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Post 1,  5-16-2016,  (write up revised 2-27-2024, Table of Contents revised 3-21-2024)

Overview of Building and Evolution of a Fun Action Packed 50’s Era, 027 Conventional Control, Operating & Switching Layout

Note:  Table of Contents for this whole topic is at the end of this short Page 1, Post 1

A major objective of this layout was to make the track plan and layout active and challenging to keep the engineers busy with operation, switching, operating multiple trains and including many operating accessories, all to keep up interest in running trains and improving the layout.  An operating homemade turntable was desired and planned into the layout from conception.  Another objective was to have fun building, operating and sharing the layout with others specially young children.  While setting up three or five trains to loop is and can be done on this layout, experience has been that just looping gets boring quickly.  I will refer to the train layout as a train board at times, as was done in the 1950's toy train board under the Christmas tree.

This topic or thread is about how I built a 1950's Era, Post War style Lionel and Marx 027 train running, challenging,  action packed layout starting in 1977 and using conventional control.  Initially, the layout had two Lionel LW transformers, 19 Marx 1590 switches, an Actionable Touch Track Diagram Control Panel and homemade $10, operating Turntable with pit and homemade Round House.  Larger engines like the Lionel 4-6-4, baby Hudson's 2046, and 2056, the Lionel 6-8-6, S-1 Turbine 671, the Lionel 2-8-4, Berkshire 756,  the K-Line 4912, GG1, the Williams BL2 and F7 ABA are successfully operated on this layout.  It should be pointed out more modern, constant 18 volt remote control engines were not available in the 1970 and 80's yet so conventional control was the only system available and I have elected to stay with it and my 50's type engines.


We were job transferred, by ALCOA, from Mobile, AL to Kingston, Jamaica in July 1976.  We rented a house and bought a used English, right side drive, stick shift, small Hillman Hunter four door sedan.  We had some furniture, household goods and appliances shipped from the USA to Kingston, Jamaica.

1976 - 1977   We brought the family Marx 999 set, 027 track, Lionel 1034 transformer and four Marx 1590 metal switches to Jamaica in our moving shipping container in 1976.  I also made purchases of 027 track and Marx switches, some additional engines, and cars on trips back to the USA in 1976 and 1977.  We had a 1 ½ year old son and our daughter was born in Kingston in November 1976.  We had a busy 1976, and no time for trains.  The 4 year old ALCOA refining plant was about 35 miles from Kingston and the plant was 30 miles from the mine in one direction and 30 miles in the other direction, to the port where the alumina was shipped from.  The plant had its own ALCOA switch engine for use in the plant spotting oil tank cars from the port, ore cars from the mine and alumina cars to the port and empties from all.  The Jamaican Railroad transported all cars from the mine and port, to and from the plant.

I planned, made track diagrams, and started layout construction in the carport of our rental Manor Park house in New Kingston, Jamaica in 1977.  The layout was ready for operation, on the family room floor, for Christmas 1977.


The layout is portable and has been on the floor for two months per year starting in mid December, from 1977 to 2011.  It has been moved to five houses, due to job transfers, by packing layout sections in mattress boxes.

Layout plan started with features I liked about my childhood Christmas layout.  The childhood layout was made in two sections from a 9ft x 5ft ping pong size piece of plywood and the layout was portable and only on the floor for the two week Christmas holidays.  It had an oval and figure 8 track plan with 4 Marx 1590 switches.  It had a removable mountain with tunnel in the far right corner and that mountain contained a Christmas tree and stand.  A small control panel had a place for a train transformer and the four Marx switch twin control push button switches in a row.  Almost all these features would be included in the new layout.

The layout has a unique compact Actionable Touch Track Diagram Control Panel utilizing mini push button and slide switches.  This style of control panel was developed to allow quick and easy control of 19 Marx remote controlled switches by following the track diagrams on the control panels.  The layout started as a single train board with two independent relayed loops allowing two trains to operate on each loop with one or two engineers.

The inside loop includes an oval and figure 8 allowing train reversing in either direction and has 11 switches and an operating homemade Turntable.  The outside loop has two alternate/storage tracks and has 9 switches.  The outside and inside loops are joined by two pairs of inner connecting Marx switches.  This train board can runs 4 trains with two trains per two blocked and relayed loops and numerous operating accessories. It includes a homemade $10 turntable with pit, homemade round house and operating Lionel Gantry Crane.

A second train board was added in 1988 forming an L shaped layout.  This addition allows a third loop to be operated with a total of up to three engineers with three Lionel LW transformers.  The layout now can be operated by one engineer or by two or three engineers at two control panels.  This addition has a second Actionable Touch Track Diagram Control Panel and a third Lionel LW transformer.  The third loop includes a double dog bone, giving train reversing in either direction for the outside loop for both train boards and has 11 switches.  The layout can now runs 5 trains with two trains per two blocked relayed loops with one train running on the new train board and has numerous operating accessories and now has a Wye, that allows reversing train on both outside loops. It is a 027 gauge 50's era train operating and switching layout (initially 29 Marx 1590 metal frog, inexpensive switches).  This portable layout has been on the floor in various rooms of 5 houses for 2 months a year, until 2011 when it was installed on legs, upstairs in a new two story two car garage.

The topic tells how layout operation stated with 2-4-2 Marx 999 freight set and Lionel plastic locos, evolved to 2-6-4 Lionel 2018 and 2026 locos and then heavier 2-6-4 Lionel 2035s with Magna-traction locos and even Lionel 4-6-4, 2046 and 2065 and the 4-8-4 Lionel Polar Express loco.   Operating accessories were the Lionel Milk car with platform and homemade turntable and evolved to two milk platforms, a cattle pen, Icing station, lumber saw mill, drum loader, barrel loader, coal mine loading station, log dumper at the mountain and remote controlled gantry crane as well as numerous remote track sections for log and coal dumpling cars.  Numerous rail cars have been added including operating dump cars, giraffe, cop and robber, ducking cars and others.  Many unique homemade cars were made including Vanderbilt coat tenders, Life Saver car, cabooses, Mercury capsule car, rocket cars and many more.

A Wye was added on the outside loop between the two train boards, where the train boards form the L shape, by using two more Marx 1590 switches in 2020 for additional reversing action and the layout now has 31 Marx metal frog 1590 switches.

I hope to show that one does not have to have a lot of room, tools, skills or money to enjoy and have fun with this hobby.  I will try to provide the logic and reasons for the choices I made in planning and building this layout and to describe, in enough detail and pictures, how I built it for hobbyists to be able to build their own layout.

The initial layout main train board described is 11 ft , 2 inches long and 5 ft, 9 inches wide.  It is in two sections, is portable and easy to store and be moved by one person as it has wheels build into some layout edges.  Simple portable power tools can be used and simple fifties type methods were used.   The construction is inexpensive and used lumber can be used.  Used 027 track and Lionel and Mark trains from the 40s and 50s were initially used.  Lionel LW 125 watt transformers and 19 Marx 027, 1590 metal frog switches are also used which are inexpensive and easily found.  The layout uses conventional control.  Almost all trains and operating accessories were purchased used from individuals from ads or at train shows and most are from the Postwar or 1950's time period keeping costs for equipment low.  I have other hobbies competing for time and limited funds.

Suggestions and ideas will be shared that will show ways to keep costs low by train gear selection and modifying, kit bashing or scratch building simple structures and accessories including a turntable and roundhouse for less than $10 each.  Construction of homemade, scratch built, copied and modified rail cars are also explained and featured.

I am encouraging viewers to quit just following and watching on the OGR Forum and hoping to have a layout and to get proactive and go for it, by spending time planning and then acquiring material and train gear and then building an action packed, interest maintaining layout.

I plan to make additional posts to this topic periodically or when I can, on different features of my 44 year old layout to show what might be included in a layout and to keep the topic rolling for a while.  Your comments and suggestions are solicited.


Picture of overall Layout Main Train Board as it looked 1977 to 1988

Train Complete 1-17-2015 116


Actionable Touch Track Diagram Control Panel showing the Track Plan of the Main Train Board

Red and green buttons are push button switches for the track switches and blue buttons are uncoupling and accessory operating push button switches.  The black slide switches are for controlling the track sections and when the black is blocking the white track indication lines, the switch is OFF and the track section is not powered.

Train Complete 1-17-2015 152


Photos below showing both Train Boards in 2020 with new Wye. The first train board was started in 1977 and second train board was added in 1988 to make this a L shaped layout.  Lengths of the two L legs are 11 ft, 2 in original X  12 ft, 3 in including the original and the new train board making the long length on the right side below.

Layout Day Arial 8-18-2021 2021-08-18 015

IMG_2520


Details of the Completed L Shaped Layout in use since 1988

The two control panel track diagrams below show the total L shaped track plan of the completed Layout.  The layout main train board includes an oval and figure for the inside loop of the Main original train board giving reversing in both directions and an includes a turntable.  The second control panel, for the new train board, shows a double dog bone giving reversing in both directions for the outside loop of both original and new train boards.  The bottom edge of the original train board shows the recently added Wye that allows reversing of trains on the outside loop, including the ability of moving a train from the outside loop of the new train board, to the outside loop of the original train board and also to the inside loop of the original train board.  One can see the fun to be had with trains on the side tracks and the loops clear and one train allowed to roam freely all over the uncluttered loops and routes.

Below  -  Main Train Board,  11ft 2in  x  5ft 9in, the only board to 1988 and the new train board track diagram (with new Wye) control panel in the same position as the actual L shaped total layout


Control Panel Main 12-28-2022 2022-12-28 016

IMG_1013

Above - The New train Board , 7ft 6 in x 4ft 7in, added in 1988,  which can Operate Stand Alone

Lengths of the two L legs are 11 ft, 2 in original X  12 ft, 3 in including the original and the new train board making the long length on the right side below.

The planning and construction of the Original Main train board are covered in the first 22 posts of this topic, then the planning and construction of the New Train board is covered in posts 23 to 30, making this a L shaped train layout.  Posts 31 to the last post detail how homemade accessories, rail cars were made and other improvements and operational improvements like the new Wye.

The exceptional layout track plan with three loops, three Lionel LW transformers and 3 operating cabs on two control panels, train operation with two trains per two loop operation, homemade $10 turntable and round house, Wye, 31 Marx 1590 switches, homemade accessories, and many homemade cars make this a very challenging and rewarding layout to make and operate.

The inside loop of the original board allows reversing in each direction with an Oval and Figure 8.  The outer loop has allows reversing in each direction with a double loop Dog bone and a Wye allows reversing with forward and reverse operation and allows movement of a train from the third loop on the new board, through the outside loop on the old board into the inside loop of the old board.  Routing trains and operating is always challenging as there is no means to tell which way a switch is thrown other than to look at it or remember which way it is set.  I am pleased to share the layout with you and hope you enjoy the write up and learn some new ideas, or hints.

Video of layout in 2022 operating 5 trains - two loops have 2 trains on 1 track and one train on the New train board loop

Charlie



                            Table of Contents



T of C     revised 3-3-2024

Page 1

Post 1  5-16-2016   Overview of Building and Evolution of a Action Packed 50’s Post War 027 Operating Layout & whole topic Table of Contents,  last revised  2-1-2024

Post 2   5-17-2016  Layout videos and comments posted

Post 3   5-20-2016  The Beginning - My Childhood Layout

Post 4   5-24-2016   Resources- Books and Magazines & Layout Track Plan and Features

Post 5   5-27-2016  Procurement of Light Weight Lionel Steam Locomotives 1977 to 1980, O27 Track, Marx 1590 Track Switches, Lionel LW Transformers, Switch Transformer, etc. (revised 11-6-2023)

Post 6    6-4-2016   Project during planning – Tootle Wooden Pull Train

Post 7   6-11-2016   Main Layout Board (11ft - 2in x 5ft - 9in) Construction and Track Installation (revised 3-3-2024)

Post 8a   6-20-2016   Actionable Touch Track Diagram Control Panel Construction and Layout Wiring  (revised 3-21-2024)

Post 8b   6-20-2016  Track Transformers and Other Transformers Installed on Layout (Revised 4-29-2023)

Post 8c   6-22-2016  Improving and Repairing Marx 1590 Postwar 027 Switches  (revised 3-8-2023)

Post 8d  6-20-2016   Two Direction Automatic 2 Train Operation on 1 Loop  -  Manual and Automatic Relayed Track Loop Operation System  (revised 8-3-2022)

Post 9   6-25-2016   Turntable with Pit Construction & Operation -  Scratch Built and Inexpensive ($10 !) Can be any where and size  (revised 3-27-2024)

Post 10  7-1-2016   50’s Type Buildings from Childhood Layout

Post 11a  7-8-2016   American Round House Construction when back in USA- Homemade

Post 11b  7-13-2016   More Wiring Details on LW Transformers, TT and Tracks


Page 2

Post 12   7-16-2016  Medium Weight (Lionel 2018, 2026) Steam and Diesel Engine Upgrades 1986-2000s

Post 13   7-22-2016   Layout Mountain and Tunnel -  Construction Details

Post 14   7-29-2016  Bachmann 1975 Coal Station Kit-bashed

Post 15   7-29-2016  Coal Mine/ Operating Coal Loader Accessory - Homemade & Converted from Bachmann 1975 Coal Station

Post 16  8-6-2016   Lionel Style Cars -Homemade

Post 17  8-12-2016  Backdrop for Layout on the Floor

Post 18  8-18-2016  Lionel type Water Tower and Gantry Crane Superstructure - Homemade

Post 19  8-26-2016  Layout Lights, Building Lighting and Mini Christmas Tree Light Use

Post 20  9-2-2016   Alumina, Chemical and Industrial Cars and Plant Switch Engine  (revised 10-30-2023)

Post 21  9-6-2016   Center Fill Reynolds Alumina Covered Hopper Car -Homemade

Post 22   9-9-2016   Hidden Track installed behind Background, Industrial Bldg., Track Occupation Signal System and Train Wreck Videos  (revised 11-15-2023)

Post 23a  9-19-2016   New Layout Board Addition ( 7ft - 6in x 4ft - 7 in) Making an "L" Layout, with pictures and video  (revised 1-17-2024)

Post 23b  9-21-2016   Nighttime  Pictures of New Addition Train Board  (revised 4-29-2023


Page 3

Post 23c  9-21-2016   More On New Addition Train Board     (revised 4-29-2023)

Post 24   4-11-2016   New Addition Track Plan and  Active Track Diagram Control Panel  (revised 3-27-2024)

Post 25   10-4-2016   Homemade Operating Ice skating pond on New Addition

Post 26  10-10-2016  Train whistles and Diesel horns  (revised 4-13-2022)

Post 27  10-13-2016  Main Street on New Addition

Post 28  10-18-2016   Roadside Diner for Main Street Siding

Post 29a  10-28-2016   Industrial, Local Train Station, Farm, Air Port, Microwave Tower on New Addition

Post 29b  10-30-2023   Installation of the Lionel 6-12703 Icing Station between the Two Train Boards with 19823 Refrigerator Car  (revised 11-16-2023)

Post 30a   11-15-2016  Trolley for Main Street - Homemade Reversing Mechanism

Post 30b   1-9-2023   Layout Train Operating Capabilities and Schemes

Post 31  1/28/2017  Lionel 12834 Gantry Crane operating - Added to Layout (revised 6-26-2023)


Page 4

Post 32  4/20/2017  Renovation and Installation of Lionel 192 Railroad Control Tower  (revised 5/31/2023)

Post 33  6/4/2017   Operating Accessories on Layout List and Photo of Locations on the Layout  (revised 5-26-2023)

Post 35  6/22/2017  Unit trains Operated on Layout

Post 36  7/25-2017  Train Shelves - Economical, Wall Friendly and Moveable

Post 37  8/5/2017   Layout Moved to New Train Room 2011 and Layout Legs and Skirting Added  (revised 1-1-2023)

Post 38a  11-23-2023  Heavy Weight Steam Engine Upgrades 1998-2011

Post 38b  8/12/2017  Operating Car Train  (1st Post, Milk Car)

Post 39  8/18/2017  Operating Car Train  (2nd Post, Cattle Car)

Post 40  8/20/2017  Operating Car Train  (3nd Post, Barrel Car & Un-loader)

Post 41  8/24/2017  Operating Car Train  (4nd Post, Ice Car & Icing Station)


Page 5

Post 42 8/31/2017   Operating Car Train  (5th Post, Gondola or Coal Dumping Car)

Post 43  9/4/2017    Automating the Manual Lionel 6-12774 Log Loader Building to allow moving logs from Mountain to Lionel 464 Lumber Mill (revised 3-29-2023)

Post 44a  9/9/2017   Passenger Trains Run on the Layout

Post 44b  9/9/2017   Run on the Layout - Giraffe Cars and Train - The most Popular Cars on the layout  (revised 1-26-2024)

Post 45   9/21/2017   The Christmas Train Run on the Layout (revised 1-4-2023)

Post 46   9/29/2017   General 4-4-0 Engines and Trains Run on the Layout

Post 47  10/9/2017   Wrecking Trains Run on the Layout Run on the Layout

Post 48  10/19/2017  Maintenance Train and Homemade Track Cleaning Car (revised 9-19-2023)

Post 49   11/24/2017   TCA Train show in Ponchatoula, LA Finds in November 2017

Post 50   12/28/2020   Layout on Christmas 2017

Post 51  1/17/2018  Space and Missile Trains and Cars Run on the Layout (revised 12-30-2023)



Page 6

Post 52   3/17/2018  Lionel 6413 Mercury Capsule Transporting Car - Homemade

Post 53  4/28/2018   New Diesel Engines, Track Upgrade with Track Nippers and Track Cutting Jig

Post 54   6/1/2018    Cab-Forward Engine

Post 55   3/15/2019   Vanderbilt Tender - Homemade

Post 56  3/18/2019   Small Engines Used on the Layout

Post 57a   9/4/2019   Longer 6 Wheel Vanderbilt Tender - Homemade

Post 57b  11/20/2023  Medium Steam Engines Used on the Layout

Post 58  9/24/2019   Large Steam Engines Used on the Layout  and Fix for Lionel 2046 & 2025 Rear Truck Shorting on Derailment (revised 11-20-2023)

Post 59   2/3/2020   Lionel 561, 0-8-0 Switcher - New Engine

Post 60   2/9/2020   Lionel Style Life Savers Double Dome Tank Car- -Homemade


Page 7

Post 61   5/1/2020   Wye Installed on  the Layout  (revised 10-23-2023)

Post 62   5/10/2020  Flood Lights on Cattle Corral and new Milk Platform added after Wye Installation

Post 63   7-2-2020   Marx Trains Run on the Layout

Post 64   8-14-2020   E Z Wooden Ties Added to Layout to make a Semi-Super O27 Realistic Track  (revised 1-5-2023)

Post 65  9-2-2020   Lionel style 193 Industrial Water Tower added to Main Train board -Homemade

Post 66   9-8-2020   Lionel 6407 Flat Car with an Improved Rocket -Homemade

Post 67  10-19-2020   Train Shelf added to Train Room - Newest and Last Shelf

Post 68  10-28-2020   Signal Bridges Now Operating

Post 69  11-18-2020   Lionel 6805 Atomic Energy Disposal Car  & Homemade Electrical Pick Up  (also see Page 7, Post 74 for additional details)

Post 70   1-4-2021  Transfer Caboose-Homemade

Post 71  1-18-2021   Bobber Caboose -Homemade

Post 72  1-19-2021  Adding an Ammeter to Layout's Three LW Train Transformers

Post 73   1-28-2021   Painting and Lighting of Two Rio Grande Cabooses

Post 74   2-9-2021   SP and N5c Cabooses converted to Union Pacific & Homemade Electrical Pick Up - Colorful and Beautiful

Post 75   2-29-2021  Two Repainted Cabooses - Penn N5C and SP Santa Fe and Review of a latest Homemade, during Virus, Cabooses


Page 8

Post 76    3-18- 2021   A Lionel 6-8562, GP 20  -  Latest Diesel Roaming the Layout

Post 77    6-19-2021   1930s Lionel 238 Streamlined Torpedo Locomotive and Tender -  Revived with Marx motor and Paint Job

Post 78    8-11-2021   Engines Purchased with Previous Owners Modifications

Post 79    2-14-2022   NO-OX-ID A-Special Conducting Terminal Grease Treatment for My Layout Track to Prevent Sparking and to Eliminate Track Cleaning FOREVER !

Post 80   4-19-2022    Videos - Showing Two Sets of 2 trains running on 1 track and 5 Trains Running   (Revised 4-20-2023)

Post 81   9-28-2022   Broken Lionel 2035 Classification Lights - Repaired

Post 82   12-22-2022   Covered Lionel Gondola Car - Homemade

Post 83  4-18-2023   Gondolas on the Layout

Post 84  6-7-2023   Homemade Borden's "Butter Dish" Milk Tank Car (revised 7-2-2023)

Post 85  7-10-2023  Homemade Sawdust Burner for Lionel 464 Saw Mill

Page 9

Post 86  9-9-2023   Steam Powered Switch Engines Operating on the Layout (revised 9-18-2023)

Post 87  11-8-2023  TCA 11-2023 Train Show Finds

Post 88  1-7-2024   Postwar (1945-1955) Steam Locomotive Weights

Post 89 3-15-2024 Passenger Cars Added and Run



Last edit Table of contents 3-15-2024

Attachments

Images (7)
  • Train Complete  1-17-2015 152
  • Train Complete  1-17-2015 116
  • Train Overhead views 9-21-016 2016-09-21 014
  • Layout Day Arial 8-18-2021 2021-08-18 015
  • IMG_1004
  • IMG_1013
  • IMG_2520
Videos (1)
102_0503
Last edited by Choo Choo Charlie
Original Post

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Post 2   5-17-2016

Thanks for the comments and encouragement to keep posting.

Here is a little Lagniappe (south Louisiana French for "a little something free").  A video from Christmas 2006 when the layout was taking up two thirds of the family room for 2 months.

I really love having a floor layout in a main room being a bigger part of family life, especially at Christmas time.  The Christmas tree is on (above) the extension built in 1998.

I hope the video works.  If not try You tube link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQJRxSNqvLk

Charlie



Attachments

Videos (1)
2006 Christmas Layout on floor of family room
Last edited by Choo Choo Charlie

Post 3   5-20-2016  revised 1-6-2024

The Beginning - Childhood Layout

My childhood Marx 027 layout consisted of an oval and figure 8 utilizing four Marx 1590 switches on a ping pong 9’ x 5’ board on the floor for Christmas 1948.  The train was a Marx 999 freight set.  A Christmas later, about 1949, we got a tin plate Marx LNE 13079 Leigh New England coal car with four operating hopper doors. Later still, we got a Lionel 1033 transformer a big improvement over the cheap little Marx on that came with the set.  The layout was on the living room floor after being installed on Christmas Eve with a Christmas tree in the plaster of Paris mountain with tunnel in right back corner.  The layout was in two sections with a 1 x 4 frames, one having the control panel with transformer and controllers for four Marx switches, taken down a week after New Years and stored in the basement against a wall.

I had two friends that lived on my block in south St. Louis, one had a Lionel train with cattle car loader and milk car and platform.  The other had American Flyer layout.  Both had layouts on the floor with a single loop and a bypass or siding with a couple of switches and were down for two weeks at Christmas also.  I had the Marx layout with oval and figure 8 with four Marx switches and we all liked to run that Marx 999 doing lots of switching with the figure 8 allowing reversing in both directions.

We moved to new house my Dad and his friend built for us in Afton, a suburb of St. Louis.  Dad put the layout up in the basement, after we insisted, but later we never played with it for a year or so.  When my brother and I were 8 and 10 or so, the train track and Marx switches  were removed and the layout dismantled.  My brother and I had gotten into building solid wood and plastic models, then stick and paper air planes, model boats and later 049 powered U control planes.  We went into Fox 35 U control planes in junior and high school and I got into radio control (tubes & 67 v batteries !) boats.  The Marx 999 trains set and tracks were in storage.

Charlie



Pictures of Marx 999 set with original carsMarx-999 & Lydia Band 5-19-2016 005



Marx 999 engine (set is original but engine is retired due to worn out motor gear, this is a replacement).

Marx-999 & Lydia Band 5-19-2016 003

Tinplate Marx LNE 13079, Leigh New England coal car with four operating hopper doors

IMG_2070

Marx Uncoupling sectionMarx-999 & Lydia Band 5-19-2016 008

Attachments

Images (4)
  • Marx-999 set
  • Marx-999
  • Marx uncoupling
  • IMG_2070
Last edited by Choo Choo Charlie

Post 4   5-24-2016       revised 7-26-2022

Resources- Books and Magazines & Layout Track Plan and Features

Resources:    These five booklets and books were helpful and used from the start.

First Book. and must have.  “Operating O and O27 Trains”,  "A Comprehensive Guide to the Desgn, Construction and Operation of a Layout For Lionel Trains " edited by Maury D. Klien and Bruce C. Greenberg , 1976, 242 pages. This book was first published by Lionel and titled Handbook for Model Builders (Fun and Facts for Amateur Railroader) in 1940 and written by Lionel personnel.  The "Operating O and O27 Trains book has pages 7 to 168 from the Model Builders book.

"Operating O and O27 Trains"  is a "must have book for building a postwar Lionel train layout " and my main, best layout building book.  It has track plans, details on homemaking surface mounted turntable, round house, coal mine, and sand station and details how to wire a layout to run two trains on one track loop using a relay and how to keep the engine eUnit from cycling.  It lead me to install 2 trains on 1 track operation, a homemade turntable and round house, control panels and coal mine on my post war layout.

This book explains a lot about how real train yards and engine service facilities work, bridges, signals and all about trains.  It has numerous train track plans and is the one source to get acquainted with real post war trains and train layouts.  It is available at Amazon for about $7 in 2022.

IMG_1110



Second Book,  “Lionel O/O27 Train and Accessory Manual”  No. 6-2953 Copyright 1975, 33 pages, a great book to explain how to operate two trains on one loop with blocked track sections and relays to keep trains from over taking one another.

Third Book, “Lionel Track Layout Book O27”, 21 pages

Fourth Book. "Model Railroading, A Family Guide" by Bruce Greenberg, 1979, 167 pages, hardback.  Describes blocked track, cab control panels and repairing train gear.  It was a Christmas gift in 1981.

Fifth Book.  “Model Railroading”, 5th ed., Reprinted in 1990 By Greenberg Publishing,  Original published by Bantam, written by Lionel staff in 1950, 384 pages.  I had the original from a 1950s (is now missing) and acquired the 1990 ed.  In 2019, a "Model Railroading" 3rd ed. was purchased, which featured a homemade turntable with a wooden wheel to turn it and a homemade 3 stall round house.  The 3rd ed. better represents the a 1950s style Lionel train layout and is worth hunting down, for information on the style of my layout.


These two magazines were used later to keep up with model railroading and keep up interest.

"Classic Toy Trains" magazine was found in 1988 and have issues from the start as a subscriber, Summer 1988 to lately with some missing the last few years.  For me, the early 10 years or so issues have more use for my 50s style layout and my post war locos as later issues started moving away from postwar trains and layouts.

I also have " O Scale Railroading" magazine, starting with run 45, Aug 1976, and later changed its name to "O Gauge Railroading" magazine around 1989 and later started this forum.  My issues are complete until the last few years.  I find the issues from the late 1980s and 1990s to better suit my layout and postwar locos.

Old 1980s and 90s issues of these magazines can be found at train shows and TCA etc. train meets for little or no money.  Also, back issues may be available for these magazines by way of on line archives.  Old issues from the 1980s and 1990s make great reading watching boring TV shows and I have spent some of that time reading and making my own customized indexes to allow me to quickly find articles of interest to me.

"Model Builder" magazine was not used and recently discovered.  Lionel's "Model Builder" magazine, published from Feb 1937 to Mar 1949, for total of 79 issues for 10 cents an issue.  It shows many track plans and how to do articles on building TT, RH other buildings and uses the same older methods I used from the 1950s.  It is available free at trainlife.com or https://trainlife.com/pages/mo...der-magazine-archive

Another booklet not used but very helpful is "How to Operate Lionel Trains and Accessories for 027, O and Super O" published by the Lionel Corporation in 1965.  It must have been available on line for free as I have a home copied edition.  Ebay also has some copies for sale.  It is about 31 pages and is a summary of installing Lionel track and accessories and maintaining Lionel trains.  It can be found here:  https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...683274707297/o27.pdf



Layout Track Plan and Features

Major objectives of the layout include making it interesting, fun and challenging to operate and observe for all operators and viewers, young and older.  I did not want a simple loop or two of track and just sit back and watch trains circle around.

My brother and I quickly became bored with our simple loop with a figure eight in a few days of running at Christmas.  An active track plan with lots of running routes was desired with trains reversing, lots of switches and have the ability to operate multiple trains.  Things were needed for the train to do like load, unload, uncouple, make and unmake trains and thus it should have operating accessories and operating cars.


Several lists of desired features were made and several track plans were sketched.

The layout is to be a portable, floor layout as it was desired to install the layout in a family or other room floor for two months around Christmas and then removed and store it in the garage or storage or shop room.  The layout would be moved with the house hold furniture when relocating for employment  (this was a great idea as the layout has be in six different houses from 1976 to 1993 !).  All track, switches, transformers and control panel would be attached to the layout and trains, buildings, bridges, mountains, accessories, etc. would be removed for storage or transport.

The layout would have section sizes that allow easy moving in and out of the house for storage in garage, etc. and also allow packing for shipment with house hold goods for job relocation.  It proved to be good for moving as it was made sections sized as to fit in queen size bed mattress boxes. The board section must be small enough to go through standard size doors and up stairs.  The sections must have means to allow it to be moved for storage and into the house from the garage by one person (examples: wheels and hand holds).

The oval and figure 8 was the basic building block.  Reversing was desired and this configuration allows reversing in both directions.  This was my childhood layout and we liked the great train operation with only four switches.

Two train and two loop operation was desired so a second loop was added around the inner loop and figure 8.  Inter connections between the loops were provided allowing transferring trains from both loops while running in either direction.

Train storage and passing was desired so a full length bypass was installed on the outer loop.  A small bypass was installed on one of sections of the figure 8.

Two transformers were located on each side of the active switch and track diagram control panel, to allow two engineers to have convenient access to one transformer and the active switch track diagram control panel.  A transformer selector switch was installed on the control panel to allow one transformer to operate the whole layout or switched to allow one transformer to operate the inner loop and the other to operate the outer loop.

All of the track was blocked and controlled as to “live” or “dead” by a slide switch on the control diagram control panel.  The exception to this is all switches are always “live”.

Multiple trains operation on each loop was desired.  This will allow four trains to be operated on a total of two loops.  A major source of information for multiple train operation on one loop was the booklet “Lionel O/O27 Train and Accessory Manual”, No. 6-2953 Copyright 1975.  Post 8 starting on page 28 shows how to operate multiple trains on one loop by preventing one train from overtaking and running into the train ahead.  It does this by having insulated blocks controlled by a relay with train occupation sections.  There are two insulated sections for each loop to allow two train operation in both directions.  A 5 ohm, 25 watt adjustable resistor is installed to keep engine E units from cycling when being halted to allow the lead loco to move ahead.   Installation of multiple train operation was easier due to the blocked track plan utilized.  Two slide switches on each loop control the multiple train operation.  One power ups the relay.  The other selects direction the trains are going, CW or CCW by setting which of the two detector section is to be used ahead of delaying block.

The idea for a homemade turntable would come later and it is the ultimate operating accessory allowing track engine storage and swapping.

Track diagram shown on the active control panelTrain Lots 5-10-2016 252


Switches on control panel - next Photo

Top - LW Train Transformer reset switch on circuit breaker and light showing Short

2nd down - Relays on/off switch for in loop and out loop for 2 trains per loop system

3rd down - switch to set up relay system for CW clockwise or C W counter clockwise two trains on one track operation

4th down - LW Transformer selection switch:   left Red dot for Red Lighted LW on left of control panel controls whole layout, or right for Two transformer operation Red dot and Green dot to allow Red Lighted LW control inner loop and Green Lighted LW to control the outer loop.  Color is the light color on LW trans.

Train Lots 5-10-2016 251


Video of Two trains Operating on One Loop if it works on OGR


YouTube Video of Two trains Operating on One Loop Link Below, in case video above does not work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szGr4ymfJEs

Charlie

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Post 5      5-27-2016, revised 11-23-2023

Procurement of Light Weight Lionel Steam Locomotives (1977-1980) O27 Track, Marx 1590 Track Switches, Lionel LW Transformers, Switch Transformer, etc. (revised 11-23-2023)

We lived in a rental house at Constant Spring, Jamaica, a suburb of north east of Kingston, Jamaica.  My work was in country about 30 miles west of Kingston Jamaica.  The layout idea was started in late 1976, when acquiring trains and train gear started.   We lived in Jamaica for four years and traveled back to the USA every 6 months and visited family in Texas, Pennsylvania, Mississippi and Florida.

In the Pittsburgh Gazette paper want ads for O gauge trains, none were found  but an ad from Dave who wanted to buy Lionel trains was found.  Dave was called and asked if he had any trains to sell and he did.  He had a serious train collection and liked to sell trains he did not need or to raise money to buy more.  This started a series of trips to Dave’s house every 6 months or so.



Light Weight Marx and Lionel 2-4-2 Engines and Coal Tenders, 1977 to 1980

I had a Marx 999 steam locomotive freight set from childhood to start with.

When in Beaumont, TX, on vacation from Jamaica, I saw an ad for a garage sale that had Lionel trains.  I purchased four Lionel 2-4-2 plastic bodied, two way e Units, mostly non-scout engines, like Lionel 248 and 249 with coal tenders for a great price $10.  The non-scout engines, with open frame motors and 2 way e-units run great although they are limited to pulling only 4 or 5 lighter cars which was just fine as I did not have any heavy operating cars like the milk and cattle cars yet.  These four engines were the start of the idea for a turntable along with seeing lots of TT in track plans in books.  I am a dedicated garage sale goer and rarely find Lionel trains but have found a few.

Engines from layout start in 1977 were light weight plastic bodied Lionel 2-4-2’s, and a Marx 999 and later 666.  These engines weigh 2 to 2.5 pounds and do not have Magna-Traction.  They run very well on O27 tracks and Marx 1590 metal frog switches.  They are limited to pulling 4 or 5 light weight cars.



Pictures of three of the Lionel 2-4-2 plastic bodied engines that inspired the turntable.  They are from around 1958 and have good metal 249-100 motors and two way E unit and are good runners and came with small streamlined 1120T coal tenders.  They were all black and I painted them to make them individual in the 1980s.

2-4-2 engine

A sharper picture below

Train Complete 1-17-2015 182

Train Lots 5-10-2016 147


This one is better Lionel 2-4-2, with a die cast body and 3 way e Unit.

Train Lots 5-10-2016 149

On a later trip to Dave's, some cars and Lionel MP 219 AA diesels were also purchased,




O27 Used Track

Track type selection was an easy choice.  Since the layout was to be a portable, operating, smallish, Toy train layout, O27 track was the obvious choice.  O27 will allow more track in a given space.  O27 is easily found, inexpensive and has a low profile (1/4 inch lower track height than O gauge track).  027 also allows the use of the low profile and small foot print, reliable Mark 1590 switches to be used.  Also I already had four Marx 1590 switches and these switches are easy to repair even in place.

I have found I can operate large locomotives like Lionel 2046 and 2055 baby Hudson's, Lionel 561, 0-8-0 switch engine,  Williams F7 ABA, 4032 Santa Fe, Williams BL2 diesel AA, and Lionel, 2-8-4 Lionel Berkshire 756, so 027 track and switches were a good choice for me.


Marx 1590 metal Frog Track Switches

I have settled on Marx 1590 metal frog switches for several reasons.

One;  I had 4 of them from childhood,

Two;   they will pass fat wheel Marx 999 and other engines and I had a lot of Marx,  

Three;  they are easy to buy and inexpensive (most cost $10 a pair) and I need a lot of them (layout now has 31 switches),

Four;   they are reliable, simple and easy to repair if necessary,

Five;   they have metal frogs and not plastic,  

Six;  they have a low profile, take less space than Lionel 1122 switches with huge switch motors sticking out and blend in with the track

Seven;  they do not use continuous power (only powered when switching the track) as they have no lamps, on the switch or on the controller.

Where as the 027 Lionel later #1122 switches, have two # 53 lamps in the switches and controllers that are ON all the time each ( 2 - #53 lamps lighted X .12amp X 14.5 volts = 1.74 watts per switch installed)  X  31 switches now) equals 54 watts for just the Lionel switches #53 lamps.  The Marx 1590 switch only uses power when switching the frogs position.  The Marx switches are operated with mini push button switches mounted on compact active track diagram control panels with most push button switches in place on the track diagram to make finding the correct switch of the 31 easier to find.

You may have noticed all my Marx 1590 switches were painted gray to match my track ballast color.  This was done because several Marx switches I had were bare silver metal with red switch machine boxes and some were all black, some silver and some with red solenoid boxes and it looked better to have them all the same color.  Also by painting them all light gray, the color of my track bed, they blend in with the bed and the switch boxes are less obvious.  I did not go to the trouble to paint fake rail ties on the switches (quite a chore with 31 of them).


Marx 1590 Switch Operating Transformer

Switch operation is powered by a single 12 volt, 40 amp or so transformer that has been modified by removing enough of the secondary wire winding to give 14.5 volt output used for only momentary operation for switches and some accessories.  Higher switch voltage was required as it makes the switches snap into the locked position quickly and I have 5 sets of paired Marx switches.  These are switches that only are operated as pairs and use a common push button for each direction for each switch pair.  Thus the paired switches eliminated 10 push button switches and makes the control panel more streamlined.  The higher 14.5 voltage makes these paired switches operate faster.  Two pairs of switches connect the inside loop to the outside loop of the main train board:   two pairs convert the Outside loop from two loops to an L shaped track plan and on pair of switches operate the Wye always in tandem.  Many consider the Marx 1590 switch the best post war switch even though they are lowest cost.



Marx 1590 Switch update 10-9-2017

Marx 1590 switches have one short coming in that they will not pass some Lionel train roller pick-ups without problems (usually the pick-up roller gets stuck) due to large center rail large gap near the frog point.  This problem is easily solved by doing a 50 year widely known old fix.  The fix was to install a 3/4 inch piece of a finish nail (cheaper) or a 027 rail pin in the two center rail ends of switch as shown in the following pictures.  This will fill the center rail gap and keep Lionel pick-up rollers from hanging up or losing contact on Marx 1590 switches.  This modification was made in the first year of the installation of the Marx switches.

The picture below shows the center rail of the straight track with one inserted track pin (or cut off finishing nail) and switch in the straight position.  Note how the pin fills in the straight center rail gap.

IMG_0529


The center rail of the curved track shows the other inserted pin and switch in curved position.  Note how the pin fills in the center rail of the curved section.

IMG_0536

Much more information on the Improving and Repairing Marx 1590 switches is given on this Page1, post 8c.


Lionel LW 125 watt Lighted Single Train Transformers

A Lionel LW single train transformer, (125 watts input but output is probably 95-100 watts) was purchased (to go with the Lionel 1034 transformer I had) for track voltage, and along with several used Marx 1590 switches and used track.  These were purchased from Dave in Pittsburgh, on one of my trips home from Jamaica.

The Lionel LW transformer is unique.  One thing was the power lever is turned counter clockwise to increase voltage which is opposite from other Lionel transformers.  Then, if another transformer is paired with the LW, things get confusing.

The LW is the most powerful single engine transformer Lionel made at 125 watt input or 95-100 watt output.  Per train operated, it is more powerful than the ZW.  Also, if multiple trains are operated with the ZW, if one throttle is changed, the speed of the other trains will changed and I plan on operating multiple trains on this layout.  My layout was designed with two independent, interconnected loops.  Later with the addition of a new train board, a third loop and LW transformer were added.

Since I wanted two operators to be able to share the Control panel, I could use two LWs, with one on each end of the Main Control panel, and the operators would not get in each others way.  It is hard for two operators to share a Lionel ZW transformer.  The LW has a lighted dial and the light intensity goes brighter as the voltage output is increased.  This is great for night operation and to see the indicated voltage output.  The LW is inexpensive to purchase and $35 is the most I paid for any of my three plus spare LW's.  The LW track transformers are used only to run trains, or to operate accessories that require variable track voltage.  They are not used to throw switches or light buildings, etc.

Other single voltage transformers are located under neath the layout and include two 40 watt, a 12 volt AC transformers.  One 12 volt transformer is used for all layout building lights and other lights like street, flood, accessory illumination lights and any accessories that require a constant 12 vac.  The second 12 vac transformer had some secondary wire coils removed to make the output to be 14.5 vac, and is used for all layout Marx switches, some of which are operated in pairs.

Almost all of my switches, track, transformers, accessories, engines and cars etc. were bought used.  I believe in the saying "The second mouse gets the cheese".




Turntable Idea Hatched

The acquiring of 4 additional steam engines accelerated the desire to design and build a turntable for the layout.  I have always considered a turntable as the "Holy Grail" of railroading and always looked for turntables and roundhouses at railroad facilities I passed.  TTs have the advantage of turning around an engine verses a transfer table which can not.  The sketching of a TT, in my proposed layouts, was started and I had no idea of whether to buy one or scratch build one.  A turntable is the single best item to achieve my objective to add interest and action to my train layout.


Procuring Additional Train Gear

Since moving back in the states, lots of trains, track and switches, etc. were purchased at Train Collectors Association (TCA), Great American and Greenberg’s train shows especially in the 80s and 90s.  More were found  in later years at TCA local meets in Louisiana, Alabama and Texas.  Sellers at these meets were often asked if they had any Marx switches and one fellow, at a TCA meet in Shreveport, LA, said he had 16 at home that I could have for free.  This offer was gladly accepted and I paid the postage and that purchase paved the way for the new addition to make the train board an 'L" in 1988.

Some trains were purchased from OGR forum members.

A few engines were procured off eBay but I find bidding leads to high costs in most cases (too many buyers for one item) and shipping costs, but the selection of trains for sale cannot be beat.

I have had more than one acquaintance give me their old family trains when no one in the family wanted them and they did not want to bother with selling them on eBay and wanted a good home for their trains.

Only one locomotive, a K-Line GG-1 was purchased new form K-Line when first issued on a special, as I figured I would never spend hundreds of dollars for a used Lionel GG-1.  Years later the K-Line GG-1 developed the dreadful zinc pest, on the truck side pieces on one side of two trucks, warping them.  Two truck side pieces that fit were purchased from Lionel.

Charlie

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Last edited by Choo Choo Charlie

Post 6     6-4-2016  

Project during planning – Tootle Wooden Pull Train

While planning the layout, accumulating material, track, switches, etc. in Jamaica in 1976 I built a wooden toy train pull toy for my young son and baby daughter.   This train now has been also enjoyed by my seven grandchildren, the youngest now 10.  The train was made from scrap ½ inch, ¾ inch wood and a heavy mailing tube for the loco body.  The wheels were cut with a 2 ¼ inch hole saw (2 ½ for loco drivers) and an electric hand drill.

The crane car has a wooden tooth gear to hold the cable in position.  The search light car was made from a discarded flashlight reflector and head and powered with flashlight batteries.

Charlie

Pictures of Tootle Wooden pull train with Tootle steam engine, coal tender, gondola, flat car, searchlight car, operating crane car and Red caboose.

Tootle train 5-26-2016 2016-05-24 003

Tootle train 5-26-2016 2016-05-24 007

Tootle train 5-26-2016 2016-05-24 004

Tootle train 5-26-2016 2016-05-24 005

Tootle train 5-26-2016 2016-05-24 010

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Last edited by Choo Choo Charlie

Post  7    6-11-2016  revised 3-3-2024

Main Train Board Construction and Track Installation

I drew up several plans as small sketches to get ideas for what I wanted.  I then drew out and designed my layout track plan to scale with a homemade template.  I was overseas in Jamaica and did not have or know about store bought templates!  My template was made from a piece of polyethylene from a coffee can lid.  I cut a 027 straight and curve cutout with a X-Acto knife.  I used 1/10 inch to one foot scale on the template shown below.

IMG_0855


I then laid out the two ovals I wanted with a figure eight in the center one.  This let me determine how big to make the layout.  I then had 10 or 15 Xerox copies made on legal size paper.

IMG_0858


These made it easier to make several tries to get the position of the switches to go between the two ovals and the location of my turntable and other track sections to get the fit.  This is one is a rejected try shown below but accurate for the homemade turntable

IMG_0857


The below picture is a latest 2021diagram of the first board showing the new Wye at the bottom  mid right.

IMG_1354


My tools in Jamaica from 1976 to 1979 were an electric 7 inch Skil circular saw, a old 1950s cast iron stationary Toro 18 inch jig saw, an electric hand saber saw, a 3/8 inch electric drill and 1957 Weller 100 watt soldering gun.  I threw together small work bench and installed a 4” X 6” wood working vise.

Plywood was rare and expensive in Jamaica.  I was able to obtain a few sheets of particle board made, from sugar cane pulp called bagasse board, from a neighbor who was the manager of the company that made the board.  This board was ¾ inch thick and very heavy like particle board in the states (I would have used ½ inch low grade plywood in the USA to keep weight down).  I made the layout in two sections, to make it easier to handle and move through doors and up steps.  The frame was from 1x6 boards with 1x4s for the cross pieces.  1” x 1” strips were nailed around the inside perimeter to hold the particle board to be installed and recessed 1 inch from the top of the 1 x 6 boards.

6 inch diameter wooden wheels were made from 3/4 inch plywood and the edges sealed with Elmer's glue to allow moving of the board sections by one person.  The wheels were installed, with 1 inch diameter wooden dowels for axles, with paraffin wax for lubrication.  One wheel is on a corner and another is down the side about 2/3 to the end.  This allows the standing on edge, board to be turned and pivoted around this wheel.   Handles from 1 inch diameter dowels were installed under the board along the edge to allow steering and lifting when moving.  The boards were built in the carport and moved and leaned against a wall when work was finished each working night or weekend day.

The layout sections were small enough to store and ship in mattress boxes when we relocate due to work transfers.  They are small enough to go through standard size doors and up steps.

The main board length is 11 ft, 1.5 inches in length and width is 5 ft, 9 inches   The section with the control panel is 6 ft, 3/4 inches long.  The other section is 5 ft , 3/4 inches wide.


Pictures of wheels on board one, Pivot Wheel on one side (this is a double 6 " diameter plywood wheel for the weight of the transformers and control panel on this section)

Train Lots 5-10-2016 337


Corner wheel allows the board to rolled on two different board edges, each board has a total of 3 wheels, to allow two adjacent edges to be on the the floor to be moved

Train Lots 5-10-2016 336


Picture of both corner wheel on left and side wheel on the right of one section

Train Lots 5-10-2016 335


Track Cutting Jig
Early on I made a  track Cutting Jig to help cut short sections of 027 track.

The jig is made from a scrap of 3/4"  wood 2" x 2 1/4 " with a same size 3/8" plywood glued on the bottom.  Three slots were sawed, with a jig saw, 1/4" deep and 1/8" wide at the spacing of the three rails of 027 track.  A 1/16" wide slot was cut at 90 degrees to the track slots to accommodate a fine hack saw blade.

IMG_2890


A piece of 1/2" plywood was made to act as a Track Hold Down.  Shown at the top of picture.  Groove was cut to go over the track tie if necessary

IMG_2894


Picture of clamp holding Track Cutting Jig, track to be cut with hack saw with a fine blade and Track Hold Down.  The Track Cutting Jig is held in wood working vise.

IMG_2893

I use a fine tooth hack saw blade and find the Track Cutting Jig makes cutting shorter pieces of track and easy neat job.


Track Installation and Block Track Sections

Track, including switches, were laid out and assembled on the train board, in the expected track plan position.  It was then marked off in pencil, removed and the track area was painted with light grey paint as reported later in this post.  Track was installed using a few short screws to hold it down.

Switches were installed.  Uncoupling track sections and isolated outside rail track sections were installed with 6 inch pigtail wires coming out the bottom through holes drilled in the the train board.

Insulated track pins were installed to form track blocked sections to allow every section of track between the switches to form blocks.  These track blocked sections allow for a train to be stopped or stored almost anywhere on the layout. Four of the track block sections will also be used for the coming relay and blocks for two trains on one track operation and for track sections with installed with isolated outside rails for relay controlled two trains on one track operation to come.

One eighth inch diameter holes were drilled for all track switch power terminal spots and where all track feed and commons wires will be attached, with them being on the side of the rail away from the control panel to be more hidden.   Wire holes were also drilled for the Marx switch electrical terminals.



Wiring the Track Sections

CTC Track Lock-on's were not used on this layout and all wires to the tracks are soldered to allow permanent and secure connections.  Six inch wire pig tails were soldered to each track section with the pig tails going through the hole drilled as above.  Wire pig tails were soldered to a track for each track section to provide power and common and to each uncoupling track section and each outside isolated outside rail section.  14 ga insulated wire was soldered to each pig tail and run and routed to the appropriate control panel switch an soldered with a needle nose pliers on the switch contact, held tight with a rubber band on the pliers handle, to be a heat sink.  The above actions were done with the train board section standing on the wheels on the board edge and leaning against a wall allowing the worker to stand or sit while working.



Up Dated Information

If I were building the layout in 2022, I would use NO-OX-ID Special A contact grease on each track section joint to improve conduction between track sections.  I would use a finger to apply a thin coat of the NO OX each track pin and put a small about into the open hole of the other end of the track section. I would also apply some NO OX to the track contacts on the Marx 1590 switches.

Details of NO OX use on track and switch contacts are given on Page 87, post 79 of this topic, shown below.

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...ra-027-layout?page=8


Layout Painting

The layout was painted with oil based glossy enamel paint. Oil based paint was normally used 35 years ago and is more durable than water based paint.  My layout originally was a temporary floor layout and was walked on during installation each year so durability was important.  Light Gray paint was used for roads and pavement and track ballast.  Medium and lighter green and brown paint were used for the ground and mountain.
Brown and green railroad model grass and brown dirt were lightly sprinkled on the layout paint when wet.

Post Script

Post 53b shows how to fill gaps between rail sections with aluminum flashing and rails around track pins.   Post 53b is on page 6 of this topic

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...ra-027-layout?page=6

Charlie

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Post 8a   6-20-2016            Update  3-21-2024

Actionable Touch Track Diagram Control Panel Construction and Layout Wiring

It was decided to make a control panel with an Actionable Touch Track Diagram when I built my operating, switching 027 layout with total 31 Marx 1590 switches (on two control panels), starting in 1976 or forty year plus year ago.

Model Railroading book shows an active track diagram control panel with 7 toggle switches located on the diagram.  Most Lionel train show room layouts had a track diagram but the switch control switches were not on the diagram and their layouts mostly consisted of 5 or 6 isolated loops with only a few sidings.  The book Greenberg's "Model Railroading with Lionel Trains", Vol 11 of 1992,  page 40, shows a control panel with 38 Lionel switch controllers lined up and sheet with the track plan below.  I do not know how they identify which Lionel switch controllers operates which track switch.

I have had extensive experience, from 1965 to 2010 or so,  with flow chart diagrams control panels in several chemical and refinery plant control rooms.  These control panels were often from  knee high to ceiling and grouped by function with 10 to 15 feet of width each.  They had instruments to control flows, temperature, pressure, etc for various spots in the units they controlled.  These instruments were located on taped or marked out flow sheet on the panel that diagrammed the process flow and made it possible to easily show and control the process.  I saw it was easy to follow flow diagrams and one would work with a model train track plan diagram .  It was made with mini push button switches and slide switches located showing where the Marx switches, un-coupling track sections and the sections of track blocks were actually on the train layout.  (note:  now days these industrial plants have computer controls and process diagrams on computer monitors, some having active touch screens for control).

It was important to keep the control panel easy to operate, quick to operate and logical.  Having 20 switch controllers lined up would make it impossible to find the controller of the switch I wanted to throw quickly and easily.    

The first reason active touch track diagram control panel was picked is I have 20 Marx 1590 track switches on the main train board and having that many switch controllers lined up would be difficult to operate deciding which control switch went with which track switch.  The active touch track plan diagram makes it easy to find the proper switch.  The un-couplers require an additional 14 switches to be matched with the un-coupler track section and would be hard to identify which switch worked which un-coupler track section.  An active touch track diagram control panel solves both these problems.

A second reason is it saves space by combining the switches for the track switches and un-couplers and on the small track diagram.  This is possible by using Radio Shack momentary mini push button control switches which are located at the spot on the diagram where the track switch or un-coupler track is located on the train board.

A third reason is the track diagram shows a picture of the layout and helps view hidden parts of the layout and I like the looks of an actionable touch track diagram as it is less cluttered than a large bank of Lionel switch controllers and seeing the track plan helps identify the different tracks on the layout.  The track diagram helps visitors see where all the tracks are going.  Lionel used track diagrams to show a picture of the track plan on some of their showroom layouts but they did not have active switches on the track diagram to control the layout.


There is Still a Need for a Actionable Touch Track Diagram for modern Train Control Systems

The Actionable Touch Track Diagram developed is a 1940-50s version of a Touch Screen laptop computer.  Many modern model train operators, that use DCS and DCC, walk around with remote controllers and have a layout with 20 or 30 switches, will have the same issues I would have if I just lined up 20 Lionel switch controllers.  Many modern train layouts the operate at slower scale speeds giving them more time to operate the switches.  The use of a small Actionable Touch Track Diagram control panel like mine, will make identifying the switches to be activated, for a given route of the train, easy and quick.  So this type of mini track push button switches on a track diagram still make operation of modern DCS or DSS controlled layout easier, quicker and more accurate (less switch throwing mistakes).

Note on main control panel actionable touch layout track diagram Shown Below:  The Red and Green mini push button switches are for track switches.  The blue push button switches are for uncoupling track sections.  The Black slide switches are for cutting on and off power the track section they are on.  When switch slide WHITE shows completing the white of the diagram, the power is ON.  When the switch slide shows BLACK when the switch slide lever is blocking the white track of the diagram,the power is OFF.

My Trains 4-18-2016 014


The control panel frame was made from ¾ boards and glued and screwed to side of the train board.  The center section is for the track diagram.   A section to the right and one to the left are for two Lionel LW transformers.

IMG_1285


A second newer Actionable Touch Track Diagram Control Panel is on the New Train Board shown below, with the third Lionel LW transformer and an HO transformer for the back and forth street car trolley.

IMG_1299

The actionable control touch track diagram panel is made from 1/8 inch tempered Masonite.  It was painted medium gray.  A 1/8 inch groove was sawed in side board of the layout where the control panel is to be, above the angled side boards of the control panel.  This groove accepts about a 1/4 inch of the 1/8 inch Masonite panel with the diagram and will anchor it on the top.  The Masonite panel is just slid along the control panel side boards and into the groove in the side board of the layout.  Three small 1/2 inch counter sink headed screws are used to hold the bottom of the Masonite diagram control panel to the front edge of the control panel frame.  The removal of these three screws will allow the 1/8 inch Masonite control panel diagram to be slide back a 1/2 inch and then pushed up the bottom  exposing the inside of the control panel for maintenance or expanding the control panel.  See picture below of opened up control panel.   



Making Holes for the Control Panel Switches

The holes were made in the 1/8 inch thick control panel front for mini push button switches with a 1/4 inch diameter drill.  Holes were made for the 1/2 inch by 3/4 inch mini slide switches with the Toro jig saw.  A small portable sabre saw, with a wider blade,  can be used but it harder to make accurate holes with a portable saw.  This was done by drilling a 1/4 inch diameter hole inside the drawn outline where the switch was to be located.  The jig saw coping saw sized saw blade had the tension reduced and was unloosened on the top where it was attached to the jig saw.  The control panel was laid out, right side up, and the top of the saw blade was stuck in the hole in the switch outline to be sawed.  The blade was then reattached to the top part of the jig saw and the blade tension was adjusted to allow sawing.  The outline was followed and the part to be removed was then loose on the saw blade.  The blade tension was released and the top part of the blade was removed and the sawn unwanted part and the control panel were taken off the saw blade.  The control panel front is ready to be move to the next mini slide switch hole to be sawed.

What a mess of wires!

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Wiring of the Control Panel

Radio Shack mini momentary push button switches and mini slide switches, both spdt and dpdt were used.  Ebay is now a good source for these switches now that Radio Shack is about gone.  Push button switch buttons were painted green for main ovals and red for other.  The blue switch buttons are for uncoupling tracks.  1/8 inch color diameter dots, from Dymo plastic tape cut with a hole punch, were added to each push button switch to increase durability of the paint on the buttons.  1/8 inch wide white auto pin stripe was used to outline the diagram.

I just installed one wire at time and checked circuits as I went.  There is no electrical diagram for the whole layout.  There are dozen or so one page diagrams for all individual circuits but one has to just trace the wires to know how to repair.  Some wires are labelled like Common or C and I tried to make all common wires have black insulation.  Most wiring is 14 ga for track power and switches and 18 ga for lighting and accessories.  The14 gauge wires were too stiff to bend easily when swinging the control panel up for work and put too much force on the mini switch contacts.  So all the large gauge wires had a 20 ga., 8 to 12 inch long pig tails soldered on them to go between the wire and its push button or slide switches on the panel. The wires were just installed one at time for each function, dividing this complicated wiring project a small easy steps.

Some Data on my Actionable Touch Track Diagram Control Panels   (as of 5-8-2022)

Main Control Panel   (26 inch X 9 inch) Mini Switch Inventory

(Key:  Mini Push Buttons = PB,  Slide Switches = SS


Actionable Track Diagram           

Turnout PB        un-coupling PB        Track sect SS        Round H. Rotary      

       38                         15                             14                             8

Side Switch Panels

Mini Push Buttons     Slide Switches

           16                            14


After having this actionable touch track diagram control panel for over forty years, one idea for an improvement has been come up.  The improvement would be to have the direction of the switch on the diagram be illuminated in the route the tracks are set up to.  The operating engineers memory is required now to remember what route has been set on the various track switches.

This would require replacing the existing Radio Shack push button momentary mini switches with illuminated mini switches push button momentary switches.  These switches would light and remain lighted until its paired push button switch, which operates the opposite direction for the track switch is operated.  It is not know what it would take to make these paired push button illuminated switches work this fashion.


Layout Power Keyed ON/Off Switch

I installed a main total layout, keyed, 110 v switch to turn the layout on and off on the right of the control diagram panel frame.  There is a Green pilot light on the control panel right above the keyed switch to indicate when the keyed switch is ON.  The keyed layout On/Off switch gives the chief engineer control over layout use by unauthorized persons (kids, my 1 year old daughter and 3 year old son at the time).

The picture shows a gray plastic case from 35mm film canister being used to shield the 110v contacts on the keyed switch for safety and one of two high voltage wire or contact in either control panel.  The other 110 v switch is for the rotisserie motor on the ice skating rink on the new train board.

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The layout power cord is now (since 2021) plugged into a Timer Yard light switch, which allows 2, 4 or 6 hours ON before power is cut off for added protection against leaving the layout on as the train room is isolated from the house and out of sight often.



General Wiring

The layout has a single wire common wire that is a 14 ga and black colored insulation.  This makes wiring easier and uses less wire.  All three of the LW track transformers the layout will ultimately have are phased as well as the three 12 v  lighting transformers and the 14 v switch transformer.  There are several common wire junctions, that consist of a brass 1 inch flat head screw and two brass wire washers and a black common wire is daisy chained to 4 or so locations on the bottom of the train board.  A items like switches, building lights, whistles and diesel horns, etc. get there common from the closest common wire junction.  The new commons are added to the common wire junction by loosening the brass screw  an  wrapping a couple inches of the new 18 ga wire around the screw between the two brass washers.

For instance, a Marx switch has a common, a curve and a straight connections.  The common of the Marx switch has a 18 ga section of wire routed to nearest common wire junction, usually less than 4 ft away.  The other two Marx switch 18 ga wires will have to be run the distance from the switch to the control panel some times 10 or 12 feet away.

All 14 and 18 ga wires are single wires, no pairs.  18 gauge wire was used for some close switches and building lights etc. also single wires.  It was found paired wires (like zip 18 ga lamp cord) could not be used to each coil of the Marx 1590 switches due to induction caused with AC power on zip lamp wire or twisted wire would not work the switch coil.  All wire connections to the track were soldered.  This includes power, isolated rails for sensors for two train relay controlled running and track power if used for accessories.  I used no clip-on track connectors or Lionel accessory track switches)

I do not have to label most my wires on my layout.  If a wire needs a label,  I write, in ink, on a small piece of usually white or light colored paper, 1/2 inch wide x 2 inch, the function of the wire, not just a number, that would require keeping a list of numbers and functions.  A written function allows one to know the purpose of the wire immediately, like while crawling under the layout.  This is very helpful when searching for the purpose of a wire among many wires where all the wires have numbers.

I fasten the paper ID tag to the wires with regular clear shinny Scotch tape as I have found it more durable, tougher and longer lasting than the Scotch Magic tape that is frosty and can be written on.  The regular Scotch tape it wrapped around the wire and fastened to both sides of paper tag, covering all the paper on both sides.  I often use double layers of regular Scotch tape.  This will work with any size or gauge of wire.  I have some tags put on by this method for many years on my layout.



Control Panel Details

Picture Below:  Right side the control panel next to the  Active Touch Track Diagram is below.   "Reset" is for LW Trans circuit breaker for outside loop and the button is the actual "Reset Button" on the circuit breaker and you can see the tin tabs on the CB to hold it to the control panel Masonite board.

"Relays" switches to power up 2 trains per 1 track or loop relay.  IN and OUT selects the direction of travel for the inside loop or outside loop of the main train board.  There are two relays and one operates 2 trains on 1 track on the inner loop and the other 2 trains on 1 track on the outer loop.

"1T" selects the LW on left with red light to controls whole train layout. "2 Trans" selects red lighted LW to operate inside loop and green lighted LW on right to run outside loop.  This slide switch is dpdt and both poles were wired to transformer wires as these Radio Shack mini slide switches are not rated for 10 amps.  It has held up for 40 plus years.

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Green 110 vac pilot light above shows when keyed whole layout switch is  "ON".  This is very important to keep from leaving the layout on all night ( I wish it was brighter!).

Recently, with the train layout in a isolated room above a garage, I was still leaving the layout ON accidentally on a few occasions.  Therefore, a Christmas tree timer was added that the main 110 v plug to the whole layout is plugged.  This timer can be turned for 1 hr, 2 hr or 6 hours ON and then switch OFF.  I usually set it for 1 hour ON and this timer had eliminated the Layout being left on all night or longer,

Charlie

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Post 8b            6-20-2016                                                   (revised 4-29-2023)      

Track Transformers and Other Transformers Installed on the Layout

Initially trains only were run on one input 125 watt Lionel LW and one input 75 watt Lionel 1034 transformers, which I had from my childhood layout.  The LW transformer can  power two trains per loop.  The train transformers are used only to run trains and not for lighting or accessories unless used for track voltage for the cattle pen or milk car when trains are not running.  Marx 1590 switches and controllers do not have any lights, which would steal power from the train controlling LW transformers.

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Later the Lionel1034 transformer was changed to another Lionel LW transformer.  Issues were had with the LW lever increasing voltage by turning counter clock wise verses clockwise for the 1034 and other Lionel transformers.  Lionel LW transformers were chosen as the standard.  I stumbled on the Lionel LW transformer and consider it the best transformer made to run one loop or up to two trains per loop.  Many others have also come to this conclusion and written about its advantages and unique features.

Lionel LW transformers input 125 watts for one train on the loop.  By comparison a Lionel ZW at total 275 watts or divided by 4 gives 69 watts per each train loop.  LW transformers put more watts per train than any other Lionel post war transformer.  A  Lionel LW will provide input 62.5 watts per train when running two trains per one LW.  Also the LW transformers are less expensive than other transformers, most of mine cost $30 or less each.

LW transformers have a lighted dials which shows when the transformer is putting out any voltage and the light varies in intensity as the voltage to the track is changed.  The light also shows when there is track voltage on even when the external circuit breaker is thrown.  The lighted transformer output voltage dial makes night operation better showing the LW transformer output voltage at night.

For the configuration of my control panel, having one transformer like the ZW run two loops with two operators would be crowded.

A common ground was used for all switches, lights and transformers.  All train transformers were phased, this includes track LWs, 12v lighting transformers and the 14 v switch transformer.

A common ground was used for all switches, lights and transformers.  All train transformers were phased, this includes track Lionel LWs transformers, 12v lighting transformers and the 14 v switch transformer.

All tracks outside rails and transformers share the same common.   All transformers are phased so trains can go from a loop on one transformer to another loop with another transformer.



Track Lionel LW Transformer Selection For Loops Control

All tracks outside rails and transformers share the same common.   All track Lionel LW transformers are phased so trains can go from a loop on one transformer to another loop with another transformer.  I have two Transformer Selection Slide switches that select all tracks and all loops to be run on the Red lighted LW trans.

The first transformer selector switch, on the Main control panel and labeled  1 T (which selects the Red lighted LW to operate the Whole train board) and 2 T  (which selects the Red LW to operate the Inside loop of the Main train board and the Green lighted LW to control the Main train board and the Whole New train board).

The first selection (1T) lets the Red lighted LW transformer operate the whole layout or both track loops.  The  second selection is for Red lighted transformer to operate main board inside loop only and Green lighted LW to operate main board outside loop and New board to right of main board when it is built later in 1988.

A second transformer selector switch on the New board control panel, selects the tracks be controlled by the Green lighted LW  on the New train board.  The first selection lets the Green lighted LW control the Main board Outside loop and the Orange lighted LW control the Whole new board.  This second selection allows the orange lighted LW on the New control panel control only the New train board.  The will allow three operators to each operate a separate LW and layout zone.

Each Lionel LW train transformer runs only trains and is protected with a 6 amp circuit breaker mounted below the control panel with the reset button sticking up threw the control panel face.  The Circuit Breaker's have a 18 volt light bulbs wired across the contacts and mounted below red plastic to show the light (labeled "Short") when the CB trips.  The CB is reset with by pushing the red reset button on the control panel.

Left side switch panel of active touch track Diagram below.   "Reset" is for 6 amp circuit breaker (CB) for inside loop LW  transformer (the reset button is part of the 6 amp circuit breaker mounted under the panel 1/8 in Masonite panel)

"Short" is light wired across CB to light when tripped, the red Reset button is the actual CB reset button as the CB is below the control panel.

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Lighting and Track Marx Switch Operating Transformers Installed on Train Board

A 40 watt 12 volt transformer had some primary 110v  windings removed to increase the output voltage to 14.5 volts, to power mainly the 31 Marx 1590 switches crisply and some accessories, both intermittent operations.  This transformer has a 6 amp circuit breaker protecting it and layout wiring,  It rarely trips usually when I throw some of the Marx switches wired as pairs and one of them is dirty and slow to operate.

There are two 12 volt lighting transformers.  One 12 volt, 40 watt transformer is used for building and flood lights and another small 12 volt 36 watt transformer is used for yard lights and a Lionel Gateman accessory.  They are each protected with 4 amp fuses, in screw to undo fuse holders, to protect it and layout wiring.


Picture below of two lighting transformers 12 volt 40 watt building lights on left and 12 volt, 36 watt yard light transformer on left and the 14.5 volt,  40 watt switch operating transformer in the center.  These transformer are protected with circuit breakers to protect layout wiring and transformers.

IMG_0157

When wiring the mini push button momentary switches on the control panel, 6 inch, 20 gauge flexible pig tails wires were added to the ends of the 14 and 18 gauge wires put less strain on the switch leads and allow the control panel to be swing up to work on the wiring.  A needle nosed pliers, with rubber band clamping the handle, was used on the push button mini switch leads to be a heat sink to protect the plastic switch body from solder gun heat (learned this the hard way).

Charlie

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Post 8c         6-22-2016

Improving and Repairing Marx 1590 Switches

(revised 1-30-2023)

I have been operating my O27 postwar layout for 44 years and it has 31, Marx 1590 metal frog O27 switches.  Over the years I have learned from others and my experience several tips and ideas on how to improve and repair these reliable, available and inexpensive track switches and share them below.  These 31 Marx switches are now very reliable and capable of handling Marx, Lionel, MTH and Williams train engines and cars.


Marx 1590 switches are made to operate with Marx double sliding pickups.  The Marx switches have problems with Lionel style roller pickups which are narrower and have smaller area rollers than the Mark sliding pickups.  The rollers have issues with the wider gaps with the Marx pivoting center rails and often get hung up and cause derailments.



Pictures of pickups on Marx 1998 engine, top picture below, with sliding pickup (3/8 inch W x 1 inch Long each) and on the bottom picture below, a Lionel caboose pickup roller (3/8 inch W x 1/4 inch Dia)

Marx and Lionel Pickups 1-21-2023 2023-01-21 006


Marx 1590 switches wider gaps can be reduced easily by installing a 3/4 inch pieces of a finish nail (cheaper) or a 027 rail pins in the two center rail ends of switch as shown in the following pictures.  This fifty year old fix will fill the center rail gap and keep Lionel pick-up rollers from hanging up or losing contact on Marx 1590 switches.

The picture below shows the center rail of the straight track with one inserted pin (or cut off finishing nail) and switch in the straight position.  Note how the pin fills in the straight center rail gap.

IMG_0529


The center rail of the curved track shows the other inserted pin and switch in curved position.  Note how the pin fills in the center rail of the curved section.

IMG_0536



Later problems were had with some Lionel car electrically pickups hanging up on the single track end of some of the Marx 1590 switch center rail points causing derailments.  This problem was solved by crushing down the top part of the center rail point by gently pounding it down with a small hammer or by grinding it off to a 45 degree angle.  The smoother angle of the rail can be seen below.

Marx switchs points and drawing 7-14-2022 2022-07-14 007


Recently I had problems with derailing on one of my Wye switches causing a caboose pickup to catch at this same spot.  I found a better cure than crushing down the rail point to be installing a 1/4 inch of nail with a rounded trip in the small piece if center rail shown below were the rail is rounded off (see picture below).  Care must be taken to insure only about 1/16 inch of rounded nail is exposed and it must not hit the tips of the pivoting center rails.

IMG_2217


Cleaning and NO OXing Marx 1590 Contacts

Engines or car pickups can intermittently lose contact when traversing Marx switches.  The Marx 1590 switch track contacts can get dirty or bent.

Check to see if the copper switch contact is bend down and not making contact with the contacts on the bottom of the rotating track section.   A small screw driver can be used to bend the copper contact up to get better contact with moving contact of the rotating track section.

Picture of Marx 1590 switch rail copper contact strip.  The two rivets below the copper contact are the contacts for the center rail. IMG_1094



The track switch contacts can be cleaned with fine sand paper glued up to make two sided sand paper.  It is used by pulling in both directions while working the pivoting track section to both positions.  Then a little NO OX ID Special A contact conducting grease can be applied, with a small thin piece of card board, can be applied to both sides of the contacts to keep sparking down and contacts clean.


Picture of two sided fine sand paper strip cleaning contacts IMG_1096


Non Locking and Slow Acting Marx 1590 Switch

Recently a Marx 1590 switch on the main board, inside loop bottom left inside to outside, would not lock and was slow.  This is the first such Marx switch failure in 44 years of operating this layout!  About one half of my 31 Marx 1590 switches have a hole in the side of the switch mechanism cover.

Hole seen below is typical of the hole in 1/2 of the Marx switch housings:

IMG_2221



I never noticed that some Marx 1590 switches had a lubrication hole until recently.  The troubled switch did not have such a hole.  To get access to the Marx switch solenoids and sliding mechanism, the switch must be removed from the layout, a real pain for many of them that are not near a curve.  Then the two rivets must be ground out or cut into section with a pair of diagonal pliers to be removed.  Next the 3 or 4 tabs of the housing must be bent and allowing the housing to be removed.

Picture shows the slide mechanism and arm to the solenoid piston that needs to be lubed.

IMG_2223



I drilled 1/8” hole in solenoid cover long side 1-5/8“ from big end, ¼ inch from top, and sprayed WD 40, with the small application wand, left, right and down.  This fixed the switch and it locks every time and fast.  Later I found out about one half of my 31 Marx switch solenoid housings have a hole on the inside, side edge already that can be used to lube the slide mechanism and solenoid piston.  Spay Silicone spray probably would have been better than WD 40.


You can see this hole allows good access to lube the moving parts inside the switch housing.  Another switch with housing is shown below one with new hole drilled in the side

IMG_1087



Interference of Trains and some Marx 1590 Housing

The below picture shows the corner of the solenoid housing was cut back (by black & tan top automobile) on two Marx switches to keeping the cow catcher of some locomotives from hitting the switch housing. This was necessary when two Marx switches are too close together.  The switch housing was removed from the switch, the corner cut off with a fine blade hack saw and part of the removed housing was J B Welded back on to fill the hole left from corner removal.  It is possible to do this with the switch in place on the layout as removing a Marx switch on most of my layout is a big undertaking.  A Dremel Moto tool, with cutoff wheel, can also be used.

IMG_2232



Overhead Picture below shows two track sections with Five compact Marx switches in a Row and the difficulty in removing a switch for repair - This area of the layout has shows eleven Marx 1590 switches

Layout Switches and steros 3-6-2023 2023-03-06 002

Page 1, Post 5 of this topic has me touting and giving more information on the Marx 1590 switches.

Charlie

revised 3-8-2023

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Note to pprHorseshoecurve:  many more pictures coming in future posts



Post 8d   6-20-2016            Update   9-6-2022

Two Direction Automatic 2 Train Operation on 1 Loop  -  Manual and Automatic Relayed Track Loop Operation System

Manual Operating 2 trains on 1 track

Two trains on one loop can be operated Manually.  This is possible as all track sections except for Mark switches are blocked and controlled with by slide switches on the control panel.

The engineer has to watch the trains and when one starts getting close to overtaking the other, wait to the trailing trains is on a track block and throw the blocking switch and leave it un powered until the lead train gets ahead, then reinstall the power to the track.  This most easily done and seen using one of the two blocked train sections at the ends of each loop.  In this operation both trains should have eUnits and have the eUnits locked in forward to keep the stopped train from cycling into neutral or reverse.  Marx and some Lionel engines have two way reversing devices (R F R F) and can not be used for this method of 2 trains on 1 track operation without turning the switching the section blocking switch (after stopping the engine), ON which will give Reverse and then OFF, and the ON a second time which will give Forward operation.


Two Direction Automatic Relayed 2 Trains on 1 Track Construction and Operation

This is a neat "Old School" 1940s and 1950s method of automating 2 trains on 1 track using a relay to keep one train from over running the other when operating 2 trains on 1 track.  The book, mentioned in Post 5,  “Operating O and O27 Trains”,  "A Comprehensive Guide to the Design, Construction and Operation of a Layout For Lionel Trains " edited by Maury D. Klein and Bruce C. Greenberg, 1976, 242 pages was instrumental for me learning about building an automatic relayed 2 trains on 1 track systems (See page 220 of book below).  I learned of using variable resistors in the circuit to keep the eUnit from cycling when paused (see page 222 of book below).  These instructions were used to allow me to install two Automatic 2 trains on 1 track systems, one on inside and one on the outside loops of my layout.  I developed a circuit using one double throw, double pole slide switch to allow 2 train on 1 track to operate in two directions, CW or CCW for each loop and installed the switches.

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/fileSendAction/fcType/0/fcOid/57883406165241046/filePointer/159237712037880902/fodoid/159237712037880900/imageType/LARGE/inlineImage/true/IMG_1110.JPG

Automatic 2 trains on 1 track is desirable as it does not require constant engineer attention and the locking the train engine eUnits in forward.  This system also has selection switches that allow 2 trains on 1 track operation in CW or CCW directions for each loop.  This automatic 2 trains on 1 track system was build with the original 1977 train board construction in Kingston, Jamaica.

Both the inside and outside loop were wired for two trains to operate on each loop, by using 12 vac relay and 5 ohm 25 watt variable resistor for each loop.  The resistor is necessary to allow a small amount of power to go to the engine to keep the reversing eUnit from cycling.  Two way reversing eUnits cycle FRFRFR and three way eUnits cycle FNRNFNR.  Most three way eUnits will have a switch to lock the eUnit in one position and function and must be locked in F.  I have several engines with two way eUnits so a resistor is a must for me.

Each loop already had a section of 4 or 5 track sections at each end of the both loops.  A train sensing track section was make by modifying a section of track to have one outside rail insulated from the metal ties with electrical tape between the rail and metal ties and a insulated plastic pins were installed in each end of the insulated section and a wire was soldered to each insulated rail track of the section.  This insulated track was installed on bottom straight part of each loop to act as the switch to trigger the 12 vac relay to cut the selected isolated track section, to have a reduced voltage to the 5 ohm resistor being in that circuit.  This will make the behind train, that is over taking the train on the insulated track section, causing it to stop but still have voltage to not let the e-unit cycle.  When the front train passed the insulated track section, full voltage is applied to the rear train and it resumes running.

Below is a circuit I used to wire the double throw, double pole slide switch that provides operation of trains in CW or CCW directions.  I had to look at the bottom of the control board to figure out how wired the DPDT switch as there was not an original diagram.  I was real smart in those days!


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The DPDT direction switches can be seen in picture below, between the CC and CCW curved arrows.

Two other switches labeled RELAYS allow the relays to be turned off when 2 train on 1 loop operation is not desired.  The diagram shows these switches right above the word COMMON.  The LW transformers have no trouble handling two train operation as they are the largest wattage single train operating transformer Lionel made.

These two loops, with 2 trains operating on each loop, work very well.  Since the layout has rather short loops. the trains must have engines that use nearly the same voltage and amperage to run and have nearly the same number of cars per train so speeds are rather close together.  The number of cars can be adjusted on which ever train needs help keeping a close speed to the other train.

Picture of one 5 ohm, 25 watt variable Resistors for two train per loop operation to keep e-units from cycling when idled by the relay.  The silver band with a screw is adjusted along the resistor to get a 5 ohm reading.

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Relays (under a plastic cover) for two trains per loop Operation - to halt chasing train when sensor track trips relay

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Video of 5 trains in 2022 - Two loops of 2 trains on 1 track and the Operating Car train on New train board

Video of 2 trains operating on one track loop



Charlie

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Post 9   6-25-2016,   revised 3-27-2024

Turntable with pit Construction & Operation  -  Homemade and Scratch Built and Inexpensive ($10 !)    How to Build Turntable with Pit for $10, any Size and any Where

The center piece of the layout is the scratch built, inexpensive turntable and roundhouse.  Designing and building the turntable was the most fun part of the whole train layout for me and well worth the time and effort as it provides much operation interest and fun.  The Turntable was built during the initial layout construction in 1977 in Kingston Jamaica.

The turntable can be built the same way I made this one for any size of TT table one needs and for any gauge of train track and any where on a layout.  It can be rotated by crank, pullies and belt like mine or rotated with an junk electric DC battery drill or screwdriver motor powered by a small, cheap DC HO transformer and located any where on a layout.  If your layout is already built, the turntable can be more easily built in a 2 or 3 ft or so, square module, in your work shop and then set into the layout.  The turntable can be detailed from Toy 027 to scale, depending on the builder desires.

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Turntable Description and Construction Details

This layouts turntable rotates on a 6 inch diameter (8" might be better for a larger TT) Lazy Susan, metal turntable ball bearing unit and rotation is by a hand crank driving a pulley beneath the turntable using a spare or used clothes dryer drum belt.  I purchased the 6 inch diameter lazy Susan turntable ball bearing unit, for about $5, at a hardware store.  I had a spare dryer belt as I lived overseas and appliance parts are hard to get.  Track alignment is the realistic, "line it by eyeball" method and roundhouse  track selection is by a rotary switch.  A momentary push button switch is used to activate the selected RH track and the TT track.  A light in the TT shack comes on with the activation of the TT track and indicates power is on.  The turntable has a pit as that is more realistic and better looking in my view.  It would have been easier to surface mount a Lazy Susan bearing on the train table like the Lionel TT, but seeing it made a pit a must have.

Location of the control panel and the turntable, with hand crank, should be fairly close to each other for two reasons.  One is the use of a clothes dryer belt will require it to be close.  The other is it is helpful for the engineer to be close at hand to correct derailments and to see the turntable as eyesight is used to align the TT and the tracks.

The homemade turntable can be belt driven with a hand crank like mine or can have an old battery driven screw driver as power and the TT can be located anywhere and made any size.  More details later in this post.


Picture of TT with TT crank (red knob) and Control Panel -  Picture shows the track with crane car and caboose align with the TT and the off track

Train Lots 5-10-2016 272



Picture of Spoke or Whisker tracks

IMG_0947


Picture of main control panel track diagram with selector rotary switch (black knob with pointer) to select track for transfer of train from TT to spur/roundhouse track.  The black push button momentary switch, below the rotary selector switch, controls power to the selected track and the turntable track.

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Two pieces of 027 track or 17 5/8 inches was chosen for the turntable bridge length.  17 5/8 inch diameter will handle all of my engines and coal tenders at the time I built it.  Two more inches of length would have been better and handle my later bought larger engines and coal tenders but space was at a premium   I cut a  17 5/8 inch diameter circle in my  3/4 inch thick particle board train board using a sabre saw and used the ¾ inch thick, 17 5/8 inch diameter cutout as a pulley by adding a rim of 1/8 inch Masonite around both edges as pulley flanges sticking out about ½ an inch.  

Most of the work on the TT was done with my train board section standing on edge, leaning against a wall.  To build a TT for an existing permanent layout on legs would require lots of work under the table and looking up.  In such a case one might want to build a two foot or so module to construct the TT and install as a unit.

A recessed ring around the turntable hole, about 1&1/2 inch deep, was installed on the bottom of the hole and a 1/2" plywood bottom was added.  A 3/8" hole was centered in both TT bottom and the pulley.   A 2"x 2" x 3/4 inch block was drilled in the center to take a 3/8 threaded hollow lamp rod.  The block and rod were mounted about 1 inch from the rods end and drilled for a 2 inch long finish nail.  The block was glued and screwed to the pulley in the center.

A 6" lazy Susan ball  bearing (Ace or Home Depot for $5) was screwed to the top of the pulley.  Four 1 inch diameter holes were drilled through the pulley for the screws on the other flange of 6” lazy Susan bearing.  These holes allow the bearing to be screwed to the underside of the pit bottom.

The lazy Susan bearing will hold all the weight of the pulley and take the side thrust from the clothes dryer belt.  The 3/8” threaded hollow lamp rod allows thin, flexible twin wire to feed power to the TT bridge and to secure the bridge to the pulley beneath the TT pit.

The 3/8" dia. threaded hollow lamp rod was installed through the pulley and the rod was pinned block on the pulley with a nail.  The rod was measured to the length needed to go through the pulley, block, TT bottom and to the top of the TT bridge minus a ¼ inch, sawed off, and a hole drilled through the bridge to be able to pin the rod to the TT bridge to be built.

A pair of wires were run up through the 3/8" dia threaded hollow lamp rod and soldered to the outside and middle rail of the track that was put on the TT bridge.  Some slack was left in the wire and a type of disconnect like a plug or spring clips ( I used two electrical connectors cut from old 9v batteries) was installed to allow removal of wire to unwind the wire if it gets twisted too much (I also try not to keep going is one direction too much!)


Picture of 17 5/8"dia. Pulley under Turntable with Clothes Dryer Belt and wires from TT Bridge

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A spare electric clothes dryer belt, that is about 3/8" wide and 1/8"thick and about 8 to 10 feet in total length (not diameter), is used to move the TT.  This is the size of most any make of clothes dryer.  The belt  is super strong, as after all it must apply power to 20 pounds plus of wet cloths in dryer drum, from the motor to the drum.  

I made a hand crank out of a 6" long 1/4" carriage bolt as the driving pulley with disk and knob held on to the disk with a Tee nut and locking nut as the crank.   Over sized Tee nuts were used for shaft sleeves for the shaft, top and bottom.  A small pulley was made for the shaft from a ¼ inch ID radio shaft coupling and two brass grommets soldered together to make a Vee to give more bite on the belt by the small shaft.  This Vee is necessary to keep the belt from slipping on the small diameter shaft of the crank and also make the diameter larger than the shaft.


Picture of Hand Crank Vee pulley made from radio tuner shaft coupling (seen with the set screws showing) and brass grommets

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A 2" dia. take up pulley assembly was made and a threaded rod used to move it to make and adjust the tension in the dryer belt. The threaded rod was installed on the 1"x6" edge of the train board near the control panel.  I installed a 3" dia. pulley to make an S in the belt routing to allow belt tensioning.  A 2” dia. pulley was used to make the belt stay about  ½ inch apart after coming of the ½ inch Vee pulley on the hand crank to insure good 180 degree contact with the Vee pulley.  Pulleys are made from 1/2 inch plywood with flanges of 1/8 inch Masonite having polyethylene next to wood from coffee can lids.


Picture of Belt Routing - Belt length total is 8 to 10 ft not diameter on drawing.

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Pictures of Pulleys and Belt - Tension adjuster on bottom belt with wood box with metal strap, the hand crank with Vee pulley is to the left of the picture.  The two pulleys force the belt to have maximum contact around the Vee pulley (180 degrees).

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A turntable bridge was made out of wood and the bridge was pinned to the 3/8" dia threaded lamp rod with a finishing nail.  The 3/8” dia threaded lamp rod is anchored to the bottom of the 17 5/8“  pulley and on top of the TT bridge with two 3/8" dia lamp round thumb nuts.

Small wheels were made for the ends of the Turntable Bridge to transfer the weight of the bridge and locomotive with coal tender to floor of the TT pit  (I used two pair of small ball bearings I had for wheels).


See picture of the TT ball bearing bridge wheels (note the Sharpie pen ties and rail on the floor of the TT pit ! )

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Wiring of the Turntable and Round House/Spur Tracks

Whisker tracks were added to store trains around the TT being careful of spacing between tracks.  The whisker tracks were wired to a Radio Shack rotary 10 position switch to select the track to be powered.  A momentary contact push button switch (with black push button) was installed on the control panel and wired in series to allow the selected track and turntable bridge track to only be powered when this switch is held down.

The turntable track and all the Round House/stall whisker tracks have common outside rails.  The center rails of the Round House/stall whisker tracks are each wired individually to a spot on the rotary selector switch on the control panel (see Picture below)  thus allowing only one stall whisker track to get power at a time.


Turntable Operation

Once the RH track is selected, pushing down the momentary Black push button switch on the control panel allows that whisker track and the TT track are wired for the Red lighted LW transformer on the right to control the engine to go from the inside loop, over the TT and into that elected stall.

I do not have a diagram.  All of the center rails of the whisker tracks and TT track are wired to the black push button switch.  The other terminal of the black push button switch is wired to the output of the Red lighted LW trans.  When the TT track and selected stall whisker track are activated by the momentary switch and power from the Red LW is applied, a light comes on in the little house on the TT to indicate power is on the TT.

The Red lighted Transformer always controls the whisker stall tracks, TT track and all of the inside loop on the main board.  It also is wired to all switches on the inside loop of the main board.

More details on last post on this page 1 to Casco,   reply posted  7-13-2016 by ChooChooCharlie



Video of Turntable in Operation in 2027



Picture Below:

See the RH track selector switch with black pointer knob:   Black push button switch that must be pushed for power to go to selected RH whisker track and turntable is below the black knob on track to TT.  Red and green buttons are for switches and blue are uncoupling track sections.  Black slide switches turn on and off the section of track they are on.  The Black slide switches show "White" on and "Black" off.  All tracks are blocked and controlled by a slide switch.  All rail switches are always hot or on.

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With the selector switches above. the Red lighted LW transformer can also control the outside loop of the main board as another selection or it can control the outside loop of main board and the new train board thus giving it control of every piece of track on the whole board.


Note on picture below, that one track aligns with the TT and the approach track.  This is the only whisker track that a wrecker caboose and crane car can be sent over the TT and be stored around the TT.  I made sure to leave this whisker track outside of my future Round house to be built and detailed later.

Picture of Whisker track that will allow work caboose and crane car to be stored

Turntable Detalils 5-29-2016 2016-05-24 009


This TT can be detailed to any extent or even scale quality and I detailed my TT for a Toy 027 1950s type of layout.

I added details like the lighted TT operator shack, ladders on the bridge to the pit made from cut up N gauge track ties (remove the rails and cut out with every other tie), a TT bridge central tower for overhead wire with ladder, pigeons and poop, and Sharpie penned in rail and ties in the TT pit.

TT bridge has 1/8 inch smooth Masonite deck, grooved with knife to look like wood planks and painted buff to look like wood.  Some sieved coarse sand was glued into the pit bottom.

Picture of Turntable with center mast and ladder, exposed ties, birds, and pit track

Turntable Detalils 5-29-2016 2016-05-24 010


A close up of TT power tower and pigeons, ladders were made from plastic ties from N gauge track with every other tie cut out with X-Acto knife or diagonal pliers

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A TT control cable tower was made from wood and a TT operator shack were made later to add important detail to the TT Bridge.  Also note the wooden support beams for the TT decking and ladders.

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This project takes time, planning and careful measurements to make it all work.  Care must be given to aligning and screwing down the tracks so derailments are few or at least blamed on the TT operator !


To summarize:

A great operating turntable, with a real pit, can be built for $10 and using only a hand held jig or saber saw, 1/4 inch electric drill and soldering gun

The turntable can be made for any gauge trains, any size or length of turntable, and located anywhere by automating TT rotation via battery DC junk electric drill or screwdriver motor  :all up to the builder.

The TT really did cost me less than $10 since I had a spare clothes dryer belt.  You could get a belt from a junked clothes dryer, as a used belt is plenty good for this.  Buy a new one for your current dryer and use the old one for the TT !

The turntable uses an inexpensive, easy to find Lazy Susan metal turntable ball bearing unit, to provide smooth and accurate rotation of the turntable.  I used a used clothes dryer belt to provide rotation of the turntable via a hand crank for my turntable and put my spare belt on the cloths dryer in Jamaica.


Remote or Power Operation of this Turn Table

If you do not want to place the TT close to the edge of your layout and be restricted by location due to the length of the clothes dryer belt, one can power the turntable with a used DC electric drill or DC screw driver motor.  Junked DC electric drills and screw drivers show up often at garage sales and thrifts for a couple of dollars, as it costs a lot to buy new batteries and is often cheaper to buy a new tool.  The drill motor can be powered with a small cheap HO DC transformer in both directions.  This would be easy to power the TT with a shorter belt and pulley on the drill and the the TT could be located anywhere on your layout.

The  TT has worked well since 1977 or almost 44 years and is very reliable.  It would not turn in 2015 and after investigation, the cause was a broken solder joint on one of the grommets on the Vee pulley.  The original was soldered with a 100 watt soldering gun (the only soldering tool I had) and it lasted 38 years.  I re-soldered the Vee with a propane torch, with a soldering iron tip, that gets much hotter.

Post 11 shows how I built a homemade $10 Roundhouse to go with my homemade $10 TT .

Charlie

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Last edited by Choo Choo Charlie

Post 10        7-1-2016

50’s Type Buildings From Childhood Layout

I have two buildings from my brothers and my childhood layout on my layout.  They were both made by our Dad, about 1950, using his childhood pedal powered scroll or jigsaw.

One building is a small train station, made from Masonite with the roof covered with model railroading  roofing paper.  The building has cuts scribed in to resemble siding.  It has widows and other parts sawed out by jigsaw after drilling a hole and making inside cuts.

Train station built in 1950, roof paper was originally Green IMG_0082

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The second building is a gas or service station.  It is made from some type of thin wood covered with paper on both sides.  The siding has model railroading brick paper glued to the side to simulate brick siding.  The two garage doors have windows cutout with a pedal driven jigsaw.  The rear windows were made from some plastic window covering with cloth support simulating window panes.

Gas Station built in late 1940's or 1950s IMG_0087

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These building construction methods lead me to build several of my building using Masonite and brick paper which is still available from hobby shops or on eBay.  I got mine from Walthers years ago.



My brother and I used my Dad’s pedal powered #1 Amateur Velocipede Scroll (jig) Saw from age 7 or so through high school.  My father used this pedal powered jig saw to make these two buildings.  When pedal driven the saw had a 3/8" round leather belt between the upper pulley and the large pedal pulley.  My Dad installed a small ¼ hp motor when I was about 10.  My brother still has that jigsaw.

Picture of  a  pedal powered #1 Amateur Velocipede Scroll Saw just like ours.

#1 Amateur velocipede scroll saw

Many other 50s style Plasticville buildings, original and kit bashed, are used on the layout also.

Charlie

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Post 11a   7-8-2016    revised 1-7-2023

Homemade Round House Construction when Back in USA

The main train board with turntable was built in 1977 in Constant Spring, outside Kingston, Jamaica.  It was down on the living room floor for Christmas 1977.  The only structures were a Bachmann Coaling Station kit stuck together and a small Marx water tower.  But fun was had running the Marx 999 set and the four plastic body Lionel 2-4-2 engines and playing with the turntable.

We moved back to the states in 1979, to Little Rock Arkansas, to a house with a two car garage and a small room off to the end that I used it as a work shop.  After moving in, buying cars and getting settled in, it was time to get to building and collecting structures for the train board.


The Ultimate Railroad Structure, The American Round House    Construction

The first consideration in building a $10 round house is to decide how many stalls the RH will have.

I think the minimum that looks good is three.  Many more can be added than three but think the engines cannot be seen and enjoyed as much when they are in the RH as all that one sees is the engine fronts.  It was decided to make my RH, a four stall one and I am very pleased with it.  It has a good shape verses a three stalls and fits my small area very well.

The stepped roof style RH was liked more and lots of windows were added as they are typical of the era as electric lights were not all that common in the early times and windows provided daylight.  There are windows on both sides, all along the back wall and on the stepped roof wall facing the front.  Room was not available to leave room or have room for a shop or tool room that many RH have.

My round house is made from my typical 1/8 inch thick, one side smooth Masonite tempered sheeting.  A sheet costs about $13 for 4ft x 8ft sheet and you will only need one half of a sheet or less.  I cut this with saber saw, or jig saw.  I used my old Craftsman 18 inch jig saw,with 1/3 hp motor, now out of storage, to cut out the windows after drilling a hole to allow get the blade in the window area.  You can use a sabre saw for this if that is all you have.  The smooth side is put on the outside of the sides and back wall as brick paper will be glued on.  Some 1/8” Masonite strips were used to reinforce the bottom and door frame.

Front of Round House

IMG_0095

The outside walls were covered with modeling brick paper, glued on with Elmer’s white glue after the building is assembled with Elmer’s glue.  O gauge plastic brick wall sheeting can be used for covering the RH sides for more realism.

The roof is made from Masonite too, but the rough side is up to simulate a exposed roof surface,  of a gravel on a wood and tar paper roof.  I have a step in the roof with windows, to allow more light inside, in the bricked section between the two roofs so the roof is made in two parts.


Four TT Whisker tracks and four Stalls in Round House

IMG_0098

You can see in the picture above, how I determined the size of the RH by fitting it in over 4 sections of TT whisker track.  It is about 30 inches wide and 17 deep.  I made sure not to include my one TT whisper track section where I can drive on the TT and directly to this one whisker track section, with a long consist of engine, coal tender, wrecking crane car and wrecking caboose.

The picture below shows how I had to cut out part of the rear of the RH to go over a Marx switch machine housing.  It also shows I had make sure the RH did not get too close to the tracks.  It is a tight and custom fit.

Rear of Round House - wall over switch machine, Electrical connector (from 9 volt batteries) for RH lights right of switch.

Both roofs were made in four sections.  I assembled the RH with Elmer’s glue and added plywood angles to strength the wall to roof joints.  The inside walls were painted brown and the inside roof light gray to better illuminate the inside.  The outside of the roof was painted light gray, with a dusting of flat black paint to be darker dirt.  Then, I installed the brick paper doing a good job around the windows.

The windows are made from clear plastic sheeting from boxes lids from toys or other heavier clear plastic.  The windows had panes sections made from black 1/16 inch auto pin striping on the inside.  The windows were glued on the inside with "Pliobond" rubber cement, but contact cement, Aleen's Tacky or E6000 clear glue will work.

Inside RH showing Roof and wall braces, windows and some ceiling lights

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Picture showing double thick front wall and thicker bottom brace.  The center of the tracks were paint black in the RH, to simulate a pit below the Whisker tracks to let workers work on the under side of the steam locomotives (shown in picture below).

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RH stacks were made.  The stacks are to help remove smoke from the steam engines. Balsa wood was used to make the stacks.  The square style stacks were preferred over the round ones.  Covers were made to keep rain out of the RH.  I also installed a ladder or two to get on the roof.  Ladders were made from N gauge railroad tie plastic strips with the rails removed and every other tie cut out with a pair of diagonal wire pliers and trimmed with a X-acto knife.

Ladder, stacks and Roof, and also emergency generator from Lionel searchlight carIMG_0167

  Close up photo of a Stack with cover and dust on top!IMG_0169



Lights were installed in the ceiling of the RH in two rows and are operated by a slide switch on the control panel.   I am big on night train operation with the room lights dark or dimmed and lots of controlled lights in all building, flood lights, street lights, yard lights, cars and engines, etc.

See how the lights let the engines show up in the RH in a semi dark roomIMG_0195


Photo showing the balsa wood TT operator shack (made from balsa wood) on TT bridge and view into RH.  The TT operator shack has a small grain of wheat light inside that comes on when power is applied to the TT track and the selected RH stall track.

IMG_0197


Photo from outside into lighted up RHIMG_0201


Another neat photo of lighted RH in semi darkness, just to encourage you to build a TT and RHIMG_0203

Doors for the front of the RH were not make as I wanted to see the fronts of the locos inside and the doors  would have open most of the time and they would just get in the view and way.

I love my round house and it is my favorite building on the layout and the most fun and satisfaction to build.

Charlie

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Last edited by Choo Choo Charlie

Hi Charlie,

That's a great layout.  I like the creativity and innovation particularly the TT and RH.  I appreciate your time and effort in explaining how you built the project.  You've inspired me to try my hand at building my own.  I'm trying to figure out the wiring for the TT.  Did you run a common wire with individual wires to each track?  Is there a schematic you could post?

Also, I'm wondering how real TTs were powered.

Regards,

Casco

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Post 11b          7-13-2016

More Wiring Details on LW Transformers, TT and Tracks

Reply to questions from Casco

All tracks outside rails and transformers share the same common.   All transformers are phased so trains can go from a loop on one transformer to another loop with another trans.  I have a LW transformer selector switch that select all tracks and all loops to be run on the Red lighted LW trans.  A second selection is for Red lighted LW transformer to operate Main board inside loop only and Green lighted LW to operate main board Outside loop and New board to right of Main board.  Another LW transformer selector switch on the New board control panel selects which LW will control the New train board.  The Green lighted LW can control the Main board Outside loop the New train board.  The transformer selector switch can select the Orange lighted LW transformer control the whole New board thus giving three LWs operating the whole layout.  This last selection allows three operators to each operate a separate LW and zone.

The turntable track and all the stall tracks have common outside rails.  The center rails of the stall tracks are each wired individually to a spot on the rotary selector switch on the control panel thus allowing only one stall track to get power at a time.  Once this track is selected, pushing down the momentary Black push button on the control panel allows that track and the TT track are wired for the Red lighted LW trans on the right to control the engine to go from the Inside loop, over the TT and into that elected stall.

I do not have a diagram.  All of the center rails of the stall are wired to the rotary selector switch.  The rotary selector switch and TT track are wired to the Black push button switch.  The other terminal of the Black push button switch is wired to the out put of the Red lighted LW trans.  When the TT track and selected stall track are activated by the momentary switch and power from the Red LW is applied, a light comes on in the little house on the TT to indicate power is on the TT.

The Red lighted Trans always controls the stall tracks, TT track and all of the inside loop on the main board.  It also is wired to all switches on the inside loop of the main board.



Picture Below:

See the RH track rotary selector switch with black pointer knob:   Black push button switch that must be pushed for power to go to selected RH track and turntable track is below the black knob on track to TT.

Red and Green buttons are for switches and Blue buttons are uncoupling or accessories operating track sections.  Black slide switches turn On and Off the section of track they are on.

The black slide switches show "white"  for "On" and "black" for "Off" (The black is from the black of the switch slide lever).  All tracks are blocked into four to eight track pieces sections and controlled by a slide switch.  All track on all the Marx 1590 switches are always hot or on.

Train Lots 5-10-2016 252

With the transformer selector switches above the Red lighted LW transformer can also control the Outside loop of the Main board as another selection or it can control the Outside loop of Main board and the New train board thus giving it control of every piece of track on the Whole board.

As to how TT on real trains are controlled, in days of steam the tracks were not powered and trains moved on and off on their own steam power.  The same goes for diesel electric engines, their own power but they normally do not use a TT as they can operate in both directions.  I do not know about an all electric engine although most would not be on a TT.

If you meant how were real TT rotated, the small ones were often pushed by men by hand with the engine and coal tender balanced as to weight distribution.  Bigger ones had small gasoline motors or electric motors through a gear box to rotate the TT.

I hope this helped rather than confused you.

Charlie

revised 1-7-2023

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Last edited by Choo Choo Charlie
Choo Choo Charlie posted:

 

If you meant how were real TT rotated, the small ones were often pushed by men by hand with the engine and coal tender balanced as to weight distribution.  Bigger ones had small gasoline motors or electric motors through a gear box to rotate the TT.

I hope this helped rather than confused you.

Charlie

 

Yes, smaller turntables were powered by workers shoving the turntable themselves, hence the term "Armstrong" turnable.

Tom 

IMG_20160713_183906

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Last edited by PRR8976

Charlie, thanks for taking the time to provide your very thorough explanation.  I think I get it now but I'll find out if that's true when I actually build the turntable and roundhouse.

As far as the rotational power for the turntable, I suppose horses or other draft animals could have been used as well.  Modeling that would be pretty interesting.

With the electric powered TTs, is that what the arch over the TT bridge is for - stringing overhead power cables to the TT?

Thanks again for sharing your knowledge.

Tom, that's a cool picture of man-handling a locomotive.  It seems like it would take a lot more men than just one with a lever to move it.  I imagined a bunch of guys climbing down into the pit and pushing the TT.

Casco

 

 

 

 

 

 

Post 12     7-16-2016  (revised 11-24-2023)

Casco, yes the tower on the TT is to provide electric power to the motors on the TT that rotate the TT.    Charlie

Medium Weight (Lionel 2018, 2026) Steam and Diesel Engine Upgrades 1986-2000s

Background:  Engines from layout start in 1977 were light weight plastic bodied Lionel 2-4-2’s, and a Marx 999 and 666.  These engines weigh 2.5 to 3.5 pounds and do not have Magna-Traction and were bought mostly from 1986 to 2000.  They run very well on O27 tracks and Marx 1590 metal frog switches.  They are limited to pulling 4 or 5 light weight cars.

Plastic shell Lionel 249, 2-4-2  with 2 way E unit   Good runner on 027 track and Marx switches Train Lots 5-10-2016 150



Marx 666   2-4-2Train Lots 5-10-2016 168



Medium Weight Steam Engine Upgrade
An upgrade to medium weight cast medal body Lionel 2016, 2018 from 1955-6 and 2026 from 1951-3, all 2-6-4 or  2-6-2, and other Engine upgrades started in 1986.  A Lionel 2018 was purchased in 1986 and later a 2016 and several 2026 2-6-4 engines.  They all are similar with the same motor and body shell.  They weight about 3.5 pounds and have 6 drive wheels for more wheel to track adhesion verses 4 drive wheels for 2-4-2 engines and do not have Magna-traction. They pull better than the plastic shell 2-4-2 and handle the 027 curves and switches very well.  They will pull six or so cars, some being heavier operating cars.  Their front marker lights are cast in the loco body but seem robust as none of my several locos have broken marker lights.

The run very well and are my favorite for running two pairs of them, when I run two loops with 2 trains per l loop with the relayed system.  They are easy to find and fairly inexpensive and I have 9 of them now.


Lionel 2016,  2-6-4  cast metal shell, 3 way E unit,  medium weight engine Train Lots 5-10-2016 151



A picture of 2-6-4 Lionel 2018.  This engine is my first 2-6-4 and I probably paid too much.  I really loved the way it ran and pulled.  Added a Rock Island decal in effort to differentiate from other Black engines.

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Lionel 2026 similar to 2016 and 2018, with the same shell and motor and seams easier to find.  The 2026 is better equipped with smoke and some have extra valve gear making them more attractive.

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The 2026 below was made earlier in 1953 and is a 2-6-2 with more features like hand rail, twin valve gear,  cast rear truck and smoke that may make rings and slide power pickups

old 2026 with rail, valve gear 4-23-2022 2022-04-23 005



I also picked up a Lionel Alco AA 219 diesel set and repainted a Lionel caboose MP blue to match. I added a headlight to the dummy A unit and lighted marker numbers to both.Train Lots 5-10-2016 321



Diesels Added

Lionel Caboose repainted to MP colors to match Lionel 219 MP AA dieselsTrain Lots 5-10-2016 322


Two sets of Marx 1095 F3 Santa Fe diesels were added and one set was repainted as the grey plastic and red paint is not very well done (this set was ABA).  I was fortunate to pick up some O gauge Santa Fe decals at a train show.

Painted and decaled Marx 1095 F3 Santa Fe Train Lots 5-10-2016 157

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Marx 1095 with original red and yellow paint and grey plastic passing for silverTrain Lots 5-10-2016 159


I also procured two tin plate Marx 3152 Santa Fe passenger cars and a tin plate Marx 3197 Santa Fe observation car which I added lights to the marker dummy lights.  The Lionel 2400 series passenger cars were too rich for me then.  They would come later.  Many of these cars came from local train shows in Little Rock and from my contact Dave on trips to visit my parents in Pittsburgh.

Marx 3197 Santa Fe passenger car with working marker lights added 102_0471

One of Two Marx 3152 Santa Fe passenger cars102_0475

I also got a low cost and quality Lionel 9303 log dumping car and a Lionel 9304 coal dumping car that dump via uncoupling tracks into plastic trays.  I would get heavy into operating cars later.

Charlie

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Post 13   7-22-2016 

Mountain and Tunnel Construction

Every train layout needs a mountain so the trains can go through tunnels.  My childhood layout had a small Dad made mountain and tunnel on one track in the right back corner of the layout.  The mountain was made from plaster of Paris and had a Christmas tree stand in it.  Trains under the Christmas tree really add to the Christmas season.

I made my mountain to cover both the inside and outside loops and is located in the same back right corner of the layout.  It originally had one switch under the mountain with one outside loop track going in CCW and two tracks coming out.  At a later date another switch was added under the mountain and a third track on the outside loop came out the mountain behind the background board, out of sight.  I have removed some of the background when the train layout was put up on legs in the train room.


Picture of Two tracks going in MountainIMG_0109


Picture of Three tracks leaving the Mountain on Right and one track out behind the Background or tunnel to the Left  This gives two track in and four tracks out of the mountain.  IMG_0053


The mountain frame was made from ¾ inch boards for a base around the mountain perimeter and 1/4 and 3/8 inch plywood framing to make the mountains shape.  Care was taken to be sure none of the tunnel supports interfered with the train track and right of way.  Tunnel portals were cut from ½ inch plywood.   The mountain shape was covered by stapling aluminum window screen on to fill the openings between the framing and fill in the mountain shape.  An access door was made in the side of the mountain to allow clearance of train wrecks and derailments.


View of Mountain with access Door for derailmentsIMG_0051


Access Door removed showing two Marx switches inside mountainIMG_0046


View Inside mountain showing framing and some window screen on leftIMG_0049


Sears Textured Paint, a powder that was mixed with water to make a paste was used, with paper towels, to cover the aluminum screen wire.  Textured paint was used by painters to add swirls to ceilings to hide the tape seams and may not be available now but something similar should be available.  It has proven to be a great mountain material and did not crack and is much lighter than plaster of Paris and is more durable than paper mache and not susceptible to bug attack.  The textured paint was used to soak paper towels that were laid on the wire screen to form the surface.  Several layers and coats were used.


5 pounds of Texture Paint powder was used and this one left over.IMG_0235


Here is an overall picture of the mountain.  With trains going CCW, 2 tracks go in and 4 tracks go out (one under the white covered and hidden behind the blue box car).

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The mountain was painted with oil based green and brown paint colors to appear like vegetation.  Concrete poured tunnel portals was made by gluing pieces of card board, from a paper tablet, leaving gaps to simulate seems from the pour.  The tunnel portals were painted with light gray paint and flat black paint was lightly brushed on above the track to simulate smoke stains from the steam engines.  This mountain just sets on the layout and was stored in attic for 9 or 10 months when the layout was not down on the floor in action.

The layout spent 20 years plus on the floor of a den or living room with the family Christmas tree standing near the mountain for two weeks or so before and after Christmas.

Charlie

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Post 14      7-29-2016

Kitbashing the Bachmann 1975 Coal Station

The Bachmann Coal Station, number 1975, is a good kit bashing kit.

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My first kit bash was was to make a raised roof, (which had a conveyor to spread coal), on the the Coal Station to replace the 1975 flat roof.  I always liked the looks of that style coal station.  I used 1/8 inch tempered Masonite with one smooth side.  The smooth sides were scored with a knife to look like siding.  Windows were cut out with a 18 inch Craftsman scroll/ jig saw and made up with panes and installed in the top section.  The parts were glued with Elmer's glue.  A sheet metal roof, obtained at a train show, was installed.  The whole coaling station was painted up with dark brown paint and lightly brushed with some grimy black paint.



Finished Coaling Station

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View of the under side of the new roof.

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Charlie

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Post 15      7-29-2016

Homemade Coal Mine and Coal Loading Station Operating Accessory

The next project was using another Bachmann 1975 Coal Station to make a Coal Mine and Coal Loading Station Operating Accessory.  

The Bachmann Coal Station, number 1975, is a good kit bashing kit, and used for the operating Coal Mine and Coal loading Station..

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The kit was used to make the Coal Mine Entrance into the underground mine in the mountain provide the foundation beams to hold the entrance up.

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A new “A” frame roof was built for the top out of 1/8 inch Masonite with a window in the end and the end was scored to be vertical siding.  The roof was roofed with some of the kit roofing.

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The Coal Loading Section was also made of 1/8 inch thick Masonite.   The outside walls were scored with a knife to be vertical siding.  Windows were cut with the 18 inch scroll/jig saw and installed in the side and end walls.

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A slide gate valve was made of plywood and held opened with a rubber band.  A 12v solenoid (DC solenoid rectified to AC) was use to hold the slide valve closed and to return the solenoid plunger out to engage a notch in the arm of the slide gate valve to hold it closed.  A coal storage funnel was made from card board stock.

The picture below is of the plunger return rubber band, slide gate with hole in center and notch for solenoid plunger, black solenoid and card board coal funnel.  This rubber band holds the solenoid plunger in the notch in the arm of the gate and keep the hole closed, ready to hold and drop coal.  See the wire in bottom of cone tied to the solenoid plunger which is operated to break up coal jams in cone.  The black bridge rectifier can be seen that converts the DC solenoid to operate on AC.

This picture also shows the slide valve closed (hole in slide gate is not under the funnel hole and the solid part of the slide gate is blocking the funnel hole)  and the solenoid arm is holding the slide gate closed.

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This picture shows the slide gate open (the slide gate hole is now under the hole in the funnel).

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Picture of slide gate return rubber band.  This makes the slide gate valve stay normally open and pulls the slide gate to open when the solenoid is triggered.  Both rubber bands are easy to replace as the are in open screw eyes and around posts and last a few years.

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PS:  Recently (9-4-2017) it was not dumping.  Turns out a plot of piston stoke from the magnet shows the most pulling power is when the piston is 1/16 to 1/8 inch out.  It was much more so I had to modify by adding about 1/16 inch wood to the sloped part to make the trigger pull when about 1/16 inch out.  That fixed it.

Picture of Power graph for Radio Shack Solenoid I used.  You can see the pull in oz is much higher at 1/8 inch or small stroke.

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Picture below shows the 1/16 inch thick strips of wood I added to the notch (appear whiter) to make the piston get more into the magnet and shorten the stroke for more power.

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The coal is dumped into a coal car when activated with a push button on the control panel.   A flat roof for the Coal Loading Section was covered with sheet metal roofing.  Two 12 volt mini Christmas bulbs were installer in the outside corners of the floor and floor was cut out to illuminate the track below and inside the Coal Loading Section.


Picture showing lights inside to light windows and cut through bottom to light coal car area below.

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The picture is from the outside of coal mine loading station showing the lights working for inside the building and lighting the car below

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Like most active accessories, the coal mine/coal loader should be located for easy hand access by the operator and is not anchored down so it can be removed and/or moved as necessary to align with the track.  The coal must be hand loaded into the funnel and the slide gate valve must be hand closed.  Lionel plastic coal is used which came with a Lionel coal dumping car from the 1980s.

This was a fun project, especially figuring out a working mine and coal car loading system.

Charlie

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Choo Choo Charlie posted:

Here is an overall picture of the mountain.  With trains going CCW, 2 tracks go in and 4 tracks go out.

IMG_0245

Charlie,

  I'm one post behind. Just noticed your mountain. Very nice job on that from the shape to the portals to the paint colors. Since you mentioned the "d" word, how often do you have derailments inside the mountain? 

 Tom 

Tom

Thanks for the comments and reply.  Funny as some fellow at a lumber yard called me MacGyver for the way I loaded and hauled 12 ft long boards on the side of my sedan a few weeks ago.

I used Lionel plastic coal which came with a Lionel coal dumping car from the 1980s and added that fact to the post. I would not use real coal as it would probably be finer, dusty and dirty.  The plastic coal is enough trouble to keep policed up.

Keep watching as I have a few more Lionel items and operating cars I modeled after the originals following the "build rather than buy"philosophy.

As to your first question on the prior post about derailing in the mountain;  it is not any more than any where else on my layout.  First cause is operator error of having the switch in the wrong direction as my switches and switch buttons give no indication of which direction they are set.  The few switches that are not visible like in the mountain are more prone to be set wrong.  Derailments are common on my layout with 27 switches and the fact I normally do not set up a few trains running in loop.  I usually operate, switch engines and cars, couple and uncouple, operate accessories etc. and the more things I'm doing the more errors.  Also from time to time some of the Marx switches do not lock in position and cause issues.

As I will explain in a later post there is a track that comes out of the mountain and used to go behind the layout background, hidden out of sight.  It now goes in a hidden tunnel and then to one section of the background seen behind the roundhouse.  I had to install a track occupation signal system to let me know when there was a train setting on that track as that was a big cause of wrecks.

Charlie

Last edited by Choo Choo Charlie

Post 16  8-6-2016 

Homemade Lionel Style Cars

Funds were tight with available train funds being used to add locomotives.  I had several Marx and Lionel Scout type 8 inch box cars and time to make some homemade copies of some of my Lionel favorites.

A US Mail car was painted up.  Press On letters were used lettering and clear coated for all cars.  This one has doors that open.

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Next was a Gold Bullion car.  Windows were cut in both sides with Dremel Moto tool with saw blade and a razor saw and plastic windows were added.  Gold bars were made from kitchen match sticks painted gold.  Two 12v or 7v in series mini Christmas lights were added, a feature the Lionel version does not have.  Gold Bullion car 4-20-2016 001



The light pick ups were made from brass shim stock and added to a non operating Lionel coupler truck.  A piece of tin can was added to improve durability of brass shim stock.

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A Lionel small stock car was used to make a Chicken Dispatch car.  Every other slat was cut out of the side boards and parchment paper was used to Sharpie paint the chickens on.  Lights were added to the roof and a pickup made.    No chicken poop sweeping man though ! IMG_3484



An aquarium Car was made by cutting out the windows in Lionel Scout type 8 inch box car like Gold Bullion car above.  A Lionel Aquarium car sea background was purchased at a train show but one can be made from parchment paper.   Plastic fish were cut out of clear plastic from old toy boxes and colored with Sharpies.  The fish were suspended from the roof with 4 lb fish reel clear leader line and glued to the fish and roof with glass clear cement but E6000 can be used.  This allows the fish to wiggle and move with the train motion.  Lights were added to the roof and a pickup made.

IMG_3477

Gold Bullion car 4-20-2016 004



Modifying and making cars is one of my favorite parts of the model train hobby.

Later, I found all of the above Lionel cars, except the Gold Bullion car, at reasonable prices.

Charlie

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  That's awesome!

This is fast becoming an all time favorite thread of mine. When/ if you ever run out of goodies to show off, although you do a great job already,, I'd like to see some  more in-depth descriptions of each item.

I.e., I dont want the storynto ever be "finished", I'd prefer a rehash with more info.

It's like a tinkering heaven at your place.

Post 17   8-12-2016

Backdrop for Layout on the Floor

To add a little realism, backdrop boards were added to the back side of the layout in 2005.  These were made using 1x2 inch boards for a frame and wall paneling for the backdrop (the back side of the paneling was use to paint the backdrop).  Two corner sections were made of ¼ plywood and screwed the edge of the backdrop board and into the side of the layout to support the background vertically.

The backdrop was made in three sections for easy handling as it would be installed and removed for storage each year.  The sections where pinned together with 2 /12 inch finish nails into the frame pinned in slightly oversize holes.  They are removable.  These nails were also used to pin the frame of the backdrop to the back edge of the layout to keep it even with the back 1x6 layout frame.

An industrial and city scene was painted in the area behind the round house and mountain scenes to the left toward the mountain on the layout in the right corner.  Latex flat paint was use and purchased at Lowes and HD for a dollar for paint sample 8 oz jars they made and sell to take home and see if the wife approves!  I picked out colors from their color sample sheets.  I think they charge more than a dollar now.



A Picture of Full Backdrop when the Layout was on the floor for 20 plus years for 1 month or so for each year.  The buildings are too large for Baton Rouge but we have a huge Exxon oil refinery and chemical plant down town on the Mississippi River (Exxon seen below the blimp).

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Additional pictures of the original full size background

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Detail showing corner support - A more Recent picture without full Backdrop to allow more vision of room and window when in Train/Vintage Stereo/cave room after 2011

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Charlie

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Post 18   8-18-2016

Homemade Lionel Water Tower and Gantry Crane Superstructure

Personal note:  I have been out of touch the past week as we experienced the Great Flood here in south Louisiana.  I live in Baton Rouge and Livingston Parish with Denham Springs is a across the river and they had 80% of the town flooded.  The water went over the 100 year flood zone level by four feet in some places.  This is now called a 1000 year flood.

We learned that elevation is what matters not closeness to waterways.  The main instigator, the Amite River, is about 200 yards from my house.  We were blessed and our house was not flooded but over 40 thousand were.  Most did not have flood insurance as they were not in the 100 year floodzone.  We have not had power, news papers, mail, internet access, land phones and cell phones were down most of the time starting August 13th (came back on here  8/16 evening).  At least ten thousand are in shelters and over 30,000 were rescued, fortunately lots of Louisianans have boats.  The responders, including the National Guard with black hawks, did a superb job.  FEMA, Red Cross, churches, charities, citizens and all local, state and national governments are working hard to care for those that lost all;  their houses, cars, all belongings and some their places of employment.  We are all helping muck houses of carpet, flooring, dry wall, cabinets and hauling them and furniture and appliances to the street for removal.  Some areas have both sides of the street stacked 10 feet tall of ruined household and personal belongings.  Please pray for all those experiencing live changing events.



Homemade Lionel Style Water Tower

A Lionel 6-12711 Water Tower Building Kit style water tower was made in the 1980s from 1/8 inch Masonite and brick paper covering.  The tank was made from an oat meal round box and card board.  The roof was covered with roof paper.  Lights were added to the top of the water tank to illuminate the top of the coal tender from 12v mini Christmas tree lights.  The spout was made from balsa wood.  Ladder was made from cutting out every other tie from N scale rail tie minus the rails.  I had the O scale door and window plastic parts.  I think my homemade water tower is more handsome than the plastic Lionel Water Tower.

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Below is the Lionel 6-12711 Water Tower Building Kit I modeled mine after (this one bought years later)

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Marx Water Tower Paint Job

I used a 065 Marx water tower for installation near the round house and painted it buff color.  It is smaller than the Lionel 30 or 138, which is too big for my location.

Marx Water Tower - Painted, located near Turntable and Coaling Tower

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Homemade Gantry Crane Superstructure

A gantry crane superstructure was made from ¼ inch plywood and flanges were made from card board from paper tablets.  Small strips of wood were added for detail.  The crane cab with boom was from a Lionel crane car and was found at a train show.

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Charlie

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Charlie,

  As usual great stuff. Thanks for posting. 

  I never realized you were in Louisiana. Glad you came out as well as could be expected. Hope you are finding enough food and other supplies if many/all the stores are damaged or destroyed. 

  Some day, please consider doing a piece on the paint you used for the top of the layout (for the grass and ballast) and maybe your construction (wood sizes used, layout height, etc). 

 Tom 

MNCW

Thanks for responding and the requests.  The wood sizes are in post 7.  I added a sentence or two on painting the layout at the end of post 7

The details of the height will appear later in post on adding legs which was done only 4 years ago or so.  But here are is the height used.  I chose a height of 35 1/2 inches to the top of the layout side board.  The layout surface is recessed 1 inch inside of the top of the side board or 34 1/2 inches.  Much thought went into this height.  I was used to seeing the layout on the floor, either standing looking, sitting in a recliner, laying on the floor with grandkids  or knelling sitting at the control panel operating.  I do not like layout at eye level when standing as the view is not good at eye level and I do not stand well !   The 35 1/2 inch height has proven to be great for me or I would change it as the legs are just bolted on.  I have 4 chairs at 24 inches, one at 18 inches, one director chair at 29 inches and two stools available at 24 and 29 inches.  Sitting in the 24 inch chairs and stool gives one an eye level view.  I have several viewing heights available.  I usually operate standing or sitting on a stool.

Charlie

Last edited by Choo Choo Charlie

Charlie,

  Thanks for the additional detail. I went back to some of your earlier posts to see that your layout has been around for a decent amount of time already, nearly 40 years for one section and 18 for another. Since you are in an area with high humidity, how is your 027 track holding up all these years years and is rust ever a problem? Is all the track original to when you constructed it? Any good tips on maintaining/cleaning your track and do you need a dehumidifier in your train room? Personally, I am a big fan of Goo Gone to clean my tubular track and have virtually no modern traction tired locomotives (except 1 or 2 which I rarely run)...so I'm not worried about what some say the Goo Gone does to traction tires (premature disintegration).

 Hope your local situation is better in terms of access to food, water,  reliable electricity, as well as it being safe. 

Tom 

Tom

Thanks for the note.

My layout has all used 027 track. It was stored for 11 months a year in garages and my work shop, only heated and cooled hours it was in use.  Rust has not been a problem and rust on the side of tracks looks realist!  Usually I would run a piece of fine sand paper over the top of the track taking 5 mins for all before putting the layout down on the floor.  My new train room has ac/heat but I keep heat off in winter and set cool at 84degrees except when I am up there.  I have had no problem with rust or mold etc yet. 

I have a homemade track cleaning car but do not use it much.  If the trains slow down I sand or use rubbing alcohol to clean the track.  The problem usually is grease or oil from locos.

We are fine here now for us but thousands are hurting, many losing their house, cars and also some jobs. Most did not have flood insurance as they and we were not in a flood zone.  We were blessed and not flooded.  Over 60,000 lost their houses to the flood.  We have been helping friends that flooded muck their houses to dry them out and spray for mold.  We are storing some of their lessor damaged furniture in my garage.  It will take awhile for most to get houses back as so many have to be repaired.

Charlie

Last edited by Choo Choo Charlie

Post 19  8-26-2016        revised 4-17-2022

Layout Lights, Building Lighting and Mini Christmas Tree Light Use


All buildings have lights in the ceiling like real buildings not on the floor.  My childhood layout buildings had 4 watt or so Christmas tree 110v lights.  I use small 12v mini Christmas tree lights for building lights.  These 12v Christmas tree lights are replacements only for stings of 10 bulbs and each bulb draws only 0.4 watt per bulb.  I cut up mini Christmas tree light strings and use the pig tails and sockets for the building lights.  The 12v mini Christmas tree lights, being incandescent, give a warm color light like lights in the 1950's that I model. A small staple or plastic loop is usually used to suspend the light socket in the ceiling.  I hook up the building lights with plastic wire nuts to pig tails coming through a hole in the layout to allow quick and easy building removal.  I can find replacement 12v mini Christmas tree bulbs, in packs of 6 for about $1 before Christmas at Walmart and fifty cents after Christmas if they have any left (or eBay).  The 6v mini Christmas tree bulbs, for 20 bulb light strings, are also useful as I hook them up, two in series, when two bulbs are needed.



Mini Christmas 12v, 0.4 watt, light bulb and socket in ceiling of building, held by a plastic loop.

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A Lighted Church Building

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I have two 12 VAC transformers for lights.  Each type of lights has its own on/off switch.  One for Building lights and slide switches for other lights like round house, yard lights, flood lights, street lights etc.

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There are three Rail road yard lights. They are Marx Yard light towers around the turntable and Round house and the coal mine with a on/off switch.  

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Homemade Yard and Flood lights from Plastic Christmas Bells and Plastic Balloon Sticks

There are 20 so, small homemade flood lights on some buildings and accessories.  The  homemade flood lights are made from 1 inch diameter or so Christmas plastic bells, and poles are made from hollow plastic balloon sticks (from party stores which we have lots of in the big party town of Baton Rouge, LA) and 12 v  mini lights (grain of wheat size with pig tails) from Radio Shack.

The base is a 1/4 inch slice of a 3/4 inch dia. wood dowel (wooden broom stick !).  All accessories like saw mill, drum loader, milk car platform, barrel loader, cattle pen, etc. have a pair of these flood lights.  The flood lights have a on/off switch for each layout board.

The yard and flood lights are a must for night and dim light train operating.  They were very useful when the train board was on the floor near with room lit only by the near by Christmas tree.

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Room lights – I have an incandescent dimmer switch on the front side of the train board with outlet on the side of the train board that I plug, one or two cheap 5 foot floor lamps, with shades that can tilt, into.  This allows me to turn off the room lights and use these for room area lights.  Then if I want to operate trains in dim light or without any room lights I can dim or shut down the room lights.  We love to run night trains.

In my new second story train and video/audio room I still use one floor lamp by the TT and RH.  I have another floor light by the new board addition.  These floor lamps are not as good as when the layout was on the floor because they are closer to the train board since it now 35 .5 inches above the floor.  I use the floor lamp at the new addition for a reading lamp also.

I also have all incandescent lights for ceiling lights in the train room.  Two are pairs of flood lights over the layout and they are on a dimmer at the wall.  I like the color of incandescent lights.  I did not bother with expensive, modern, efficient lights and opted for cheap and easy to dim lights as I do not use the ceiling lights much unless trains are running at night.  I have seven windows in the room for most daytime running and they have blinds on the south, east and west windows to keep the sun out and prevent fading.

Charlie

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Post 20    9-2-2016  (revised 10-30-2023)

Alumina, Chemical and Industrial Cars and Plant Switch Engine

I spent 40 years working as a Chemical Engineer in ALCOA, Kaiser, and ORMET alumina refining and chemical plants and other plants.  The aluminum companies make alumina, or aluminum oxide from bauxite.  Alumina is a very pure white powder and is used in an aluminum smelter to make aluminum metal.  Therefore I was interested in having covered hopper cars with their locos on.  Lionel made two, one for ALCOA and another for Reynolds Aluminum, that ALCOA purchased in 2000.  Before I found a Lionel ALCOA car to buy, I made an ALCOA covered hopper car from an open hopper car by making a cover from sheet balsa wood and adding an ALCOA sticker.

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Then a Lionel ALCOA covered hopper car was found.

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Making a Hybrid ALCOA Plant Switcher Lionel NW 2 and Marx 1998 Switcher

I had a Marx 1998 switcher base, wheels and motor missing the Marx shell.  I found a Lionel NW2 shell and cut out about 1 inch of the Lionel shell to shorten it to fit the Marx 1998 base.  I painted it black, white and red in the colors of ALCOAs Bauxite and Northern short line railroad from the Bauxite, ARK alumina and chemical plant in Bauxite, ARK to the a major railroads main lines.

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Here is a write up on the Bauxite and Northern Railway located in Bauxite, Arkansas and near Benton, Arkansas from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

"The Bauxite & Northern Railway (reporting mark BXN) is a Class III railroad operating in the United States state of Arkansas. BXN operates over 7 miles (11 km) of track in Bauxite, Arkansas. Traffic consists of largely of alumina, and the railroad hauls 4,059 carloads per year. In 2005, the railroad was purchased by holding company RailAmerica.[1] In December 2012, Genesee & Wyoming acquired the railroad in its acquisition of RailAmerica. As of 2023, Bauxite & Northern Railway interchanges with Union Pacific in Bauxite, Arkansas and can hold up to 286,000 pounds of supplies. [2]

History

The Bauxite and Northern Railway was incorporated in Arkansas on November 13, 1906[3] and began operations in 1907,[1] for the purpose of constructing and operating a railroad from the town of Bauxite Saline County to a junction with the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway. The BXN connected with the Rock Island at Bauxite, and connected with the Missouri Pacific at BN Junction. For the railroad's first 100 years, it was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Aluminum Company of America.

The connection for the old Rock Island is now gone, but the remnants are still visible, including a bridge over the Rock Island roadbed and local highway."



I cut down the Lionel NW 2 body in 1982 but did not remember where I cut it out.  I had to go look !  It was very hard to see where I cut it as I did great work at that time !  I believe I used my band saw to cut 7/8 inches out of the length of the shell body.  I had to compare a current Lionel SW 1 body with the cut down one, to figure out where I made the cut.

Picture below shows the uncut orange NW 2 body has four double sections of vent panels on the top left.  The cut down NW 2 body shows one full vent panel and one partial vent panel at the front so the cut was made after the first panel;   removal of 7/8inch:   and then cut part off part of the last panel.  I am sure I left a 1/32 inch extra on each body part to allow for filing it off to make as good smooth and accurate fit.  I probably used Testor's plastic glue to join the pieces together.

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Here are some photos of the Lionel coupling replacing the original Marx coupling on a Marx 1998.  This was done in 1982 and is how I remember how it was done.

Picture of Marx coupler on 1998 before removal - save coupling to add to a Lionel car with two Lionel coupling if you want to add a Marx coupling on one end.

Marx 1998 InSta Lionel couple 2023-09-16 008

The Coupler is from an old Lionel plastic truck, cut up with a razor saw.  A hole was drilled and cut out to fit over the projection left from the original coupling.  The silver is the head of a small dia, 3/4 inch long bolt that holds the new coupler to the spot where the original coupling had been.  The bolt is semi tight to allow the coupler to swing side to side with the projection staying in the enlarged hole at the bottom.  Two nuts are used on the bolt to keep it semi tight and hold that position.



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Marx 1998 InSta Lionel couple 2023-09-16 004

A small project but it works great and lets the Marx 1998 handle Marx and Lionel coupled cars.

The Marx1998 and this hybird Marx 1998 / Lionel NW 2 switcher are a great running engines and always beatsother engines in racing through the oval and figure 8.  The Marx 1998 is the best running engine I have for racing.  It has a two way e-unit and is light and will out accelerate all and stay on 027 curves and go thought Marx 1590 switches.  It helps that is is a 2-4-2 with front and rear integrated trucks.  My kids, now adults still love to race them as I have another one too.

Bridges & Water T 2016-8-10 2016-07-26 002



Industrial and Alumina Cars

I also worked for Engelhard Corp., south of Macon, Georgia.  They mine and produced kaolin clay used for paper coating and transport it to fine white paper mills in tanker cars as a slurry.  I painted a tanker car with a white top that they use to keep the car cooler to fight algae and a black bottom and installed a company sticker.

Train Lots 5-10-2016 197


I also worked for ORMET's alumina refinery, at Burnside, LA, south of Baton Rouge, LA for 10 years and made another covered hopper car and labelled it ORMET, although they leased their cars.

IMG_3541


ALCOA purchased Reynolds Metals in June 2000.  I bought a Reynolds Metal covered hopper car without the 12 roof hatch covers.  I made a more modern, easy to use center fill cover for the covered hopper car.  The older 12 hatch covers require a special loading bridge with 12 filling spouts and require the opening, closing and applying a security metal seals on each of the 12 hatch covers.  The center fill uses 3 or so loading spouts into the center of the car and has a four part center car long cover.  The covers overlap each other and require only opening and closing four covers and only one security seal saving time and money.


IMG_3543


I also had a contract job to write operating instructions for a Kennecott copper smelter in Salt Lake City, Utah.  I bought a K-line work caboose with a search light and Kennecott Copper Corp. labeling.  I threw in a Lionel Anaconda copper ore hopper car.  This car is used in copper mining.

IMG_3549

IMG_3551


I have worked at the Exxon-Mobil refinery and chemical plant here in Baton Rouge but have not found a good Exxon sticker or decal to paint up another tank car as I have several Lionel Sunoco cars.  I have not found a Lionel Exxon tank car yet either.

I also worked for Kaiser Aluminum here in Baton Rouge and at the Gramercy, LA Kaiser alumina plant near there.  I still need to make or find a Kaiser Aluminum covered hopper car.

Charlie

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Last edited by Choo Choo Charlie

 

Post 21     9/6/2016 

 

Center Fill  Reynolds Alumina Covered Hopper Car

 

Here is my new center fill hopper car.  I purchased a Reynolds Aluminum hopper car body without the 12 door Top at a train show. 

Center fill is more modern than the 12 individual doors and quicker to fill.

The first picture shows construction with grating being made from leftover fiber window screen material which makes an easy source of grating for model trains.  Roof is made from hard 1/16 in balsa wood.

More Reynolds car 8-20-2015 003

 

The Second picture shows the finished painted roof.

Reynolds car & shop 8-22-2015 005

 

Picture of finished Kaiser hopper car below.

IMG_3543

Choo Choo

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Post 22   9-9-2016  (Revised 11-15-2023)

Hidden Track installed behind Background, Industrial Bldg., Track Occupation Signal System and Train Wreck Videos

A hidden track allows trains to disappear or magically appear.  It is often used to hide the Christmas train that has candy in gondolas and log cars.  It works best if the place the train disappears and appears can be hidden.

A length of 1 X 6 one inch board was installed by installing brackets to the back frame of the train board.  The board was removable since it spanned the joined of the two train boards and had to be removed when taking up and installed when put down the train board each year.

Great Flood 8-13-2016 2016-07-26 007


The track on the hidden track section has its own cut off switch on the control panel and an uncoupling track section.  One end of the hidden track section starts in the mountain and has a Marx switch to divert the train to or from the hidden track.

Train addition 9-5-2016 2016-09-04 016



The other end of the hidden track goes through a hole in the background board and has a Marx switch to divert the train to and from the hidden track.

Train addition 9-5-2016 2016-09-04 028


Homemade Industrial Building with Purposes

The layout has a hidden track behind the background that leaves a hole that needs to be hidden.  It was decided to hide the hole by an industrial building.  This building was made from 1/8 inch Masonite with brick paper covering the sides. The main outside loop track goes through this building too.  Arch top windows were added and made from plastic sheeting and panes from 1/16 inch auto pin stripping.  Vent stacks were added to the roof.  A fake roll up door was added to the open ends of the building made from wooden dowels.  A section of flat building was made to be the building and installed against the background to give the appearance of a larger building.

I ran out of the original brick paper and had some made with a color copy machine, but is not a very good match and appears too pinkish in pictures below.



Train addition 9-5-2016 2016-09-04 008

Train addition 9-5-2016 2016-09-04 010



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Track Occupation Signal System

Three sections of the hidden track, located at each end and in the middle of hidden track, have isolated outside rails to trigger a track occupation signal to indicate if a train is present on the track since the track cannot be seen.  The signal power is controlled by the round house light switch.  The signal is mounted on the left end of the industrial building, in full view of the engineer.  12 volt mini Radio Shack bulbs of red, yellow and green are used for the signal.  Each bulb represents a section of hidden track that is occupied, and all three “on” mean the track has a hidden long train.  The lights also indicate the progress of a train moving on the hidden track.

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When the train layout was moved to the train room in 2011 or so, two of the background sections were removed to give a more open train room and vision of the windows and train shelves on the wall.  A tunnel was made from 1/8 inch Masonite with a removable roof to get to train wrecks.



Picture of background removed and tunnel installed to show window and train shelves

Tunnels is left of mountain, painted light blue with billboards in front

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Picture of tunnel with lid off.

Train addition 9-5-2016 2016-09-04 023



A string of Christmas tree clear mini lights were added in the tunnel to light it up for making videos and when using the X-10 TV camera car.  A picture of the front of a diesel or steam loco can be suspended over the track on a swing arm.  The swing arm is a piece of coat hanger wire bent to an L shape and mounted with two small screw eyes with the bottom one about 3/8inch off perpendicular to the train running direction.  The allows the train picture to return to a stop to block the track after the wreck automatically.  This will allow staging of train wrecks for the videos and X-10 camera car.  There is a 12 inch color TV located on the floor below the main control board to the right and a larger flat screen 55 " color TV set on the wall behind the train board for viewing live X-10 camera car videos.

Train addition 9-5-2016 2016-09-04 021



The X-10 camera was mounted on a flat car and rechargeable NiMH batteries are mounted in a battery holder from Radio Shack to supply power.

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Charlie

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One helpful addition was the installation of one of the mini Christmas lights of the tunnel light string as a light to illuminate a billboard sign on the background.  This light lets me know when I have the tunnel lights on and keeps me from leaving them on all night or day.

Train addition 9-5-2016 2016-09-04 020

I have several of these old plastic billboard signs on the layout with pictures of 40s and 50s signs.

Charlie

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Post 23a    9-19-2016                      revised 1-17-2024

New Layout Addition Making an "L" Layout with pictures and video

We moved to Macon, GA in 1988 and had a larger living room with a bay window.  A new addition idea was hatched that would provide another loop and train running area.  A Christmas tree could be installed on the addition that would allow the tree to be seen in the bay window during the Holidays.  The outside loop of the addition would be connected to the outside loop of the original layout forming an L shaped layout.  A new control panel and LW Lionel transformer would run the additions independent loop and allow a third operator/engineer.  The main layout outside loop LW could be used to operate the new addition via a transformer transfer switch and the main loop inside LW could be used to operate the new addition via the transformer transfer switch on the main control panel.

The new addition would have its own building light transformer.  The only change that would have to be provided to make the new addition a standalone layout is a switch transformer would have to be added.  The building light transformer could be hooked to serve the switches as it has the capacity to do so.



The track plan for the layout addition chosen is below.  The red and green buttons are for switches and the blue buttons are for uncoupling or accessory operation.  The slide switches control track sections.  The short straight track with one switch is for the HO gauge trolley with a homemade timer and reversing mechanism.

Train Lots 5-10-2016 253



The width of the addition was determined by the amount of space between the original layout control panel and the right side, this width being 4 ft 7 in.  A length of 7 ft 6 in was chosen.   It has a long siding off the main loop.  It has another siding making a small loop that has two reversing tracks in a dog bone shape to allow reversing of trains in either direction.  Reversing trains is a priority for me in an operating and switching layout like I want.  The Christmas tree was installed between the dog bone loops for the holidays.  The new addition adds about 50% more area to the train layout.


Picture of the new Addition and control board in new upstairs train room after 2012

Train Lots 5-10-2016 227


Layout Addition when on floor with Christmas tree in Dec 2008 in Baton Rouge before new train room

IMG_9691



Construction was the same as the original layout board except for the board being ½ inch plywood in place of ¾ inch particle (bagasse) board.  Wooden wheels were installed on one corner and the end and long side to allow rolling of the layout into position.

The use of ½ inch plywood decking was noticed to be much noisier than the ¾ inch particle board and was quieted by adding small pieces of truck inter tube under the track ties and switches on the outer loop and the long siding where most of the running occurs.  Truck inner tube rubber was used as it is longer lasting then foam rubber or foam plastic which may have added more quieting.  I have learned about the shorter life of foam rubber or plastic from having to replace speaker foam surrounds in as little as 10 years.  The air bubbles give the foam more surface area for oxygen in the air to oxidize or deteriorate the foam quicker.

The are ten Marx switches on the new addition track plan.  Another problem that came up was some engines and cars would hit a few Marx switch machine covers on some curves.  These switches were where the two sidings that split the loop and two switches are close together.  This required the cutting off the corners on three Marx switch machine covers.  The covers are metal and there was open space that allowed hack sawing the corners off about 1/2 inch and then soldering a piece metal to fill the gap.

Picture shows a two Marx switches close together and one with cover with one corner cut off

Cut off Marx switch covers 1-17-2023 2024-01-17 001




A recent photo of the overall L shaped layout with New Addition.  I see another project to paint the background on the tunnel that was added when two sections of background were removed to open up the room view.

Train Overhead views 9-21-016 2016-09-21 010


View from control panels, 1 operator, or 2 or 3, one for each LW trans. Small TV monitor for x-10camera car for engineer.  The TV feed also goes to a larger 55" flat screen TV on the wall to the right.

Train Overhead views 9-21-016 2016-09-21 027



View of backside of New Addition

Train Overhead views 9-21-016 2016-09-21 013


Here is a 2016 video of the layout operating in the new train room with the new addition.

The new addition would have a lake, ice skaters on pond and bridge, a farm scene, a small town main street and trolley track and a siding with multiple operating accessories.  Details will be given in future posts.

Charlie

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Charlie, I too am enjoying your posts. I chuckle to myself when I see an idea that I too have thought of, and get inspired when I see an idea I hadn't considered.

For example, I too have modified the short stock car, only I used a K-Line 5000 series one. It was work to neatly cut out every other plank as you might also agree. Did the same thing, with the inserts from the O gauge longer Lionel poultry dispatch. Only I added a chicken figure from the movie, Chicken Run, in the open door.

I like the mini-aquarium and the idea for the "modern" tops for the hoppers. With prices being soft on used stuff, I have determined it is more profitable to scrap cars than to sell them for less than you can buy the parts. Check out the parts prices of wheel sets and trucks and you'll see what I mean. I've been using the cut roofs from box cars to make covers for hoppers and gondolas.

I've got to get around to figuring out my digital camera and do some photos of some of my creations. There are more of us 027 / traditional operators out there, than reading this particular forum category would give the appearance of.

Thanks for posting.

23b  9-21-2016        revised 4-29-2023 

Nighttime  Pictures of New Addition Train Board



COLTM16A2556 & brainel027   

Thanks for the comments.  I do not have any night videos and not many good night pictures.  My camera is not very fast and only f 2.8  I need to use a tripod.  Below are two.

As for wheels and trucks, I am always looking for junk cars and trucks at low prices. Found some at the last train show in the spring and bought a few but am kicking myself for not getting the rest.  We have a local TCA meet in the spring and fall around here.

New Addition Main Street at nightNew Add & Nite 8-27-2016 2016-08-27 033



Lionel Santa Fe Streamliners, 2400 series size, on Main Train Board

New Add & Nite 8-27-2016 2016-08-27 041

Charlie

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Charlie this is very enjoyable. I live up in Monroe LA. I have been living her for about a year and the people up here have gone through a massive flood back in March. I was one of the lucky ones as well. I have an apartment and have been thinking of building a small layout to run some of the MPC/Postwar items I have collected over the years. I mainly collect 3 rail scale, but when I want to run any of that I need to take up the whole apartment. You have given me some great ideas from this. 

23c  9-21-2016 

More On New Addition Train Board           revised 4-29-2023

Fellows thanks for the responses.  Ace- years ago I did a write up on the original layout and submitted to CTT.  They are interested in bigger layouts or more scale like or what ever.  I thought of starting this running post on how I started small and added a little each year for 30 or so years that others may get encouraged start, even it means just drawing plans and picking up used track, switches, engines, buildings etc if they have no space or a little space under the bed !

Conrail5056- I used to go to TCA train meets in Shreveport when I lived in east Texas.  TCA has a twice per year meet in Ponchatoula, LA since Katrina flooded out the New Orleans TCA meets.  That is about the only show l go to now as I quit going to Houston and other far a way meets and GATS shows.

As I stated I hope to inspire others, who plan and dream and save for that big great layout, to just get a small plan that is expandable and portable and get started.  I never planned on having more than 4 used cheap engines and started with just few Marx switches and used 027 track and make something to run at Christmas for the kids.  I usually had a punch list from the Christmas running as access to under the layout is impossible when on the floor and some projects could not be gotten to during the winter.  I then forget about trains until November or so and made corrections and additions at that time for the coming Christmas.  I would hit trains shows when I could in the winter.  Trains were just one of my interests that include kids activities, repairing the house, yard work, boating and water skiing, tennis, golf, shop, tools and vintage stereos.  I found limiting train interest to a few winter months kept me from losing interest allow train enjoyment to span 30 plus years.

Only recently have I added more trains and accessories, added the layout addition and built a garage/train/stereo man cave !  Since the train room is air conditioned and shop and garage are not, trains get more attention in the summer.  Being retired now has also helped.

A recent photo of the overall L shaped layout with New Addition.  I see another project to paint the background on the tunnel that was added when two sections of background were removed to open up the room view.

Train Overhead views 9-21-016 2016-09-21 010



View from control panels, 1 operator, or 2 or 3, one for each LW trans. Small TV monitor for x-10camera car for engineer.  The TV feed also goes to a larger 55" flat screen TV on the wall to the right.

Train Overhead views 9-21-016 2016-09-21 027



View of backside of New Addition

Train Overhead views 9-21-016 2016-09-21 013


Here is a 2016 video of the layout operating in the new train room with the new addition.

I do not know why my videos show the trains running much faster than the actually were running.

Charlie

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Post 24      9-27-2016          updated  3-27-2024

New Addition Track Plan and Active Track Diagram Control Panel

New Addition Track Plan

The New Addition track plan includes an extension of the original lay outs outside loop.  The New Addition outside loop is incorporated with a double reversing dog bone and loop which allow reversing trains on this inner loop and on the outside loop of both train boards.  A siding provides storage of trains and bypassing the double dog bone tracks.  This New Addition train board initially has two accessories being a milk car unloading platform which gets lots of attention from young grand kids and operating ice skating pond.  Later, a Lionel Icing Station will be added between the original and new addition train boards.

IMG_1405


Video of Train Running the Dog Bone.  A great switching operation.  You can see the new back and forth Trolley on the bottom of video.



New Addition Active Track Diagram Control Panel

The New Addition has its own Lionel LW 125 watt transformer and own Active Track Diagram Control Panel with block switches for track sections, Marx switches and accessories. The New Addition can be run as a stand alone Layout.  Its construction is similar to that of the Main Active Track Diagram Control Panel seen in Post 8, page 1 of this topic.

A selector switch on the panel allows the new addition “Orange” lighted LW to control the addition or lets the outside loop “Green” lighted LW transformer the whole Addition board.  There is a selector switch on the main control panel that selects the “Green” LW to control the outer loop of the Main layout board  and the “Red” LW to control inner loop of the Main layout board providing control by three engineers.  The other position of the Main control panel selector switch allows the “Red’ LW transformer to control all the track on both Main layout board and New  Addition layout board.



IMG_1299

Picture above of the New Addition train board control panel with and active touch track plan diagram.  This train board can be operated with the orange lighted LW to the right.  This New Additional train board can be operated with the Green LW or with the Red LW located at the Main control panel.



New Addition Control Panel   (20 in X 9 in) Mini Switch Inventory

(Key:  Mini Push Buttons = PB,  Slide Switches = SS

Active Track Plan Diagram           

Turnout PB     uncoupling PB     Track sect SS           

       23                      8           11

Side Switch Panels

Mini Push Buttons     Slide Switches

                7                           7

One can see there is enough room for two operators at the left and that both control panels are close enough for one operator to work both control panels.

IMG_1288


Picture Below of Orange LW New Addition Transformer and Control Panel Switches on left

TRANS selector switch to chose Orange or Green Transformer to control New Addition

Addition Traint 9-26-2016 2016-09-24 108


Picture Below of right side of Control Panel switches   Brown transformer is HO d/c transformer for Trolley on main street.

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More details in later posts

Charlie

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Post 25   10-4-2016

Homemade Operating Ice skating pond on New Addition

I built a small operating Ice Skating Pond and it was located near the new Addition outside loop.  This location gave the opportunity to install a Rail Road Bridge.  The ice skating pond is on the farm.  The ice skating pond was made from a pane of glass painted white on the bottom.  It was attached to a pond  shaped cutout in the train board.  An old Barb B Q rotisserie motor (all I had at the time) was used to power a 7 inch diameter, ½ inch thick ply wood disk with 6 round, 1 inch disk magnets that were recessed and glued into the plywood  (I would now use a microwave table rotating motor with a 4"dia lazy susan bearing to support the disk as the motor would be quieter).  It was installed very close to the bottom of the glass pane.  Radio Shack small ½ inch dia. magnets were glued to the feet of the skaters with epoxy glue making sure all had the same magnetic polarity pointing up the same.  The skaters were from Plasticville people sets and other sources of toy figures of roller or ice skaters, ballerinas or dancers.  The magnets all had the opposite polarity of the rotating disc to make sure they attracted each other.


New Add & Nite 8-27-2016 2016-08-27 002


The mini Christmas tree lights on the bridge provide lighting for the Pond at night.

New Add & Nite 8-27-2016 2016-08-27 021



Ice Skaters in Action  (note Ice Resurface Zamboni Machine)







Bar B Q rotisserie motor that drives the plywood disc with the magnets.

New Add & Nite 8-27-2016 2016-08-27 023



There are several commercial made ice skating rinks or ponds available for much less trouble but they would not be as much fun to build as this one.  They are too big for my location.  I now have one but have not installed it because mine is recessed under my bridge and most of them are above grade.  It Is also too large for my available space.  I use it at Christmas as a holiday display.

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New Add & Nite 8-27-2016 2016-08-27 026

Charlie

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ADRIATIC
I am with you.  I just salvaged a motor from a microwave turntable and pull parts from those type gear including power cords.  30 years ago the Bar B Q motor was all I had that was strong enough at the time.  A 4"dia lazy Susan bearing to support the disk as the motor would be needed with the microwave TT motor but no big deal.  That motor would be strong enough for sure and quieter.
Charlie
 

Post 26   10-10-2016

Train whistles and Diesel horns   (revised  1-4-2023)

For many years my steam engines were plastic body Lionel 2-4-2 and did not come with whistles in coal tenders.  My early diesels were a Marx 1095 and Lionel 219 FA which did not have diesel horns.

So I installed a junker Lionel steam whistle in a building with open windows on the original train board and I installed a Bachmann HO Shell Oil Storage Tank that has a diesel horn in it on original train board.  Real Oil Storage Tanks come in lots of sizes.  I added another junker Lionel whistle and diesel horn on the new addition when built.  I put a button to operate each on each end of the both control panels each near the Lionel LW train control transformers for easy access.  Both control panels have buttons for horns and whistles on both boards.  This allows me to have whistles and diesel horns no matter which engine or coal tender is on the train board.

I find the Lionel whistle is much more reliable in a building because it does not have a middle rail pick up and a DC relay like when in a coal tender.  They do not require train transformer power and good transformer diodes for DC voltage.  It is just wired directly to the whistle motor.

Many of the Diesels that have horns (F3, etc.) that require batteries.  I hate batteries in trains as they will leak and usually have expired when I get around to operating them.  I have too many engines to bother with batteries including the newer ones that are required for electronics.  Do not get me started on batteries for tools!  Have too many power hand tools to mess with dead batteries when I get around to using them.  I have several long extension cords that reach all over my lot.  Battery operated tools are great for house construction and for using them often or daily.

The layout transformers do not have to have a working whistle or horn button meaning I do not have to maintain the diodes in the transformers to made DC.  None of them work on my 3 LW transformers and I do not care.

Today I often buy locomotives without the coal tenders and coal tenders without whistles, often at a much lower price.  Whistling coal tenders also are heavy dead weight (not on the engine drive wheels), waste amps, and slow down the trains.  Only one or two of my diesels has a horn installed.

One can not tell where the whistle or horn sound is coming from.


New Addition- Whistle in yellow factory, Diesel Horn in silver Oil Tank

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Original Board - Whistle in train depot

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Original Board - Diesel Horn in silver Shell oil tank

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Close up of Bachmann Shell Oil Tank

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Whistle and Diesel buttons on New Control Panel

Addition Traint 9-26-2016 2016-09-24 116

Charlie

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Last edited by Choo Choo Charlie

Oh no!

I'm tender about messing  with whistle tenders.

They keep my 2 Evans auto loaders full of heavy die cast from string lining and spilling coal and water all over!

Then again, you did slip an Adriatic and a gunfighter car onto the thread, 2 of my all time favorites, so I'll forgive you for trying.

(And I do have plans for similar, but only if I find a loose whistle cheap enough before I find a tin whistle house )

Post 27   10-13-2016

New Addition Main Street

I wanted a1950's small town main street.  I bought Plasticville buildings by mail to be the Main Street.  Main street has a bank, fire station, police station, small super market, K-line Hardware on one side of the street and small train station, passenger car dinner and milk unloading platform on the service side of the street.  A trolley barn is at the end of the street.

The street has street lights.  The milk unloading platform has flood lights for night action.

Overall Main Street Picture

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Addition Traint 9-26-2016 2016-09-24 088

Charlie

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I had family around Lookout Mt., Mount Mitchell, and Ashville NC. I spent two great summers and a winter there in the mountains making friends and sipping home brews.  Beat the heck out of crowded Florida beaches IMO.

I read there was about a thousand of those Rock City Barns, all painted by one guy. In exchange for the free paint job and some usable promotional goods like pens, pencils, and thermometers.

Post 28    10-18-2016

Roadside Diner for Main Street Siding

The most fun building to make for the Main Street siding is the diner made from an American Flier passenger car body picked up at a train show for a few dollars.  The S gauge car shell was just the size for the smallish Main Street.  A base or foundation was made from 1/8 inch Masonite and covered with brick paper.  Two 12 mini Christmas tree lights were hung from the ceiling for illumination.  Parchment paper was used for windows and silhouettes were drawn with a fine Sharpie.   An exhaust fan was added to the roof along with a sign saying “Jake’s Diner”.  My fathers nickname was Jake.

IMG_0113

 

The hardest part was getting the diner steps to fit in the base.

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Charlie

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For a second there,  I thought that refer was the diners fridge. But with all the business I see inside, it must just be time for a fresh food delivery. And through the one window, I looks like there is an open booth open for Blondie and Dagwood to grab a sandwich at.... His sandwich eating style doesn't go over so well at the counter I suspect

(another gem Charlie)

Charlie, Very nice... everything from salvaging a cheap car to your Sharpie skills, the nice foundation to the lighting. When I saw it, I thought of the "Bubble Boy" episode of Seinfeld where Jerry autographs one of his 8x10's with, "There is nothing finer than being in your diner." Maybe your diner needs such a slogan (every company has a slogan nowadays!) to drum up some more business. 

Tom 

"Apply brakes here" ; an excessive bunch of those signs would work

Actually slogans were huge for ads in the early to mid 20th century.  Graphics more  the focus for the last 30 years. But Ive noticed a resurgence in slogans too. Maybe more jingles are next too??   Remix Jerry"s notes with "Carolina in the morning" musical notes?Lol..

I loved doing slogans when I was into commercial art; but most "modern" businesses balked, seeing any at all as "unprofessional". Most just wanted an artist to draw their logo ideas. Not "art" or proven technique either. The same prudish thinking that got lots of "see rock city"  barns removed by Ladybirds law. * Sigh* Only in a boardroom is fun a sin

 

Post 29a    10-28-2016   revised 10-30-2022

Other New Addition Areas - Industrial, Local Train Station, Farm, Air Port, Microwave Tower

The area behind the main street is industrial with factory building (has Lionel whistle inside, see water tower added to roof), freight station and an American Flyer water tower with painted red and white checker board (it was a junker).

Train layout & room 1-19-2015 019


Station Plasticville and Bachmann HO Oil Tank with diesel horn

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One dog bone loop has a farm which has the Ice Skating pond on it.

Train layout & room 1-19-2015 025

IMG_0118


A picture below of the farm shows a microwave tower.  This was made from a junker Lionel microwave tower structure without the top part. It was painted red and white.  The housing was made from the cover of an old ac relay.

A 3v mini Christmas flasher light was painted red and two 3v white mini lights were placed in the antennas and one 3v bulb was put in the housing.

The four 3v mini bulbs were wired in series to add up to 12v which matches my lighting voltage.  The antennas were from some plastic toy.

IMG_0187


The other dog bone loop has a Plasticville Airport and Hanger. I got these in a box of Plastiville at a garage sale and just could not put them all on the layout.  Picked up a few Lionel diesel generators at a train show and the Airport and Round house are typical spots for them.

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This area has had other buildings here from the box of Plasticville building kits.  There is a Frost Bar drive in, my favorite, on the corner of the layout and a Oscar Myers Weinermobile .

IMG_1905

Plasticville buildings are great especially if you want to get building on a layout fast.  I would still be building them if I made them from scratch!

More New Board pictures ,on the floor with Christmas tree. This was common for two months per year, from 1977 to 2011 before the new train room.

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Charlie

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Post 29b 10-30-2023  (Revised 11-16-2023)

Installation of the Lionel 6-12703 Icing Station between the Two Train Boards

The Lionel 6-12703 Icing Station as locate between the original and new train boards.  The track serving the Icing Station is the outside loop of the original train board.  A Lionel Refrigerator Car 19823 is filled with ice blocks from the Icing station.  The Icing station is not screwed down and left movable to allow adjustment of the distance from the Icing Station and the track with the Refrigerator car so the ice blocks can be directed to the hatch on the top of the car.

Icing Station, Lionel  or 6-12703, Refrigerator Car 19823

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Ice Station Pic 11-16-2023 2023-11-16 011

Charlie

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Last edited by Choo Choo Charlie

Ive seen those dishes before, but even after hours, i can't recall what they are from.

Doesn't that cover make that a relay tower?

Hey I've got that trailer too. But no cover slats.

  You know, two years ago I was short an outlet for Christmas lights on my little tree layout. I wanted a set lit along side the rails. No outlet, but I had plenty of lights, so I clipped off two strips of 8 lights each and used them off the track power, lol.

Chasing a burnt one is still the pits though, luckily, you can likely use an ohm meter on those "if".....knock on wood.

adriatic

Thanks for the reply.

Yes that makes it a mcirowave relay tower.

Finding burned out bulbs is often a problem especially the colored ones where seeing the filament is harder.  I use multimeters all the time for testing bulbs, batteries etc.  I have several mostly the cheap Harbor Freight ones in the house, shop, garage and train room.  I even keep one in each car to check garage sale speakers for ohms and a burned out coils.

Charlie

Post 30a    11-15-2016   (revised 1-8-2023)

Trolley for Main Street

A trolley track was added to Main Street.  HO gauge Bachmann trolleys were chosen and are easy to find at train shows.   This is a 027 TOY train layout so HO gauge is in the running.  HO gauge is on the small size, S gauge is about right (20% less than O) and O gauge is a bit too big.  This trolley line was built in the early 1990s.  I have since picked up a Lionel O gauge trolley but it would overwhelm my Plasticville more or less S scale buildings.  On my Main Street, I like my smaller trolleys and like my 027 and O gauge trains to be bigger and overwhelm my building.  It is all about the trains !



Trolley 4-14-2023 2023-04-14 003

The HO track was recessed in the street and an HO gauge switch was added near one end to allow two trolleys to go into an HO trolley barn.  The switch is remote controlled from the new control panel as well as a track selector slide switch to activate the live track section in the barn.

An HO DC transformer is used for the trolleys and is on the right of the new addition control panel.

The fun part of the trolley was figuring out how to stop and start the trolley at each end of the Main Street line and how to reverse the DC polarity on the track and the ends automatically like the bumpers reverse the Lionel O gauge Trolley.  First I cut the one HO track rail about 7 inches from each end to give a section that would be un-powered and stop the trolley at each end of track. These end track sections also must be powered with the correct polarity to restart and reverse the trolley.

A trolley timer/controller was made from a small 1 RPM gear motor similar to those that power a micro wave oven turntable, which are easy to find in street trash on trash day.  A cam disc was sawed out of ½ inch plywood with high humps and lower sections.  Two micro roller armed single pole double throw switches were mounted together to act as an double pole double throw switch and wired in an X to switch track DC polarity when activated.  This allows the trolley to start and run to the other end of track which is dead.  The timer allows the trolley to stay there for about 30 seconds.  Then the micro DPDT switch is activated by the timer cam and that end of the track is powered up with DC that has the polarity reversed and the trolley takes off for a 5 sec run to the other end track, stops and stays there 30 seconds until it is activated with the track with reversed DC polarity and off the trolley goes again.

This was a fun project to figure out, build and to watch operate.

HO Trolley Barn at one end of the Main Street Trolley Line

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Trolley Line HO Switch

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HO DC Transformer for Trolleys on Right side of New Addition Control Panel

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Trolley track is in the middle with two red switch buttons and slide switch to cut track power

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Trolley Timer to Run and Reverse Trolley - Brown Box to right inside New Addition Control Panel

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Trolley Timer Wooden Cam and Double Pole Double Throw Roller Micro Switch

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Overall View of Main Street and Trolley Line

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Charlie

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Post 30b          1-14-2023

Layout Train Operating Capabilities

A major objectives of building this Traditional 027 Postwar Period Train Operating Model Train Layout starting in 1977 was:  

"A major objective of this layout was to make the track plan and layout active and challenging to keep the engineers busy with operation, switching of multiple trains and including many operating accessories, all to keep up interest in running trains and improving the layout."  I wrote this objective after my brother and I lost interest in our childhood layout after only having it under the Christmas tree two weeks a year and though it had a oval and figure 8.  The below descriptions of Train Operating Options show I met the building objectives.

Picture of Total Layout below

Train Overhead views 9-21-016 2016-09-21 010


The Active Control Panel Diagram pictures below show the track plans and all the push buttons, to operate the layout of the two major train boards that make up this layout.

Track Diagram of Main Train Board (1977) Below (Red, Green and Yellow push buttons are for the 31 Marx track switches and Blue push buttons are for uncoupling/accessories)

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Track Diagram for New Train Board (1988)   Below

IMG_1013


Train LW Transformer Selection

A transformer selector switch on the Main Control Panel allows the Red Lighted transformer to operate the Whole layout or switched to allow Red lighted LW transformer to operate the inner loop and the Green lighted LW to operate the outer loop.  When a New train board was added, to make the Layout an L shape, another Transformer selector switch was add to the New Control Panel that allows Green lighted LW to control the New train board or to allow the new Orange lighted LW to control only the New Train board.



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Major Train Operating Capabilities Used

Single Train on Whole layout – Ultimate freedom of operation for one train on Whole layout, with access to 31 Marx switches and even with up to three trains occupying three sidings: The train can reverse in Outside loops with New train boards Double Dog Bone and reverse, using the Wye, on Outside loops.  On the Main inside loop, with the figure 8, allows reversing in both directions and running the figure 8 and the oval.  The Main train boards Inside train, running Clockwise, can traverse and reverse from Inside loop of Main board, to Outside loop of Main board, through Wye to New board Outside loop or vice versa through 5 switches in a row

Two Trains – One train on Main Inside Loop with reversing in both direction with oval and figure 8: second train on Whole layout Outside Loops with reversing in both directions with Double Dog Bone and reversing in Wye by backing up in one direction.  Possible for the trains to swap positions and have Inside Loop move to parts of outside loops and vice versa.  This scheme is most used on the layout,

Three Trains – One train on Main Inside loop, with reversing with oval and figure 8, one train on Main outside loop, with two sidings, one hidden and one train on New board with reversing on double dog bone. It is possible for some trains to swap positions and have Inside Loop move to parts of Outside Loops and vice versa.  This operating scheme is easily converted from the Two Train scheme above by just putting in service a train like the Operating Car train that is normally on the lower siding on the New train board.  Three trains running loops is most often used when I have visitors to layout as it shows lots of train running action.

Four Trains – 2 Trains on 1 track loop, for Main Inside loop. And 2 trains on 1 track, loop on Main Onside loop and/or 2 trains on 1 track loop on Outside loop on Main board and the Outside on New board

Five Trains - 2 Trains on 1 track on two loops. -  2 Trains on 1 track loop on Main board Inside loop and 2 Trains on 1 track loop on Main Outside Loop and 5th train runs on New board to loop or run and reverse on the double dog bone.

Reversing trains on Inside loop of Main board with oval and figure 8, on New board with Double Dog Bone    and on Outside Main and New board with Wye

Layout Sidings – Main train board has outside loop 2 sidings and New train board, has 2 sidings but use of one for train storage will block the use of the double dog bone for revering although the Wye can be used for revering.

Switching cars or making trains on inside main board, one outside main board and/or new board with 18 uncoupling sections

Turntable operation allows swapping engines or providing engines for new trains and storing engines

Turntable operation allows reversing engines and cars

Use of Accessory Operating train on Main inside board

Use of Accessory Operating train New board

Reversing trains on Inside loop of Main board with oval and figure 8, on New board with Double Dog Bone and on Outside Main and New board with Wye



Commodity Movements and Operating Accessories

Load logs from log loader to log dump car and dump logs to lumber mill and make lumber

Load coal from coal mine to coal car

Load ice from Lionel Ice Station to refrigerator car, to bad Lionel did not make a hatch on the milk cars to hold ice blocks

Load transport cattle from one pen and unload in second pen

Unload milk cans from two milk cars to two milk platforms

Unload barrels from car to barrel loader, transport and load barrels from barrel loader to another barrel car

Unload logs or coal from car to dump receiver

Uncoupling /dumping – numerous sections around layout

Load oil drums from AF oil drum loader

Gantry Crane - Remote controlled - Unload and load canisters, Mercury capsules, covers for covered gondolas, flat car and gondola car loads

Load water from water tank to coal tenders by hand

Operate wrecking train with wrecking crane car

Operate trolley on Main Street

Operate Ice Skating rink

Operate Civil war 4-4-0 engines and cars

Track Maintenance train

Operating track tie ejector car

Operating gang cars

Control Tower with moving operators

Gateman operating

Switch tower with man down steps

Blimp with lighted moving message sign

Beacon tower

Oil Well Derrick

Blinking micro wave tower

Ducking Giraffe car train

Christmas train


Charlie

Last edited by Choo Choo Charlie

Post 31   1/28/2017,  latest modification 6-26-2022

Installation of remote operating Lionel 12834 Gantry Crane

Been slack in posting on this thread with the holidays and recently the flu.  I am back now!

I obtained a remote operating Lionel Gantry Crane 12834 awhile back.  I got a good deal as one of the crane legs was broken off, just up my alley.  A little epoxy glue fixed that.  It took some time to install with the crane controls having to be added near to the turntable control and with in reach of the crane.


The Gantry Crane controls within reach of the crane, and are shown at the bottom left. as shown below.

Gantry Tracks 6-26-2023 2023-06-26 005

I installed single rail tracks for the crane to operate on.  The rails use short pieces of rail tie to hold them.  I went with 1/2 ties by cutting up 027 track ties to make them as they would take screws to hold the track down.  Fake sleeper ties are in between the 1/2 cut up 027 ties.   I had not thought of just gluing them down to my fake painted gray concrete.

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The crane cables were made long enough to allow the crane to reach each end of the crane rails.  I need to come up with a way to make the crane move on the crane rails without finger help!

Train & Crane 4-3-2015 003

Lionel Gantry Crane 12834 with a truck load of rails ready to be unloaded at the right   Note also in picture above:  A Lionel Tie ejector car picked up at a train show which keeps the interest up and a wireless color TV camera on a flat car that transmits pictures to a small TV under the train board control panel and a 55 inch flat screen TV on the wall.


The crane controls are close to the crane which is important to keep things moving.  Crane controls are on the left.  Also pictured is my Williams, BL2, one my very few more modern engines with can motors.

Train & Crane 4-3-2015 011


We pickup canisters with washers glued to the top and 1/2 pieces of 027 rail seen in the truck.  This crane with gondolas and flat cars have endless possibilities for operations of the crane.

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Making the  Crane Control be a Two Handed Operation

I have found I need three hands to operate the Crane control.  One for Up and Down Lever, a second for swinging the crane boom Left and Right and a third for holding the magnet voltage ON as there is not a lock on that control, with justifiably concern for burning out the magnet.  I made a small wooden wedge out a piece of pop sickle stick, added a red handle to the stick.  The new stick is used to force the magnet voltage to be ON without using a third hand.  Care must be taken not to leave the wedge in.

IMG_1138


The operating gantry crane is now the most popular accessory to operate on the layout and it is challenging to load and unload a gondola car with canisters as well as pieces of track rail and to remove and install the cover for a gondola car.

Now Mercury Space Capsules can be loaded and unloaded from the Mercury Space Capsule car after the installation of metal washers on the top.

IMG_2291

Charlie

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Tom

Thanks.  I still have a few more posts and up updates for later.  It is winter and after Christmas I usually get a few train projects going since I do not have much yard work to do. Although you would think spring was here in south Louisiana as Azaleas are booming and weeds start to grow with this warm winter.

Working on reviving a junker 192 Control Tower, having to make a roof and the moving platform that the CT operators ride around on.

I just glued some washers with GE silicone caulking to the top of the Mercury Space Capsules and some other canisters.  That sticks just fine but will do no harm and is easy to take off.



Scotie

I decided  the Lionel 60 street car was too big for my S gauge Plasticville main street.  The 60 has joined my fleet of #50 gang cars  (2 --50s and one MTH) in racing around the layout or going bump to bump between the portable track barriers.

Charlie

Last edited by Choo Choo Charlie

Post 32  4/20/2017        revised 5-31-2023

Renovation and Installaion of Lionel 192 Control Tower

Latest addition to the layout is a junker Lionel 192 Control Tower.  My train show Buy list shows I bought it in 2004 at a train show in Fairhope, AL for $3.  I find that keeping a list really helps as I have been into this layout and trains for over 44 years.

It was missing the roof and roof details, and the rotating part that holds the operators all of which I got to make.  I added a switch for the lights and one for the rotating operators on the control panel.


New support for walking men and new men ( ex policemen!)

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New roof made with vent and weather instruments.

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Overall view of refurbished Lionel 192 Control Tower

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Charlie

updated 5-31-2023

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Charlie, Very nice and very organized of you, if you put everything on your list. I have enough trouble keeping track of when/when my locomotives came from. I see the ice station in the background. I forgot if you ever said how many operating accessories you have on your layout? 

Tom 

Post 33 6/4/2017         Revised 10-31-2023

Accessories on Layout List

Been awhile in getting back.  Been busy patching up my junk 1950s Delta 24 inch jig saw and working on stereo systems, getting an old Dual 1225 turntable up and a 1955 Hallicrafters shortwave tube radio running.

Scottie - No I did not install the Lionel trolley, I kept the HO trolley but had to replace the HO transformer.

Tom -

Accessories on Layout List  as of 5-2023

Scratch built Operating Turntable ,on page 1, Post 9

Oval and figure 8 for both direction reversing on inner loop Main board

Double dog bone on New board, reversing in both directions

2 Trains on 1 track with relays for two loops 1977 fixed 2022 runs good with NO OX on tracks, Two loops on main board have two trains on one track relayed system 1977, outside loop system will work on total out loop of both main and new board

Dozen of Lionel uncoupling /operating track sections

Wye added to outside loops of both train boards, 5-2020, on Pg 7, Post 61

Marx 1590 metal frog switches, 31 installed

Ice skating Frozen Pond rink, homemade operating with disk of magnets under board, rink recessed on new Board, have above board commercial ice skating rink in box,

Marx 18 inch metal Tress bridge over Ice skating rink, one Lionel or Junior Bridge Co. 24 inch plastic Tress bridge and one 24 inch metal Junior Bridge Co. Truss bridge in attic and one 18 inch Arch Under Train truss plastic and metal bridge on shelves

Marx red 12 inch Plate Girder bridge

Coal Mine & Loading Station, Scratch built & kit bashed Bach. 1975 coal tower, w/solenoid triggered gate, on page 2,  Post 15

Milk Platforms Lionel 3562, have Two, one on new train board and one on outside loop of main train board installed when Wye installed 6-2020

Cattle pen Lionel 3656, Cattle car will unload cattle back to cattle pen

Gantry Crane Lionel 12834 installed with tracks for gantry

Lionel Steam Coal Tender Whistles in two buildings, each board, whistle buttons on each end of both control panels

Lionel Diesel Sanding Tower, no building around TT

Bachmann Shell Oil Tank with diesel horn, have 2, a Third one sounds bad, horn buttons on each end of both control panels

Trolley -  Bachmann HO trollies and homemade stop, reverse and start rotary switch

Log Loader, 6-12774, a Cheap Lionel Automated - Homemade solenoid automated loader will load coal dumping car and dump logs on to Lumber Mill-  see Post 43 for details of automation

Lumber or Saw Mill, Lionel 464, rebuilt needing several new parts, coal dumping car will unload logs onto Lumber mill

Barrel Loader, Lionel 362, homemade base, Barrel car will unload barrels to Barrel Loader and Barrel Loader will load Barrel cars, installed operator man

Oil Drum Loader, Am Flyer 379, use with gondola cars

Ice Station, Lionel 6-12703 and Lionel BREX 19823 Burlington Refrigerator Express car to be loaded,

Control tower Lionel 192, operating,  made some parts like roof, weather vane

Marx 416 Flood light towers, have 4

Operating Switch Tower  Lionel 445

Operating Gate Man Lionel 145

Colber Oil Derrick Tower with bubbling lighted tube, have another spare tower

Micro wave tower Lionel 199 - Two installed, one with homemade top

Rotary beacon tower Lionel 494, light bulb heat turns reflector - Two installed

American Flyer 762 Whistle Billboard with two tone whistle installed in mountain in Jan 2022

Two tender Water Tanks, one a repainted Water Tank, Marx 065  and the other a copy of Lionel water tank with brick building homemade from Oat meal box and Masonite, later i got a Lionel 6-12711 Water Tower Building Kit not on layout, one but mine is better looking.  Have second Marx 065 water tank not on layout and shell for Lionel Water tank

Water Towers - One a Am Flyer 772 with repainted checker board and blinking red light, second, a Lionel Style 193 Industrial Water Tower with homemade tank and red blinking light made support tower from Marx tower

Goodyear - Blimp, with Moving Message Sign, a Revell kit, wired with a 3 volt wall wart and Buck converter to DC in 2022,  on layout for years, not working from 1985 or so

X-10 color TV security camera mounted on flat car.  Projects videos from moving train to 12 inch TV on floor by L of layout and to 55inch flat screen TV on wall

I have a Lionelville Dispatching Station, Lionel 465, that needs some fixing but no where to put it !

At least 6 Marx and Lionel light flood light towers

Numerus area flood light posts at various operating accessories

Two lighted working signal bridges

Wye to reverse trains on the outside loop of main train board and new train board




The following was added 5-26-2023 to show where on the layout, each accessory is located.

The photo below shows an overhead view of layouts boards, where most of my operating accessories can be seen.  The layout can maybe better be viewed if you click on it and to make a layout picture larger.

Main Board  11ft – 2 in  X  5ft - 9in,  New board  7ft – 6 in X 4ft – 7 in

L shape legs   11ft – 2in  and  12ft – 3 in

The layout accessories, from the left upper corner, are listed next.

Homemade Gray and red manual operated gantry crane, Lionel 445 Operating Switch Tower, homemade turntable with control knob left of the LW transformer on control board, Revell Goodyear Blimp with rotating lighted sign, non operating Marx water tower, Bachmann 1975 Coaling Tower that does not have coal loading or unloading at this time, Lionel 192 Operating Control Tower, Gantry Crane Lionel 12834 installed with tracks with controls left of TT control, AF 379 Oil Drum loader, Lionel 362 Barrel Loader, Lionel 3562 milk car unloading platform, Lionel 3656 cattle coral that loads and accepts cow from cattle car, Lionel 464 Lumber or Saw Mill, Operating Gate Man Lionel 145, gray and orange Lionel 6-12703 Ice Station,  Log Loader, 6-12774 with homemade automation at mountain with gray roof, behind Ferris wheel, Kitbashed Bachmann 1975 to Coal Mine and Coal loading facility, with the two roofs and brown walls at mountain.

On new train board, to the far right is a homemade Ice Skating froze pond with operating ice skaters, and to the left is another Lionel 3562 Milk Car Unloading platform.  The Lionel 3562 Milk Cars and unloading platform are by far the most popular with all the kids that visit the layout.

I also have two lighted working signal bridges, two Lionel 199 Microwave flashing towers, two working Lionel 494 Rotary Beacons, AF 772 water tower and homemade water tower with flashing red lights and an Colber Oil Derrick Tower with bubbling lighted tube, four Marx 416 Flood light towers.  Two of my building with open windows have working Lionel whistles for coal tenders, a  American Flyer 762 Whistle Billboard and two Bachmann Shell Oil tanks with working Diesel horns and two control panels that have operating buttons on each end to work the horns and whistles.  These work for all trains and I do not work any of the coat tenders or engines with whistles or horn from track voltage.  I tried to place items close to where the would be located in the real railroad era of steam locos.

Charlie

Last edited by Choo Choo Charlie

Eli   Thanks for the response.  Yes old jig saws are very handy and fun to fix up.  I have had an old 1950s 18 inch Craftsman jigsaw since the 1970s.  You can see a picture of my Dads childhood pedal powered #1 Amateur Velocipede Scroll Saw (used by my brother and me from age 7 or so through high school) on post 10 in page 1 of this thread.

The 24 inch Delta jigsaw just begged me to take it home from a church sale in 2012.  I saw it on the floor in poor shape with part of the bottom casting broken.  We left to go to several garage sales and about noon I told my wife I decided to get it if it was still there.  Well it was and was 1/2 price after noon, at $12!   I used Marine Tex metal filled epoxy putty to rebuild the castings.  Marine Tex has been around for over 50 years and has been used to fix even cracked engine blocks, etc.  It much stronger and more of a putty than J B Weld.  I also found some new washing machine motors and installed a 1/3 hp one with two speeds.  It is not a capacitor start (but that is not needed for a easy to start jigsaw) and has an open case so I must make a shield to keep the sawdust out as well as a belt guard.  I found out this 24 inch jigsaw is more accurate than the 18 inch saw.

It has taken from 2012 to get it going as I had to build a garage and up stairs train and audio/video room.

IMG_0442


Here is picture of my new Dual 1225 turntable I got at another church sale last month.  It said take me home too.  I like the older ones with wooden bases and Dual turntables keep finding me.

IMG_0418

Charlie

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Last edited by Choo Choo Charlie

I have no idea how I missed this topic last year up thru today.   This is quite possibly my all time favorite on OGR in the 10+ years I've been here.

This is my kind of layout.   I love the classics.

Thank you so much for sharing this with all of us, and detailing how you did everything.   There are not enough superlatives for me to use to express how happy it made me to read this entire topic today!

Nice work!

David

Thank you for the kind comments.

I hope members who like the older 50s style post war layouts and those just thinking or planning can get inspired to just start and go with what space, resources and skills they have and enjoy this hobby.  My basic first board layout and four for $10 Lionel 2-4-2 locos, two Lionel LWs and 17 Marx 1590 switches, used 027 track and homemade turntable cost less than one fancy new locomotive.  So one can have a lot of fun building a layout and running it with your kids, grand kids or friends.  Other locos, cars and operating accessories were picked up over the last 20 years, all used and most junkers a couple per year.



Adriatic

I do not know.  I just grabbed an LP from the stack leaning against the JBL L-50 speaker below to adjust the point where the stylus drops to insure it hits the start of the LP.

Hatari ! is setting on the turntable next to the new one.  I have eight turntables set up along two walls of speakers and four 1970s stereo receivers.

Charlie

Last edited by Choo Choo Charlie

Post 35   6/22/2017

Unit trains on my Layout

A unit train is a freight train carrying the same type of commodity, from origin to destination.  Railroads usually chose 105 as the minimum number of cars that qualified a train for the unit train rate.  The locomotives pulling the train will usually stay connected from origin to destination and return with empty cars.

I was familiar with unit trains as Alcoa used them from my childhood company town, to transport alumina from the alumina refinery in Point Comfort, TX to the aluminum smelter in Rockdale, TX.  We loaded and shipped 25-30, 100 ton covered hopper cars each day, 365 d/y by unit train.

I thought it would be neat to have a unit trains for common commodities on my railroad layout.  So I made and collected some covered hopper cars used for alumina and they can be run on the layout even though I do not have an alumina refinery to load them.

The Alumina cars are from right to left, White Ormet car from Burnside, LA, two Alcoa Silver cars from Point Comfort, TX or Bauxite, AR, and a Blue Reynolds Metals car from Sherwin, TX or Bauxite, AR.  The Ormet car was homemade, the second Alcoa had a homemade individual 8 covers, and the Reynolds car has homemade cover with three hatch covers.  I have worked for these three companies (Alcoa bought Reynolds) and also Kaiser Aluminum in Baton Rouge and plant in Gramercy,LA.  I need to make a Kaiser Alumina car to complete my Alumina Unit Train.

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Unit trains give an operator another reason to seek and collect rolling stock.

I have a coal mine so coal cars are needed and are shipped in a unit train.  So I started collecting 3 or 4 dumping coal cars, so I can load them at my coal mine loading station and unload them into one of those Lionel coal bin/trays.

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I have 3 or 4 oil tank cars, chemical tank cars, gondolas, boxcars, flat cars, log cars, milk cars, cattle cars, etc. to make unit trains for each type car.

Oil Tank cars

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Milk cars

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Pictured here are 4 auto loaders operating as a unit train.  I have to be careful with these when using heaver metal cars as they are top heavy on curves.  I picked up a box of red metal 57 Chevy convertibles but plastic ones are better for auto loaders

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So you can see unit trains add interest and fun to the layout and operation.

Charlie

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Post 36a

Medium Weight Steam Engines Used on the Layout

I have reported on the small regular engines like the 2-4-2 type like the Lionel 247, 248, Marx 999, 333 and 666 at ( https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...a-027-layout?page=2, post 12).   Also included are 0-4-0 switchers.  Some had plastic bodies and some had metal.  I started operating these the first several years of the layout.  I needed at least four good steam engines as the original layout stared in 1977 had a homemade working turntable and had two loops wired for two trains per loop operation requiring at least four engines.

Next I added medium size engines to pull more cars or heavier cars.  These were the 2-6-4 engines like metal Lionel 2016, 2018 and 2026 and I needed at least four engines mentioned as above.  I ran these, starting around 1989, mostly for several years.

I then moved up the heavier 2-6-2 Lionel 2025 and especially the 2-6-4 Lionel 2035 with Magna-Traction starting in 1998.  At least four steam engines are needed as above.   These last two are still my overall favorites and usually at least two are on the layout, pulling especially trains with several heavy operating cars.

Last edited by Choo Choo Charlie

Post 36b    7-25-2017    revised 7-14-2022



Train Shelves - Economical, Wall Friendly and Moveable


Three wall, easy to build, economically, wall friendly and moveable train shelves were made in the 1980's and were installed in a hall ways and/or a spare bedrooms of three prior houses and the current house.  Each shelve is made in two sections each to allow moving thru doors and up stairs.  They also stand on the floor and are held to the wall by two 1" x 1" angles screwed into a wall stud per section, meaning only two small holes in the wall are required.  The shelves are backed with 1/8" Masonite, with some strips of white felt glued to the back, to protect the wall.  The shelves have router grooved surfaces to hold the train wheels and keep the cars and engines from rolling off.  The design has one wider 1" x 6" wide shelve, one half way up and one wider 1" X 8" top shelf to allow display of wider accessories or other items in addition to the typical train cars and engines.  Some of my shelves have track sections and are powered to allow lighting of train cars.



Construction is 1" x 4" straight pine #2 lumber with grooves routed in for train wheels.  It is usually less expensive to buy 1x 4 x 8 ft long #2 common pine boards at Home Depot and pick through them to find straight boards.  Knots are not that important to me as they can be filled in and painted over.  I used 5 min epoxy glue(fingered on)  to coat the knots to keep them from bleeding through the white paint which I chose to make the trains show out better. The length of the shelves can be any you like up to 8 ft with this type of shelve boards.  I place the shelves with a 4 1/2 in open space between each shelve.  Mine are 7 ft 2 in tall and have 16 shelves with the bottom one 3 1/2 off the floor (about the height of my baseboards).  They are nailed together with two 2 1/2 inch finish nails per shelf each end and have 1/8 " Masonite, nailed with 3/4" roofing nails every 6 inches on each shelve, on the back to keep the shape square, keep the shelves from sagging and to keep from marking wall.  Pieces of white felt are glued on the back of Masonite to keep from marking wall also.

I filled knot holes and nail holes with DAP Plastic Wood Latex Based Wood Filler (update- I now seal the knots with 5 min epoxy to better hide them when painting, too), Natural and primed the shelves and backing Masonite with Kilz primer probably oil based but would use latex now.  I chose to paint the shelves glossy off white latex paint.  I think the light color makes the train engines and cars show up better and makes the room brighter and more cheerful.  I use a 3 in x 12 in piece of clear Saran Wrap on the shelf where an engines go to keep the white shelf clean of grease from the wheels.


View of one shelve shown below   The 8 inch wide shelf is shown on top and one 6 inch wide shelf is in the   middle with the picture framed pictures and milk car and cattle car accessories.  There are some powered track to operate the accessories and operating cars on this shelf.

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View below shows joint between two half's of shelves. ,  Holes were drilled in the ends of both side boards and two, 3 inch finish nails, with heads sawed off, were inserted in the holes to allow the two sections to be secured.



Notice the grooves for wheels routed with veining bit on all shelves, a 6 inch wide shelf is one half way up 16 shelves.  Also note the picture shows the joint between the two shelve sections that are aligned with cut off finish nail to keep the sections secure.

003


Some 6 inch wide shelves allow display of extra accessories and figures.

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Photo below shows powered track to allow lighting cars

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Next picture shows shelf legs setting on floor, showing cut out for base board.  Extra, a Boxcar Willie LP record.

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Top shelf is 8 inch wide to hold other train items

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Over all view of all 3 shelves which were moved to from the house to the new 2010 train/all purpose room over a new two car garage/shop.

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The two large shelves on the left and right of the picture above were in the halls and spare bedroom of my present house for many years until the train room was built making the spouse very happy!

Notice in last picture I have added two more small shelves under two windows for more trains.  One never has enough trains and thus shelves.


Small shelf under window shown below.

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All shelves are standing on floor and held to wall with 1in X 1in angle brackets screwed into studs.  Shelves come apart to allow removal and moving to another room or house.  Build once for life!


Some train storage on the shelve hints are below.

Post war locos with Magna-traction are put on a section of steel track to act as a "magnet keeper" and hopefully help save the magnets.

For engines with traction tires I keep them off the wood or track to protect against flat spots.

I also store all cars and trains with the couplings open to "save the springs".

I use a 3 in x 12 in piece of clear Saran Wrap on the white or light colored shelves where greased engines are stored

I do not know if any of this makes a difference but I feel better.


Update: May 2020 :   A fourth shelf section was built and is the last section of trains shelves.  I have noticed a couple of knots are showing as slight yellowish through on some of my three original 30 plus years old shelves.  I have searched for a cure to hide sappy knots and some Kilz B-I-N shellac based primer is recommended but does not always work.  I have purchased my boards at Home Depot and the choice of #2 cheap lumber is of a much lower quality than in days past and this lot had several knots on about one half of the boards.  I have decided to not buy the expensive shellac based Kilz for this small job and have decided to use cheap Harbor Freight 5 minute clear epoxy glue, to seal the knots.   I applied it thinly with my finger tip.  We will see in a few years if it works at keeping the knots from showing thru.

I now have four larger sections plus two short sections under the windows, totaling 425 linear feet and built my last shelf section.


Picture below shows all train shelves, with new in May 2020 longer shelf section the on right

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Charlie

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Last edited by Choo Choo Charlie

 When you post, I get the same rush of excitement I'd get when a new issue of one these brought; especially when I was a boy; I'd stalk the pharmacy shelves for them before they vanished. Your builds are like time refined creations out of a "best of" issue.

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  You keep pumping out gold Charlie, I'll keep taking on fluids for my excess drool.

  No train covers handy, these all contain kit car info for ones I ended up choosing to restore....two decades later, still had boyhood refrences lol.    That's the kind of long term influence this kinda stuff has on me.

My first power tool was a Dayton or Dweyer jig saw (forgetting at the moment), a gift from my machinist Grandfather, beginning of 4th grade. Got tipped by someone when I was about 15 and the beam clipped a pipe plug and snapped from the shock. I moved to a bandsaw. Older and stronger, I used a coping saw more on carvings by then anyhow and needed a bandsaw for metals, but oh the memories.  No money at OUR house, but a music lover,  I'd hack junk radios together till I had one that worked and make cabnets for them. My knowledge about them was nill. I just swapped stuff around with the best logic I could muster, and flipped the switch on and off switch fast, waiting for silence :dissapoint: smoke , or sucesses  

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Fellows, thanks for the views, comments and likes.  There are not really extra shelves as there are 3 or 4 shelves of trains on the layout and many more cars in boxes!

MTN - I am not into tube audio gear but 1970s, mostly silver faced and walnut veneer, like Sansui 9090 and db.  I find audio gear cheap at garage and estate sales and that have discrete transistors that I can repair.  I had a Hallicrafters tube SW receiver years ago and did not like the drifting until warm as we used for VOA, BBC, and AF Radio for news overseas and sold it.  A friend gave me an old 1950s Hallicrafters tube to fix recently.  These old jobs are shock hazards and have to be rewired to make safe.

Charlie

Last edited by Choo Choo Charlie
Choo Choo Charlie posted:

I hope members who like the older 50s style layout and those just thinking or planning can get inspired to just start and go with what space, resources and skills they have and enjoy this hobby. 

Charlie, I have to say this is one of my favorite topics on the forum. I had a 4x17 layout as a kid, and always thought it would be fun to build another. I had put it off for a while due to lack of space and time.   However, you and your layout inspired me to get started on a layout,  and let it evolve over time.  I'm in the early stages now, but work on it a little here and there when I get time.

I really enjoy the enginuity of everything on your layout from the turntable, to the wiring, to the roller wheels on the edge of the layout,  to the coaling tower, etc. etc. etc. 

Thanks for taking the time to show the details and tell us how you did it!

All the best,

JD

Last edited by JD2035RR

JD

Thanks for the encouraging words and you are exactly the type of train fan this topic is aimed at.  Does the 2035 in your forum name stand for the Lionel 2035 steam engine?  As you probably know the 2035 is my last favorite engine for my 027 track and Marx switches and allow me to pull heavy trains with operating cars.

I found the planning of the track diagram went pretty fast.  I would try to study other layouts to see where you might want to go in the future and try to plan for that or make it expandable if you can.  I never originally planned to have or build the addition but fortunately it could be built in an L and that fit one of my living rooms and also other houses.

It will take time to accumulate train stuff to get good prices.  Living in Illinois should be great for train meets and train club shows to met train guys who will be good contacts and sources for trains, track, switches, transformers etc.  The north, north east and center of the country model train areas, way more than the south (colder winter up there, I play golf in Jan and Feb in south LA).

I made the main train board in three or four months (including control panel and homemade turntable) working some evenings and some weekends with family of 3 yr and 1 yr and leaving home at 6am, back at 6pm if lucky.  The first Christmas we had the board, control panel, turntable and all track and switches.  No new buildings but a few Plasticville and two from my kid layout my Dad had made.  But trains ran and we had fun.

Charlie

Last edited by Choo Choo Charlie

Post 37   8/5/2017  revised 1-1-2023

Layout Moves to New Train Room 2011 and Layout Legs and Skirting Added

When the layout was moved to the new train/media/audio room in 2011, it was put on legs at 35 inches above the floor.  This height was found to be good for operating and viewing from standing or sitting on a stool.  Three trains shelves were moved from a hall in the house to the walls of the train room to be close to the train board.  It was decided to eliminate some of the background to allow better viewing of the train shelves.

Most legs were 2 x 4s bolted on with carriage bolts and bracing is 1x2s screwed on.

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Since the train room does not have a closet or storage room the space below the train layout is used for storage of LP records, spare stereo gear, etc.  This makes for a messy looking area.  It was decided to make a cloth skirt to hide the mess.

Some dark blue inexpensive material was purchased at Jo Ann’s or another cloth store.  Enough was purchased to make skirt for the whole perimeter around the layout.  Skirting was made for the most visible ends of the “L” and the sides where the control panels are.  It was not made at this time for the less visible sides facing the two walls with the train shelves.  This also provides easier access to the boxes of LP records , VCR tapes, Reel to Reel tapes, CDs, cassette tapes, etc. stored under the layout.

The skirt is made using simple panels, each 6 inches wide with 2 inch pleats.  A 5 inch hem was sewn on the bottom and a 1 inch hem was sewn on the top.  The skirt was held to back side of the 1x6 base boards around the layout with thumb tacks or push pins. The skirt is sized to hang about ½ inch off of the carpet.  It was made in sections large enough to cover each straight side or end with about 2 feet extra to overlap and not leave any gaps.  Believe it or not I sewed the skirt with my wife’s help threading the sewing machine.

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Pleats would be sharper if I had ironed them !


It turned out the layout would be an eye sore without the skirt hiding the storage mess under the layout.  It is more convenient to access the LPs under the layout without skirting on the backside.

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This next shot shows the electric cord protector for the power cord to the layout.  I regret not having a couple of outlets installed in the center of the rooms floor during construction.

PS: 10-2019  I have since found a way to add a power outlet under the train layout.  There is a 110v outlet in the ceiling in the garage below that was added to power a garage door opener.  It would be easy to add a floor grade outlet under the train board and electrically tie it into the garage door opener outlet below.  I have decided, for the the time being, to stay with the electric cord protector as there is not much foot traffic here.

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Charlie

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Tom

Thanks for the response.  You are this topics best fan!  Velcro is a better way to hold the skirt on but as you know takes much more work to sew on and install on the layout.  I have seen Velcro on layouts at train shows that get moved and set up often.   I took the quick easy way and also do not remove the skirt so the tacks work ok.

Next posts will be on Special Trains run on the layout.

Charlie

Charlie, 

  Glad you have more topics up your sleeve. Great layout you have there and I look forward to your posts...as do many others who are following your thread. I was reviewing some of your earlier posts and I remembered we have 2 things in common, I like the LW transformers, too and my last layout had that same crazy wiring that you showed in one of your earlier pictures. When I had to take apart that layout when we moved 5 or so years ago, I had such a mess, I unknowingly/accidentally snipped a power cord on my other transformer, a ZW!  

  Tom 

Choo Choo Charlie posted:

 Does the 2035 in your forum name stand for the Lionel 2035 steam engine?

In fact it does stand for the Lionel postwar steamer, my favorite Christmas gift that I received as a kid.  I really enjoyed it as a kid, and grew to respect how great of an engine it really is as I grew older.  Maybe the most underrated engine of the postwar period?

Your family situation at the time of the build sounds similar to mine now.  It's tough finding time at the end of the day with so much going on. I'm really trying to make it a priority to include the kids on the build, to try to pass along the skills learned in creating a layout.  We will make some time for it shortly as I'd like to have it up and running by Thanksgiving this year.  

I've been purchasing layout items over the past two years as I saw good deals pop up.  Goal is to have it action packed like yours.  

JD

Post 38a

Heavy Weight Steam Engines Upgrade 1998 to 2011

I have gone from:

Light Weight  2.0-2.4 pound plastic body 2-4-2 Lionel 248 type, and metal body Marx 999 and 666, mostly from 1977-1980

to Medium Weight  2.5- 3.5 pound metal body 2-6-2 Lionel 2016, 2026 2-6-2v type, mostly from 1986-2000

to Heavy Weight 3.6 - 4.5 pound metal body Lionel 2025 2-6-2  and Lionel 2-6-4 2035 (with Magne-Traction) 2-6-4, mostly from 1998-2011      Steam engines to pull heavier and heavier trains with 4 to 6 heavy operating cars like milk, cattle and barrel cars.

Early Heavy Weight engines were two Lionel 2025, 2-6-2, 3.6- 4.5 pound engines without Magna-Traction


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Later four Lionel 2035, 2-6-4, 3.6-4.5 pound engines with Magna-Traction


Lionel 2035 10-15-2023 2023-10-15 008


Lionel 2035 10-15-2023 2023-10-15 001










Charlie

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Post 38b   8/12/2017

Popular Trains Run on the Layout - Operating Car Train  (1st Post, Milk Car)

I operate several Trains frequently on the layout such as the Operating Car Train the Operating Car Train, the Christmas train and a Wrecking Train and several more to be detailed in later posts.



Operating Car Train and the Milk Car Lionel 3582

One train always on the layout is the Operating Car Train.  A Lionel 2035, 2-6-4 heavy locomotive with Magna-traction is used to pull this heavy, long train.  This train consists of a Lionel 3582 milk car, a Lionel 3656 Cattle Car, a Lionel Barrel 3556 Unloading Car, and Lionel Ice Refrigerator 19825 car ,a  gondola and caboose.

This Operating Car Train is usually on the bypass siding on the new train board, near the control panel and with the Milk car posted in front of the Lionel 3462 Milk Platform so it is ready for action.

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The Lionel 3582 Milk Car is the main action as the little man throws milk cans at the platform trying to get them on the platform and stand them up.  The milk car is activated by 12 volts to uncoupling track in front of the platform.

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The Milk car and Platform get the most action by all children who all can reload the cans into the car and discharge them quickly.  The Lionel 3482 Milk Car and Platform are easy to find as it was probably Lionel’s bestselling operating car and is a must have.

I have three other Milk cars, two 3472s and an O scale sized 36621.  They all work the same with the Platform.  The 3470s have aluminum doors and an older style milk can door for installing the milk cans.  One has to use a finger nail to open this door from the front.  The 3480 has the hinge away from the end of the door and opens easier by pushing on the back of the door.  Having additional Milk cars allows one to have operate a milk car train or have another train have a Milk car too.

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Note Flood lights working for night operation.



Picture of Large Tweezers to help in retrieving milk cans from the track and between car and platform.

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Charlie

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Casco posted:

Charlie, thanks for taking the time to provide your very thorough explanation.  I think I get it now but I'll find out if that's true when I actually build the turntable and roundhouse.

As far as the rotational power for the turntable, I suppose horses or other draft animals could have been used as well.  Modeling that would be pretty interesting.

Tom, that's a cool picture of man-handling a locomotive.  It seems like it would take a lot more men than just one with a lever to move it.  I imagined a bunch of guys climbing down into the pit and pushing the TT.

Casco

You don't need a team of horses or men to manually turn a steam engine.  One man can easily do the job.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last edited by Former Member

Post 39   8l18/17

Popular Trains Run on the Layout - Operating Car Train  (2nd Post, Cattle Car)



Operating Car Train and the Lionel 3656 Cattle Car and Cattle Pen

The next car on the Operating Car Train is the Lionel 3656 Cattle Car.  The Cattle Car and the cattle pen are another of the more popular Lionel Accessories and easy to find.

The Cattle Car and cattle pen do two operations.  The first is to unload cattle from the cattle car into the cattle pen.  Then the cattle car can go on its way with the train.  Later that cattle car or another cattle car can dock at the cattle pen and be loaded from the cattle pen.  This allows two operations and more realist train movements.  The Lionel 3656 Cattle Car and cattle pen also can load and unload cattle, car to pen and pen to car or to a second car on another train.

The cattle car must have Lionel accessory track and the cattle pen must have power.  I use variable voltage from the train operating Lionel LW transformer.  Variable voltage is a must to get the finicky cattle to vibrate and move correctly. I have a momentary switch on the control panel to feed that power to the cattle car and to the cattle pen.



IMG_0757

Note:  White spots have been added to some of the black cattle with white latex paint and Flood Lights for night operation.



I recommend the cattle pen be placed where it can be given some human finger help.  Cows will often get stuck or jammed in the cattle car also requiring removal of the car and shaking them out.  Cows also get stuck or jammed in the cattle pen also.  This car and cattle pen can be frustrating for small children.

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Cattle Pen is near Control Panel and LW transformer

Charlie

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Post 40  8/20/2017

Popular Trains Run on the Layout - Operating Car Train  (3nd Post, Barrel Car Loader)



Operating Car Train Lionel Barrel 3556 Unloading Car and the Lionel 362 Barrel Loader

Another car on the Operating Car Train is the Lionel Barrel 3556 Unloading Car.  This car uses a vibrator motor to transport wooden barrels up and off the car.  The barrels can discharged into a Lionel black plastic tray used for logs or on to a platform you can make.

Picture shows Lionel Barrel 3556 Unloading car discharging Barrels

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The best option is to procure a Lionel 362 Barrel Loader.

IMG_0754

The Lionel Barrel Loader 362 is a long vibrating ramp that will load the barrels into the Lionel Barrel 3556 Unloading Car.  My Barrel Loader 362 came as a Junker ramp and vibration motor without the base.  I got to make a base from wood in just the size I needed for my location near the main board control panel.  I made the ramp discharge piece from plastic from plastic gutter piece and ramp feed section from aluminum sheet from flashing.  I have yet to make the fencing around the ramp.  The Barrel Loader is not anchored down to allow moving as necessary to adjust the distance to the track and cars.

What makes this car and accessory combination more fun is the fact one can load barrels on to the car and then unload the car back onto the barrel loader ramp.  The use of a second barrel unloading car on a second different train makes for lots of realist operation.



Barrel Loader Operator- my guy is not the  2 inch high man like the original but larger than the little Barrel Car man         

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Charlie

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Post 41

Popular Trains Run on the Layout - Operating Car Train  (4nd Post, Ice Car & Icing Station)

Operating Car Train Lionel Ice Refrigerator 19825 car and Lionel Icing Station 6-2316

Another operating car on the Operating Car Train is the Lionel Ice Refrigerator 19825 car.  This car receives blocks of plastic ice from the Lionel Icing Station 6-2316.  If you have a Lionel Icing Station, the Lionel Ice Refrigerator car is a must.  Dumping ice blocks into a gondola or coal car just will not cut it !

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Of coarse there is no way to recover the ice blocks or unload them, since they all melted keeping the shipment cold !  The Icing Station is not anchored down to allow moving to adjust position for the distance between the Ice Car and also not let trains swinging by from hitting the Icing Station.

Charlie

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 Horray for operating cars.

  I missed some. My notifications on this thread are only comming intermediatly...likely MS Outlooks new found unreliability these last months and not a forum issue.

  I love seeing posts from David of Dearborn too. He is another "Tinkerer Extraordinare".  Portable micro- tinplate layouts and the coolest of long forgotten about "gadgety" tin accessories are just a few of his goodies. 

  Gramps always had plenty of #90s to keep little fingers busily entertained (and slider switches to kill them if you abused the buttons wildly, lol ); and he  had the icehouse and car around too. But in my whole life, I only got to see it work one or two times (as with a few items). He felt there was something too delicate about it, or it didn't work very well or something....a mystery to this day because it wasn't " mint".

  The stock coral and vibrating car was only used a few times as well, but was there a decade.(his stock tended to stay put or fall over lame).  

  Coal loaders tended to make a mess, and stray rocks in loco gears just wasn't the kind of thing that appealed to him, but were rather more of a nightmare scenereo for running his nicer trains (white glove stuff). I could run the coal elevator, but milk cars were just plain easier for me to use and clean up after. I cleaned or might be forbidden from the throttle next time...that wasn't really about just the coal though. That was recognition of ownership; respect

  One of the nicest "groups" of cars Gramps had were the various versions of the milk cars. The ones we handled were just so-so. I always liked the looks and action on the aluminum doored cars best but they were way more delicate too. Plus they had the magnetic bottomed cans, so twice as likely to remain standing. We called the plain bottom milk cans "the empties" because they fell over easier  

 The red, white, and black switcher; what road is that? A striking loco.

Choo Choo Charlie posted:

Post 39

Popular Trains Run on the Layout (2nd Popular Trains Post)

Operating Car Train and the Lionel 3656 Cattle Car and Cattle Pen

The next car on the Operating Car Train is the Lionel 3656 Cattle Car.  The Cattle Car and the cattle pen are another of the more popular Lionel Accessories and easy to find. 

The Cattle Car and cattle pen do two operations.  The first is to unload cattle from the cattle car into the cattle pen.  Then the cattle car can be go on its way with the train.  Later that cattle car or another cattle car can dock at the cattle pen and be loaded from the cattle pen.  This allows two operations and more realist train movements.  The Lionel 3656 Cattle Car and cattle pen also can load and unload cattle, car to pen and pen to car or to a second car on another train.

The cattle car must have Lionel accessory track and the cattle pen must have power.  I use variable voltage from the train operating Lionel LW transformer.  Variable voltage is a must to get the finicky cattle to vibrate and move correctly. I have a momentary switch on the control panel to feed that power to the cattle car and to the cattle pen.

 

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Note:  White spots have been added to some of the black cattle with white latex paint and Flood Lights for night operation.

 

I recommend the cattle pen be placed where it can be given some human finger help.  Cows will often get stuck or jammed in the cattle car also requiring removal of the car and shaking them out.  This car can be frustrating for small children. 

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Cattle Pen is near Control Panel and LW transformer

Charlie

Sounds like my old vibrating football game

 

Adriatic

I am glad you asked.

You asked  "The red, white, and black switcher; what road is that? A striking loco."

Post 21 on page 2 of this topic (quoted below)  explains this engine.

"I had a Marx 1998 switcher missing the shell.  I found a Lionel SW2 shell and cut out about 1 inch of it to shorten to fit the 1998.  I painted it black, white and red in the colors of ALCOAs Bauxite and Northern short line railroad from the Bauxite, ARK alumina and chemical plant in Bauxite, ARK to the a major railroads main lines.  The Marx1998 is a great running engine and always beats other engines in racing through the oval and figure 8."

Train Pic 2, 1-19-2015 007

Charlie

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Charlie, at one point you mentioned automating the manual Lionel log loader on your layout.

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I don't want to make you do anything you dont want to do, but I'd love to see you do it and share how you do it. I've thought about picking one of those up and doing the same thing - possibly with an old switch motor to drop the logs and create a conveyor to pull the logs up from a dump bin into the shed. Just a thought for a future post! Thanks!

OGR magazine should run an article on your layout - heck - it's already written and photographed!

JD

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Boomer and fellows, thanks for the comments.  Boomer, I am not the quality of modeler they look at for magazines to publish.

I have been following Hurricane Harvey today (8-25-2017) and tonight.  I still have friends in Port Lavaca and Victoria, TX.  This one looks average in wind and heavy in rain.  We had Hurricane Carla hit right over Port Lavaca in l961 with winds above 175 mph.  It blew some of the roof off our house.  We went to Austin but my father stayed at the ALCOA plant (at Pt. Comfort, 6 miles over the causeway from Port Lavaca) since he was Hurricane Coordinator.  They  were all safe.  Please pray for those affected that they and their homes survive.

JD,  I have had the idea to automate the cheap Lionel 6-12774 Log Loader for over 30 years.  I would simply come up with a way to use a solenoid to trip a gate or tilt the ramp and let the logs roll.   Maybe some day, meanwhile I have that to look forward to.  In the post after next I will outline why I might speed that up.

Charlie

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Choo Choo Charlie posted:

Boomer and fellows, thanks for the comments.  Boomer, I am not the quality of modeler they look for magazines.

I have been following Hurricane Harvey today (8-25-2017) and tonight.  I still have friends in Port Lavaca and Victoria, TX.  This one looks average in wind and heavy in rain.  We had Hurricane Carla hit right over Port Lavaca in l961 with winds above 175 mph.  It blew some of the roof off our house.  We went to Austin but my father stayed at the ALCOA plant (at Pt. Comfort, 6 miles over the causeway from Port Lavaca) since he was Hurricane Coordinator.  They  were all safe.  Please pray for those affected that they and their homes survive.

JD, have had the idea to automate the cheap Lionel Log Loader for over 30 years.  I would simply come up with a way to use a solenoid to trip a gate and let the logs roll.   Maybe some day, meanwhile I have that to look forward to.  In the post after next I will outline why I might speed that up.

Charlie

Charlie,A large amount of the layouts in "that other magazine" were built by professionals and not the work of the owner. The wonderful thing I see in your layout is that you don't need to spend a lot of money to have a great layout. Your thread should be required reading for anyone who is not sure they can afford the hobby. Thanks for sharing your layout!

Post 42  8/31/2017

Popular Trains Run on the Layout - Operating Car Train  (5th Post, Gondola or Coal Dumping Car)

Operating Car Train car The Gondola (or Coal Dumping car)

The gondola car servers many purposes such as receiving barrels from the Lionel 362 barrel loader in lieu of the Lionel 3556 Barrel unloading car, oil drums from the Am Flyer 379 Oil Drum Loader, dumping logs to the Lionel 464 Saw Mill (Coal Dumping Car), containers and scrape iron from the Lionel 12834 Gantry Crane and even coal from the scratch built operating coal mine in lieu of a coal hopper car.  You can see these simple cars provide a high level of operating action.

PS:   Next post will outline how I automated the Manual Lionel 6-12774 Lumber Log Loader



Gondola at rear of Operating Car Train

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Am Flyer 379 Oil Drum Loader  in action, Gondola car is a must for the 379

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Lionel 12834 Gantry Crane require a car like the Gondola to carry the load.

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PS  A final note of gondola cars.  In late 2022 I found out about covered gondolas and made a cover for gondola cars ( page 8, post 82 of 12-22-2022).  The cover gives another use for the gantry crane, removing and installing the cover on a gondola !

The magnet of the Lionel Gantry Crane can be used to pick up or lower the with a  small steel washer and cables, with hooks on the cover. The cover can then be removed or installed on top of any 8 inch gondola rail car.

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Charlie

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Post 43  9/4/2017  edited 3-29-2023

Automating the Manual Lionel 6-12774 Lumber Log Loader Building to allow moving logs from Mountain to Lionel 464 Lumber Mill (revised 3-29-2023)

Lionel Log Dumping car, a 9303 or 3451 are too low to be used to discharge logs to my Lionel 464 Lumber Mill log feeding platform.  Both 027 track and Lumber Mill are at grade.  I have found a Lionel Coal Dumping car, 9304 or 16600 are high enough and can be used to dump logs to the Lionel 464 Lionel Lumber Mill loading deck.  Maybe not realistic but workable on my layout!

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The fact I can now discharge logs from a coal car to the Lionel 464 Lumber Mill makes me more interested in automating my manual Lionel 6-12774 Lumber /Log Loader.  This will allow loading logs from my wooded mountain, in a car and unloading the logs on to the feed platform of the Lionel 464 Lumber Mill and then sawing the logs into lumber with the saw mill for double action tasks.

The small Lionel 6-12774 Log Loader Building fits well adjacent to my mountain, next to my automated coal mine.  The coal mine was kitbashed from a Bachmann, Coal Station 1975, on page 2, in Post 15 here.  I think the loggers on my mountain drag, roll or haul the logs to the Log Loader from the mountain so space is not needed to transport the logs from grade to be loaded into a car like the fancier Lionel 164 and 364 Log Loaders.

Well, with the rainy weather from Hurricane Harvey I had some inside time to automate the Lionel 6-12774 log loader.

The first task was to glue the Log Loader Building kit building together and reinforce the building shell with corner braces and more plastic on the flimsy front where the logs are stored.  I will use the small wooden logs from the Lionel 464 Saw Mill instead of the cheap hollow plastic logs that came with the log loader kit.

Next I added some reinforcing beams on the legs holing the log loader building to take the wobble out.  The building will be heavier now with an automation mechanism.  I used hard balsa wood and 5 min epoxy glue.

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I had a Radio Shack 12 VDC solenoid on hand from a long time ago.  I added a Radio Shack 4 amp full wave bridge rectifier to change it to 12 VAC operation.   I doubt if RS has them anymore but junk O gauge switches have two 12 VAC solenoids that one could possibly use for this purpose and eBay has similar solenoids from China.

The next issue to figure out is how to make the solenoid dump the logs.  The original tilted the bottom of the building to let the log roll out.  I lost the device that came with the kit to make the logs dump.   All that is needed is a way to knock out a prop that keep the floor and logs from rolling out.  The prop is used to flatten the tilt of the log table to hold the logs.  The prop must be knocked out to let the bottom tilt.  I decided to make a tilting prop mechanism from a small hinge.  Since I did not have one, I made a hinge out of two small pieces of pipe strap.

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The hinge will be straightened out with a pull on a short piece of string and the logs will be loaded by removing the roof.

The solenoid would just pull another string, on the top half of the hinge, when activated. That will jerk out the top half of the hinge to the dump logs.

Picture showing solenoid and hinge in up position, J B Weld was used to hold the solenoid and hinge in the building;  the white cord is keep solenoid piston from coming out. IMG_0420



The roof was glued together and bracing added to hold the roof angle as it will be removed and reinstalled often.

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Picture:  Note braces in corners and 1/2 inch black base foundation added to bottom feet due car being too high to dump into.

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I added flood lights to the corners of the log loader building to illuminate the car being loaded and the inside of the building.  Mini Christmas tree lights and sockets were used with aluminum flashing for reflectors.  I used two 7 v bulbs in series to lengthen bulb life with 12 v lighting transformer.  Adjusting the amount of bulb sticking in the building allows some light to stay in building.  The Log Loader is not anchored down to allow moving to be the proper distance from the Log Loader to the railcar to be loaded.

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I added some light weight card board to the log tilting rack to keep light from going to bottom of the bottom exposed log loader building. IMG_0415


Video of operation is above or or go to the Youtube link below as my videos sometimes do not work on OGR Forum !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...amp;feature=youtu.be

Converting the manual Log Loader Building to be automatic and remotely operated is an easy job, and the Log Loader Building is easy to reset and load and works every time.

This is a much cheaper and less space consuming log loader than the Lionel 164 or Lionel 364 log loaders but these two will take logs after being dumped from a log dumping car at grade and raising they via chain lift or up a ramp by belt to be dumped into another car.

Charlie

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Thanks for the response.  I like flood lights especially for operating accessories and cars in low light.  Just figured out I need to add more light around the gantry crane to see where we are dropping canisters in gondolas.

Working on the automated log loader got me looking in to the coal mine dumping system.   Recently (Sept 2017) the log loader was not dumping.  Turns out a plot of piston distance from the magnet shows the most pulling power is when the piston is 1/16 to 1/8 inch out.  The piston was much more out from the magnet so I had to modify by adding about 1/16 inch wood to the sloped part to make the trigger pull when about 1/16 inch out.  That fixed it. 

Charlie

 

 

Last edited by Choo Choo Charlie

Your "indexing" your edits is very considerate. Thank you for that.

  Why not a light on the bottom of the gantry's crane platform or one on each corner? And didn't Marx have a crane car with a flood spot for the boom? (migbt be AF..?) . I'm taking my cue from night shots of an intermodel beam crane that had ligbts on the underside of the cabin and at each end.

  Being to scale is not much of a concern for me, and my local RS is gone, so I picked up some of these l.e.d. mini reading lamps at The Dollar Store™. Two styles, both 3v, the one on the right has a better current tolorance though. 

I'll post a shot soon, got an issue, dogs elbow is bloody...gotta go.

Ok, an ingrown hair or skin tag, but she is fine till the vets.(140lbs)(extra attachment below) But my new carpet is toast.

..the lights. The one on the left is wired to run off the transfomer 5v with a tiny bridge rectifier, resistor, and capacitor to stop pulsing and flicker. The one on the right is still on button cell battery power. Also they are 4.5v not 3v; (I was sidetracked) The one on the right has better current handling.

A little large, but if not next to figures and vehicles, do the trick for me at a buck each. Base comes off, arms have screws or pins that can be pulled and the arm tilts can be adjusted.

  If you search for a good vending/game supplier you will have a grand selection of solinoids to pick from. I'd make a suggestion but haven't been up to date on who is who in many years now. (If you ever get bored or need it, I bet you'd be a natural at vending/game repair. The variety keeps it "fresh" too)

Grainger had a lot of solenoids too.(seldom cheap, but good quality. one solinoid I used most often was actually cheapest there)

Fyi, that solinoid might be on its way out. Changes in performance aren't a good sign; real hard to say though, might be the rod has magnetized some. Time will tell.

(Updates have affected the ability to compose again. Most errors youyoull see for the next few days/weeks are googles errors, not ours fyi. Im not fixing anymore)

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Post 44a   9/9/2017

Common Trains Run on the Layout - Passenger Trains -

One of the first buildings installed on the layout was a Plasticville Passenger Union Station.  I usually have at least one passenger train on the layout.

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Early on when I started with a few Marx and Lionel engines a set of Marx’s Santa Fe 3152 and 3197 tin passengers cars (10” long) found me for a reasonable $10 for three cars.  Lionel 2400 series cars were going for $25-35 per car back in the 1970s.  IMG_0802


I added lights and a power pickup (made from Brass shim stock) to the observation car and added a Lionel coupler to a coach car to allow both Marx and Lionel coal tenders to pull the set.

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I put together a set of Lionel 027, 2400 passenger cars (11” long) from finding bodies and buying roofs, domes and window with silhouettes.    IMG_0808



I make the base frames from sheet metal and added wheels and couplings making the electric pick - ups.  I cut the couplings off the short trucks and bolted the coupling to the body as I did not have the extended passenger couplings.  I have made two Lionel series 2400 sets.

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A 4 car set of Lionel 027 Santa Fe 16000 (same size as 2400) cars (#16060) were also picked up.

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Later I found a three car set of Lionel O27 Baby Madison 9500 series “The Milwaukee Road” passenger cars (12” long)(in front).  A second observation car was found too.  General 9541 Railway Express Agency Cars on rear train in picture.

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I had a people set of US Presidents and made a ”IKE” lighted drum head sign and installed President Eisenhower and VP Nixon figures campaigning on the observation cars platform at the end.

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I also run the Lionel General 1862 or 8005 with two Lionel 9541 Santa Fe Railway Agency Express Passenger cars (11" long).  One came with lighted interior and the other was from a cheaper Lionel 8005 General set without lights.  I added lights and homemade light pickups.  I have yet to get some General Passenger cars.

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Here are two smaller train depots or stations on my layout.  The first is a Plasticville station behind Main Street buildings, in an industrial area with red stripped Lionel Santa Fe 16000s.IMG_0848

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A small Plasticville Depot across the tracks from Main Street with Lionel Santa Fe 16000s.IMG_0843

Passenger cars that are 12” long or shorter look the best, with minimum overhang, on my sharp 027 curves.

Charlie

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Post 44b   Common Trains Run on the Layout - Giraffe Cars and Train - The most Popular Cars on the layout  (revised 1-26-2024)

The Lionel 3376 Giraffe Car is by far the most popular car run on the layout.  People of all ages love them especially when I run all 5 cars in row and operate them where the can duck through a tunnel, mountain  and another tunnel.  When I saw one operate at a train show I had some and accumulated 5 to date, many made from used car bodies and purchased giraffes mechanisms.                                                                                                        Giraffe cars and giraffe trains are way more fun if they duck for a bridge, tunnel or other obstruction in place of the Lionel Tell tail that comes with the car.  Bridges or tunnels give the giraffe a real reason to duck and un duck his head and neck !  Later I will show how to make triggers to duck the giraffe for more realist operation and longer ducks.

A trigger is shown below by the trigger lever at the bottom of the giraffe car below

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Ducked and Not Ducked Giraffe cars

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Slower train and a lazy Giraffe



Picture below:  I made the triggers, along the rails, from some junk slats from old wooden shutters.  I had to slide the black metal section further out on the yellow plastic trigger, to allow more space between the rail and the trigger so the valve gear of my Lionel 2025 and 2035 engines miss the trigger.   You can see the wear on the trigger from the 2035 valve gear and the slots on the screws used to hold the rail down for adjustments.  The total length is that of the bridge, maybe 24 inches.

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I am big into giraffe cars.  A string of 5 looks good ducking in sequence and the kids love them.  I have triggers at two bridges, a past through building and a two tunnels in my mountain.

Charlie

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Post 45   9/21/2017

Common Trains Run on the Layout – The Christmas Train

My Christmas train usually consists of a Lionel 627, 44 ton red diesel, Lionel 36743 Operating Santa Claus Bobbing Head Box car, two flat cars with Santa’s reindeer including Rudolph and one flat car with two reindeer and Santa’s sled and the fat man himself, a “CANDY” labeled gondola with Christmas Candy Canes, and a Lionel 26527 Christmas Work Caboose with Christmas gifts.

Trains, Rogers 12-27-2014 003

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I added a Santa, sled and 8 reindeer plus Rudolph, the red nosed reindeer, to my Christmas train.  I made the reindeer cars from three junker Scout sized flat cars and figures and reindeer from a Hallmark Cards Santa, Sled and Reindeer set.  I painted the flat cars white as reindeer like snow and will show up better with a light color.

One car carried the Santa sled and two reindeer, a second car carried four reindeer and third car carried two reindeer and Rudolph, the red nosed reindeer, with a flashing red nose.  The reindeer were simply glued to the flat cars with 5 min epoxy glue.

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The original Hallmark Cards Santa sled was too big so a smaller one was made from balsa wood and sized for Hallmark Cards Santa.

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A blinking red light was installed in Rudolf’s nose and a power pick up was added to the car.

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The Christmas Train is usually stationed on the hidden track behind the background and comes out by surprise for the kids after watching the trains run for a few minutes.  They all love the Christmas Train, Santa and the reindeer and of course the Christmas candy canes in the gondola!



Charlie

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Charlie, Nice work once again. I would imagine you stop the train to allow candy unloading by the youngsters? 

My wife has a small, inexpensive necklace that is battery powered that looks something like this... http://www.partycity.com/produ...ce+17in+x+1+3-4in.do 

...If you want to string it on your reindeer or on the engine...just trying to add to your already festive mood. 

Tom 

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Post 46

Common Trains Run on the Layout - General 4-4-0 Engines and Train

A General 4-4-0 train is also operated.  Often a Lionel horse car or Outlaw shooter car, a Lionel 3370 Outlaw and Sheriff car and an 1800’s period baggage/mail /passenger cars are pulled.

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I also pull my homemade lighted Gold Bullion car for the sheriff to guard, shown here as the silver car.

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For a long time I ignored the Civil War and missile/space trains and cars.  I thought they tended to be plasticity, flimsy and troublesome to operate.  In the last three years I warmed up to them and some reasonable priced items were found.

The first General 4-4-0 was a General Lionel 1862 engine and coal tender with a chip out of roof and a Lionel 9541 Santa Fe Railway Agency Express Passenger car.  The roof was repaired and painted.

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The second General 4-4-0 obtained was a cheap Lionel General 4-4-0, 8005 dc powered set with coal tender and Lionel 9541 Santa Fe Railway Agency Express Passenger car.  I added a full wave rectifier and changed the Lionel 8005 to ac operation although in one direction.  A selector switch was added for manual reversal.  The engine was dressed up with gold stripping, a lighted head light and painting all red engine black for the boiler and stack.

A fuzzy picture of Lionel 8005 before painting and dressing up! Ponc. Train show & stuff 3-5-2016 038



The Lionel 8005 was painted, along with the red and silver front wheels and painted domes.  The body and stack were painted Black.  Gold stripping was added to dress up.  Much more beautiful ! Train -General 4-1-2016 005



Now that I have two Lionel General 4-4-0 locos I can simulate The Great Locomotive Chase of the Civil War between the General and the Texas.  The Disney movie “The Great Locomotive Chase” is a good train movie to watch and the kids will enjoy it too.

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Charlie

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  Such good taste! I recall you working on the black one. Did you use the hand rails to run power to the light like the originals? 

   The Wells Fargo 3370 is nearly always behind one of my Generals too. I recall opening the gift wrap on it vividly. I asked for one for years. 

I have an old RR Association (which?) comic book of the chase & this booklet from L&N. I can try to get better shots of each page if you'd like.

(bad focus, I'll try again soon)

It's very hard to do, but is possible to derail, roll, and have a handrail short on an adjacent tracks. I've seen two PW with melted stanchions and cab from the shorted handrails heat.

And thnks to your Fort Knox "kitbash" I have an idea! I hope to share soon

EDIT:  the group of men was the surviving raiders in the 20s

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Last edited by Adriatic

  Yep, on post war era Generals, power hits the smoke restor and light via handrails.  The smoke piston is horizontal, and it's cylinder is the narrowest portion of the boiler, up front. So i.e., there is no room for wires inside; and underneath then forward then up, would have needed fine wire, too fine for smoke, and even fine, would also still be exposed and in sight. 

They are not the easiest locos to work on. The can motor units are easier to deal with, and adding weight to either helps a lot. They are not great pullers when light and magnetration was great addition when there.

By mpc at least that was changed for the pulmore, but I don't know when. I'm just thinking now that mine arent connected in the cab anymore either.(and they are not) I think now hot goes up via bushed connection to the copper strip shown under the headlight; a reworking of the same parts really.

They still look live via this lights live metal bracket and its power delivery strips; but the cab's connection plate on the cab wall, isn't there to hit when the handrail comes in. 

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Post 47  10/9/2017

Common Trains Run on the Layout - Wrecking Trains

A wrecking crane car and wrecking caboose are always occupying the track around the turntable that allows a switcher engine to pull it from the spur track, across the TT and go into action when a train wreck occurs.  This a quick response train.

I like the Lionel 8516, O-4-O switcher, it is good runner.  It is usually in one of the Round House stalls ready to go.

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I also use the Lionel 8310, O-4-O switcher, older to me.

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And the even older to me, Marx 400, O-4-O switcher.

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A Lionel 8111 NW-2 switcher is also available to pull the Wrecking Train.

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Charlie

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  Always such good taste Charlie.  My DT&I work train shares a designated room with a Virginian, but has its own track except for one wall. The caboose and cribbing are pulling Halloween duty. It has a can motor frame at the moment so another unit can pull more cars. The DT&I  original chassis now sports an early F-units motor with really great magnetraction, the can motor U.S.C.G. engine needed it more   

  I just couldnt find a Burro crane I liked for a good price; I hadn't found a six axle Bucyrus crane yet either; and wasn't to interested with being correct...or waiting.  But later, I did find a mini cranes DT&I number in a photo. I broke out the sharpie again and adopted  the number.

 I excpected to need a 6 wheel truck, but this actally does great with or without the aluminum boom supported by the next car, though it guides the booms swing well when supported ; not tippy. I bashed in a second coupler and it can lead for a heavy train wthout worry.

Reaching up isn't happening well today, best I can do. 

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Post 48   10/19/2017          revised 9-19-2023

Common Trains Run on the Layout – Maintenance Train and Homemade Track Cleaning Car

A track maintenance train is run when problems occur with the layout track, switches and signals.

The first car is a box car used for as a sleeping car with cots until a Bunk car is purchased or made.

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The next car is a Lionel 6142 gondola with tie ballast and a back hoe.  The gravel load was made from a piece of Styrofoam with fine roofing granules glued on.   Then next is a red and yellow Lionel 6812 Track Maintenance car.

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A Lionel EMD GM 19825 motor generator and air compressor car is next in line.  My used car did not come with side doors but I like seeing the generator I added.  You have to take my word for it that the car has an air compressor !

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Following next is a Marx NYC 5590 Crane car and Lionel DL&W 6419 work caboose.  Often a flat car with rails or ties will be in the train also.

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A Real Layout Maintenance Car - A Homemade Centerline style Track Cleaning Car  (revised 9-19-2023)

UPDATE:  Since this was authored NO OX ID track treatment has been applied to the layout track and Track Cleaning has been eliminated and the need for a track a cleaning car eliminated.  See page 5, post 48 on How I  applied NO OX ID to my 027 track and eliminate track cleaning and improve train operation especially at slow speeds.  Tracks have not needed to be cleaned since 12-2021.

Here are some of details of my Homemade Centerline Track Cleaning Car, a $3 to $4 version of the brass Centerline, O gauge track cleaning car and it works super.

The price of the Centerline Track Cleaning Cars is quite high listing for $133 plus postage. It is made from brass.  The brass Centerline car is a work of art and not required to do a mundane job like cleaning O gauge track.  I like the cars design as it has no pads to glue on to replace and no pad motor like the Lionel model.

I worked from a picture of the Centerline track cleaning car and made a body out of wood.  The heavy weight of the brass for Centerline is not needed to clean the track as the roller brush rolls freely in the center of the car.  The center pit of my wooden version was lined with aluminum flashing and glued it in with epoxy.  This area gets wet from the cleaning solution and that would attack the paint and wood of the body.

I used 1 inch diameter mini paint rollers for the cleaning brushes and cut them 1/8 inch of less than the width of the pit (the rollers were the only out of pocket money spent).  Pit is 2 7/16 in wide, 2 7/16 in long and 1 5/8 in deep using a part of 1 in diameter paint roller 2 5/16 in long.   I used a short piece of ½ inch pipe coupling as weight inside the cleaning brush.

Rubbing alcohol is normally used the cleaning solution.  Two or three extra dry cleaning brushes are used after the alcohol saturated cleaning brush and run until the all the wet solution is removed from the track and the dry cleaning brushes show little of the dirty picked up cleaning solution.

The dirty cut off mini paint rollers can be washed in the home washing machine by placing them in a small nylon net bag used for washing small items.


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Below is Track Cleaning Car, cleaning roller brush and 1/2 in dia pipe coupling used as weight inside roller when cleaning

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Another Track Maintenance Car

A Tie-Jector Lionel 5511 car can be dispatched if ties must be replaced.  This is a great running motorized car that really throws out the ties.  Only gripe is forward only operation.  Small stakes must be placed along the track to trigger the injection of the ties.

Train & Crane 4-3-2015 013



The  picture below shows a slot behind the engineer.  Later issues of the Tie-jector had this slot added as heat from the motor was melting the car housing section under the ties.  I cut a slot in mine and added some aluminum foil, held up with clear silicone caulking, above the motor to shield the housing from heat.

Train & Crane 4-3-2015 014

Charlie



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Post 49   11/24/2017

Finds at TCA Train show in Ponchatoula, LA in November 2017

Been busy with Holidays and grand kids running trains.  Also have been installing a larger LED TV in the train room.  Here are a few pictures of the latest finds at the November 2017 TCA train show in Pontchatoula, LA

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Third General and this one smokes.

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For some reason I always liked the yellow feather box car and finally found one.  It has the operating door with the little blue man looking out.

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Charlie

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Hi Charlie,

  Somehow, I missed your previous post. I have one of those Tie-jectors, too. Very nice piece. 

  Regarding your air compressor car, You said, "You have to take my word for it that the car has an air compressor." Yes, I think we can let you slide on that! 

  On your new post, nice haul you have there. I especially like your Western Pacific boxcar and your green dump car. I never noticed it came in green. Pretty nice looking. Do they both work or do you need to fix anything? 

Tom 

Tom

The General needed a chipped roof corner glued back on.  At least this time I got the part.  My General 1862 0-4-4 had a missing corner of the roof too and I had to make one.

The Yellow Feather car operating plunger and shaft was missing.  I had another operating door car and switched the Yellow Feather shell to it.  I can make a plunger and shaft for the other operating door car but it is orange and I have another one.

I like to get train gear with defects for a lower price that I can fix!  I am an operator and collect to have trains to run and do not pay top dollar for trains in like new condition.

Thanks for the replies to all.

Charlie

Last edited by Choo Choo Charlie

Dan

Thank you for the kind comments.  I have problems getting the forum site to play my videos but it does great with pictures.  That is why I usually also link to YouTube for videos ( I thought I had gone back and added YouTube links to my failed forum video posts).

I have a YouTube account and usually one can see other YouTube posts if they get on one of the videos.

I have not added videos to YouTube in several years and have plans to make some newer higher definition videos this winter.

Note:  I have found out my Firefox browser will not play HD videos and have started using Chrome for HD videos on OGR forum.  2021

The following is a link to one my more popular videos of a few years ago that may lead to a couple more of my limited videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQJRxSNqvLk

Charlie

Last edited by Choo Choo Charlie

Post 50   12/28/2020

Layout on Christmas 2017

Here are some Train Layout pictures for Christmas December 2017



Some photos of Santa Train

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Winter Scenes for the Manger, we do not get much snow in south Louisiana.

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New Addition to Train Room- a 55 inch LED TV.    It can be seen in back ground on wall to the right.  Engine on bridge is Lionel 2023 AA Union Pacific Alco diesel

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The new to me 55 inch LED does a much better job with my old X-10 camera car than the old 32 inch TV.  Better live video was enjoyed more by all visitors and family.

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Happy New Year to all

Charlie

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Here is a photo of the X-10 TV camera car and the Lionel 16670 Camera car with the revolving TV camera. 

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The below is a picture of 55 inch LED TV showing the picture from the X-10 camera car.  It is much better than the old 32 inch tube TV.   The actual picture on the TV is not blue like the photo below.

With below freezing weather here in Dixie for the next week,  I bet the Camera car will get lots of action. 

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Charlie

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Choo Choo Charlie posted:

Post 43

Automating the Manual Lionel 6-12774 Lumber Log Loader

Lionel Log Dumping car, a 9303 or 3451 are too low to be used to discharge logs to my Lionel 464 Saw Mill log feeding platform.  Both 027 track and Saw Mill are at grade.  I have found a Lionel Coal Dumping car, 9304 or 16600 are high enough and can be used to dump logs to the 464 Lionel Saw Mill loading deck.  Maybe not realistic but workable on my layout!

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The fact I can now discharge logs from a coal car to the 464 Lionel Saw Mill makes me more interested in automating my manual Lionel 6-12774 Lumber /Log Loader.  This will allow loading logs in a car and unloading the logs on to the feed platform of the 464 Lionel Saw Mill and then sawing the logs into lumber with the saw mill for double action tasks. 

The small Lionel 6-12774 Log Loader fits well adjacent to my mountain next to my automated coal mine.  The coal mine was kitbashed from a Bachmann Coal Station 1975, on page 2, in Post 15 here.  I think the loggers on my mountain drag or haul the logs to the Log Loader so space is not needed to transport the logs from grade to be loaded into a car like the fancier Lionel 164 and 364 Log Loaders.

 Well, with the rainy weather from Hurricane Harvey I had some inside time to automate the Lionel 6-12774 log loader. 

The task was to glue the log loader kit building together and reinforce the building shell with corner braces and more plastic on the flimsy front where the logs are stored.  I will use the small wooden logs from the Lionel 464 Saw Mill instead of the cheap hollow plastic logs that came with the log loader kit.

 

 Next I added some beams on the ends of the frame that holds up the log loader building to take the wobble out.  The building will be heavier now with an automation mechanism.  I used hard balsa wood and 5 min epoxy glue.

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I had a Radio Shack 12 VDC solenoid on hand from a long time ago.  I added a Radio Shack 4 amp full wave bridge rectifier to change it to 12 VAC operation.   I doubt if RS has them anymore but junk O gauge switches have two 12 VAC solenoids that one could possibly use for this purpose and eBay has similar solenoids from China.

 The next issue to figure out is how to make the solenoid dump the logs.  The original tilted the bottom of the building to let the log roll out.  I lost the device that came with the kit to make the logs dump.   All that is needed is a way to knock out a prop.  The prop is used to flatten the tilt of the log table to hold the logs.  The prop must be knocked out to let the bottom tilt.  I decided to make a tilting prop mechanism from a small hinge.  Since I did not have one, I made a hinge out of two small pieces of pipe strap.

Picture of the homemade hinge

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The hinge will be straightened out with a pull on a short piece of string and the logs will be loaded by removing the roof.

 The solenoid would just pull another string, on the top half of the hinge, when activated, to jerk out the top half of the hinge to dump logs.

 

Picture showing solenoid and hinge in up position, J B Weld was used to hold the solenoid and hinge in the building;  white cord is keep solenoid piston from coming out

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The roof was glued together and bracing added to hold the roof angle as it will be removed and reinstalled often.

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Picture shows cord to reset the hinge prop to UP position

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Picture:  Note braces in corners and 1/2 inch black base foundation added to bottom feet due car being too high to dump into.

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  I added flood lights to the corners of the log loader to illuminate the car being loaded and the inside of the building.  Mini Christmas tree lights and sockets were used with aluminum flashing for reflectors.  I used two 7 v bulbs in series to lengthen bulb life with 12 v lighting transformer.  Adjusting the amount of bulb sticking in the building allows some light to stay in building. 

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I added some light weight card board to the log tilting rack to keep light from going to bottom of the bottom exposed log loader building.

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Movie

Or go to the Youtube link below as my videos never work on OGR Forum !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...amp;feature=youtu.be

 

Converting the manual Log Loader to automatic is an easy job, and the Log Loader is easy to reset and load and works every time. 

Charlie

Charlie, I found this post but YouTube link didn’t work

Post 51   1/17/2018   (revised 12-30-2023)

Common Trains Run on the Layout – Space and Missile Trains and Cars

Well it has been 16 degrees at night and below freezing all day here in south Louisiana so it is time to hit the OGR forum and make a post.  We had a 1/2 inch of snow or sleet and with these kind of temps here all the interstates and bridges freeze up with no equipment to salt or sand.  The whole south is home bound.

In the early 2000s I got interested in the late 1950s issued missile cars and trains after turning my nose up to them for years.  Most are fun but sometimes frustrating cars to operate.  But they sure look good and colorful.

My favorite is the Lionel reissued 19824 Target car that really works and will suspend a balloon target above the car and follow the car around the layout.  The Target Launcher car would suspend the balloon and the suspended balloon would follow the car, being pulled by a loco slowly around the layout using Bernoulli's Principle.  How about that!  This works best on a loop of track but should not have tunnels, bridges or signal bridges that would interfere with the balloon hovering above the car.

Thus, the challenge of the pairing the Target Launcher balloon car and the Lionel 6650 IRBM Rocket Launching Car (mentioned here later on)  would be to have the moving Target Launcher balloon car, with suspended balloon, drive by on another track to let the missile car and operator try to hit the moving target balloon.  Much more fun.

I love that it runs off of track power and not heavy, leaky D batteries like the original Lionel car.  My problem is my layout track now has no loop that does not have an overhead bridge structures or goes through a tunnel.

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I have several cars that shoot missiles or rockets.  The missiles do not fire very well with the spring powered propulsion and the missiles and rockets are poor fliers.  Some of my missiles are homemade and that may be the biggest problem.

One is the Lionel 3665 Minuteman Missile Launcher Car.  Mine is missing one of the top doors. IMG_0887


Another is the Lionel 6650 IRBM Rocket Launching Car. IMG_0877


I have a Lionel 3519 Satellite Launcher Remote Control car. IMG_0876



I also have a Lionel 6544 Missile Firing Car. IMG_0872



I picked up a Lionel 3349 Turbo Missile Launching Car. IMG_0869


The Lionel 6470 Explosive box car and a Lionel 6448 Target Car are the same.  They are very sensitive and use a spring mouse trap mechanism.  They are hard to assembly and often destroy themselves while going around the layout.  They also often will not explode when it by a missile.  But when they do explode, they are worth the trouble.

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I have the Lionel 44 US Army Mobile Missile launching engine that works well and will pull several missile cars.  It gives a train with the Lionel 6544 Missile Firing Car extra fire power to try to hit an exploding boxcar.  The picture shows the #44 coming out from hiding from enemy missiles in a tunnel .

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Charlie

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