What caught my eye was the outside third rail which looks better than I thought it would..
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pretty interesting, really hasn't changed all that much.
Very cool video, Bruce! I also have been struck by how visually unobtrusive outside third rail is. Another thing that struck me was the intelligent narration, as opposed to some of the "gee, whiz; not bad for a bunch of dweebs" narration that some modern news stories provide about model railroading. Finally, they certainly dressed better to run trains in those days!
Gee...
No smoke,
No sound,
No command control.
How could they have POSSIBLY had any fun???
Rusty
Thanks for posting, Bruce. That was very interesting. Do you know anything about the origins of this film? Where'd you find it? What was Sterling Films, or what was this for? Looks as though it would've been shown in movie theaters as a short before the feature film perhaps?
One other thing that struck me, and I guess this reflects the cultural differences between then and now….I was fascinated to see the guy operating the switching yard was wearing a suit and tie! Although maybe he just "dressed up" for the filming?
- Mike
Great enjoyable film. The Stamford Model Railroad Club, in Stamford CT, originally had the same rail configuration. They are still in existence running two rail O in the basement of St. John Episcopal church.
Originally Posted by mike.caruso:
….I was fascinated to see the guy operating the switching yard was wearing a suit and tie! Although maybe he just "dressed up" for the filming?
- Mike
Or maybe he's Lee's grandfather... 
But very nice layout. What gauge is it? Did I miss them saying? As for the 3rd rail, I didn't see anything using it, perhaps they didn't show them.
Originally Posted by sinclair:
But very nice layout. What gauge is it? Did I miss them saying? As for the 3rd rail, I didn't see anything using it, perhaps they didn't show them.
They mentioned it was 1/48th scale; I forget if they said "O Gauge". As for the third rail, it's not the centered rail we're used to; it's a rail on the outside of the gauge, more or less in line with one of the tie ends. You really have to look for it. The pickup is on the outside of the locomotives.
Pretty neat film.
Guys
I was hoping someone else could fill in the details of this layout as I don't have a clue as to whatever happened to it, etc. What also struck me was that every film I have seen on 1950" layouts were never this scale like ( realistic vs toy like)..and the narrator gave the impression ( at least to me) that a lot of this stuff was scratch-built which sort of blows my mind...I actually like the look of the outside 3rd rail better the more I looked at it...If I thought I was a Luddite before, now I am sure I am.
Nice video. Thanks for posting.
Growing up in New York City, any track without an outside third rail looked odd to us.
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Originally Posted by electroliner:
Guys
I was hoping someone else could fill in the details of this layout as I don't have a clue as to whatever happened to it, etc. What also struck me was that every film I have seen on 1950" layouts were never this scale like ( realistic vs toy like)..and the narrator gave the impression ( at least to me) that a lot of this stuff was scratch-built which sort of blows my mind...I actually like the look of the outside 3rd rail better the more I looked at it...If I thought I was a Luddite before, now I am sure I am.
In the mid 50s, I visited relatives in Burnsville NC and a man across the street had a garage type building where he built live steam engines and rail cars that were maybe double G scale or similar. Really cool and they looked just like the big engines and cars as I recall.
