light and motion to create a fun atmosphere. I’m really pleased with how it all turned out, and I love the idea that people will have it in their homes during the holiday season.”

“Full steam ahead!” For Keeps 25 Summer 2025: 4