Iv'e been taking a tubular layout to Senoir Homes/Community centers ect and maybe a school down the road. People will ask "How the trackside rotary beacon ect light up?' " I try to explain but usually busy with something else. I recall seeing the title shown in a how to book (or online??) somewhere. By 3D I mean the wheels and axels where drawn so people really got the idea. Any suggestions please pass on, Unclepeterr
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Peter,
I can picture in my mind the diagram to which you refer but I can't seem to find it in any of the Lionel post-war and pre-war instruction sheets and operating manuals I've looked through. I'll keep looking and post it if I find it. I'm not a good enough artist to draw one!
Bill
Interesting that the US Patent Office would grant a patent to a simple electrical concept. The scheme had been in use by real railways since the beginning of the use of electrical signalling, and was adopted by toy train operators. Electron flow, it would seem, would not be something that could be patentable.
Uncle Peter:
Why not make a small demonstration board, with two pieces of track, connected together. One un-insulated, and one insulated. Add a truck with steel wheels and axle, a small power supply, and a pilot lamp, or better still, a dwarf signal. Have the guests roll the truck back and forth to show the operation. Use a test lead first, to show the current flow, and then use the rolling truck. Draw a diagram to show how it works.
My next message shows a track circuit. Just print it, and white-out the part that says "detector circuit."
bmoran4 posted:
Wow, I am also astonished that this is a patentable concept ... and that I'd never heard of this patent. One would have thought that every diagram in every Lionel accessories manual would have needed to reference this patent, however flimsy the patent concept appears to be.
One would have to further wonder why Mr. Koerber never raised a ruckus about everyone using his concept without any attribution whatsoever...
Steven J. Serenska
Peter:
I finally found the diagram I had remembered which is attached. The diagram is Figure 4 at the top left. This page is from the 1950 “Bantam Book” Model Railroading written by Lionel. You could crop out the rest of the page leaving just that Figure and enlarge it so its easier to read. The diagram shows a relay but that’s not necessary in your application so you could photo shop out the relay and those contact arrows or if you’re old-school print it out and use “white-out” to erase them and hand-draw a box with the name of your accessory in it in place of the relay.
Hope this helps,
Bill
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