No loose cloth insulation on the resistance wires RJR? I think that's what he's seeing.
My Z, mostly cloth, looks great inside! My 1033's wires are dry rotting fast now. Those beakers use a riveted connection prone to carbon fouling, heat damage, and corrosion. Once on the fritz its downhill fast.
I don't fully disagree with that lighting brick, but it wouldn't necessarily fly into common use. Smaller, "leftover", but newer, train transformers; small aftermarket (MRC comes to mind); and large wall warts have the "pretty" market covered. And a small, fixed voltage, industrial transformer is a very cheap alternative that can be mounted out of sight, requiring only a switch & cord. A Lionel brick by itself?
The 1990's grey controller, and early black brick Lionel(MW?) goes for quite low prices and would light 40w up to 80w depending on which brick it has. I used the 80w brick alone for a while. Supply overkill for long term, but why not if you have plans to grow!
