Lionel Display Layout

That sure looks like it could have been a display layout track plan, I don't know what # though. All of the Lionel built displays that I have seen in pictures use the trestle supports directly. The display in your pic has a roadbed under the elevated portion, so likely someone built their own version of a display layout with a few variations of their own?

 

Nice looking layout, Sorry that I could offer any detailed info,

 

Doug

Looks like a D-191

Looked it up in Roger Carp's Lionel Displays You Can Build

 

Lionel built Display layouts with elevations before they made trestles. This was how they did it. Rodger Carps book shows display layout photos like this. CTT has also run photos of display layouts with this kind of trestle.

Anyone know where I could get they plan for this layout?  I would like to make this layout using fastrack.

I have a DVD with all of the Lionel Dealer Display layouts. The plans include a picture of the layout, the track diagram, and the wiring instructions.

 

If you'd like I can email you the plan for the D-191.

 

Btw, keep in mind that you may have to alter the plans if using FasTrack rather than Lionel tubular track.

That is a D-147, 5 X 9 from 1955.  Although it is similar to the D-191 (1957), that layout used the 110 trestle set to provide the over and under figure eight.  Although the 110 trestle set was introduced in 1955, the first display layout to use them did not appear until 1956 (D-164).  This is in keeping with the schedule of the design and production of these displays.  The displays were designed in Lionel's Display Department 15 (by Bill Bonano and Joe Donato Jr.) in the late fall/winter of the PREVIOUS year to the nominal catalog year of introduction.  The mock-ups (prototypes) for the Dealer or Advance catalogs were built and photographed prior to the issuance of the catalogs for Toy Fair in February/March of the nominal catalog year.  Once orders were taken, the displays were built in the summer months (using college kids hired for the purpose) and shipped in early to late fall of the catalog year.  Hence, most displays lagged behind one year as regards to the accessories that were used on the layouts.  There were some exceptions, of course, if the new accessory was ready far enough in advance.  The D-147 used a playwood ramp and support structure to provide the overpass.  The supports for the visual portion of the ramp were made from wooden turnings, that look very similar to half of large commercial thread spools of the time.  The plywood ramp is continuous under the two girder bridges at the apex of the overpass.  The mountain and embankment on the other half of the layout was made from the usual felt material that Lionel employed for the purpose.  Please note that the figure 8 is not symmetric on this layout, either in shape or grades. There is a O-72 track section used in the hidden part of the loop.  Also, the train is meant to only go in one direction (that is into the low tunnel portal where the O-72 section resides).  This provides a more gradual grade in that direction.  The grade on the downhill side is steeper than that obtained with a 110 trestle set.

Lionel dealer displays from 1948 to 1965 are available from Trainpaper.com 

 

The DVD is: Lionel Postwar Instruction sheets Volume IV - Dealer Displays with Advance Catalog Promotional Pages 

 

Would probably be a copyright violation to post here from DVD, so I won't do that.

 

 

Yep, I checked my Lionel Display Layout information and Frank G is correct. That's the D-147.

 

Great information, Frank. You really know your Dealer Display stuff!

Correct! The ZW would have been mounted in the lower left corner.

 

Here's the original artwork:

Mark

Actually, the D-147 (as built in production) used a separate control panel as shown in the orginal poster's photograph.  The mock-up (prototype) that was built and photographed for the 1955 Dealer Display Catalog had the transformer and other controls mounted in the lower left corner on top of the 5 X 9 plywood base.  All known extant D-147s have the separate control panel.  For those interested in displays, it is always interesting to note the changes (some subtle, some rather extensive)  Lionel made between the mock-ups and the production layouts.  Probably the most extensive changes occurred on the D-165 (8 x 8, 1956).  The mock-up,  as shown in the 1956 Dealer Display Catalog was based on the 1955 D-148 display, and the actual production display bore only a passing resemblance to it!  Why Lionel made these changes can only be guessed at nearly 60 years on.

Frank, thanks for the info. Looking at the original poster's picture it shows a small hole in the platform in the lower left corner and what might be an impression in the colored sawdust that matches the base of the ZW.

Who knows...maybe this layout originally had a ZW attached in the lower left corner and is the one from which the 1955 catalog picture originated.

Pure speculation on my part.

Mark

If you look closely again, you will see TWO small holes.  These were used to attach the control panel to the top of the layout during shipping when the layout was crated from the Lionel factory.  Small bolts and nuts were used to fasten the panel to the top of the layout using those holes.  During installation, the panel was to be moved to the position shown in the photograph.  The side sills of the layout has similar holes for mounting the panel.

Thanks Frank...I see it now! The old brown eyes just ain't what they used to be...

Mark