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Hi All...

So I've decided to re-enter the 3-rail hobby.

I've vacillated and deliberated doing so off and on for a few years now, but this time, I've made like a frog and leaped.  (i.e. 3-rail stuff is being purchased and flowing my way.) Don't know exactly where these 3-rails will lead me, or what kinds of turns it will take along the way, but off I go.

My hopping aboard the 3-rail train could end up taking me on wild ride akin to a "Nantucket sleigh ride"... or it could be that 3-rails can take me to Nirvana. That's unknown at this point. But this time, I think it just might be here to stay. I'm sure many of you here in this forum know this fact about 3-rail:

Sometimes you just can't shake it once you've truly "known" it.

Over the past few years, I've shared my deliberations and flirtations concerning the call of 3-rail with this fine community here at OGR. Typically, those mental shenanigans and deliberations were accompanied by a lot of diversionary discourse. There is no need to, nor should I, rehash that here. Besides, this is the 3-rail forum. Things non 3-rail are inappropriate for this forum, thus, I will not allow myself to veer off into other scales/etc in this ongoing thread over the coming days, weeks, months, or "??".

If, by some chance, you think it might be entertaining to get caught up on my ramblings of old, the last installment in what was my primary thread concerning same, can be accessed here:

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...webs-we-weave?page=3

THE ABOVE SAID...

I would love for you to pull up a chair, and follow along with me as (off and on) I'll be sharing all sorts of musings in this thread about 3-rail trains, and what I hope to do with them. Of course, as I do, your input and participation would be very much encouraged.

All fer now!

A pair of Lionel Hudson's running through an imaginary scene in Bantam Book's "Model Railroading", 5th Edition. From such are imaginations and dreams born...

LionelSteamEngs

Andre

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petrifiedagg and Art:

I know what you mean. I wore out my original copy that I purchased back in '62. I kept up with it into the 70s (rubber band held it together), but alas my original got lost in one of our moves. Back in the mid-80s I was at a train meet, and lo and behold, there on the table was another copy... and for only a buck! I snatched it up, and though the binding is shot, and the pages are frayed... I still have it to this day. I love the smell of it when opened and I take a whiff of it.

BantamBook2

I can't help but feel that through all these decades of being a "serious" modeler (primarily in HO scale), that little Bantam Book has kept me in touch with my memories of 3-rail, and in its own way, has contributed to my return to 3-rail.

Andre

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@laming posted:

I hear you loud and clear, Lenny.

I'm very much looking forward to getting my first whiff of ozone and hot grease in years via my little Marx set. AND, once I get a version of Lionel's Baldwin Hudson (2055, 2065, etc)... that smoke smell, too! I still have a third bottle of SP's!

SP

All in good time, I suppose.

Andre

Andre, you mention the Lionel 2065 steamer in your above post. The 2065 was my 1st engine, included in a Lionel freight set I got as a Christmas gift in 1954 when I was 3 years old. I still have that locomotive and set, all in good working order. However, they have little exterior nicks and defects cause by the rough play of a child (me), including racing it on a plywood board layout when my 2065 took a dive onto the floor a few times.

Nothing in my collection has more sentimental value than that 2065 baby Hudson.

My heart nearly leaped out of my throat when I visited my LHS last week and saw another 2065 in mint condition. I bought it for a reasonable price, took it home, applied gear oil to the gears near the driving wheels, and ran it on my layout. It runs and smokes beautifully.

I love both of my 2065s. It is a fine, durable and affordable engine, and, IMO, ideal for starting out as an O Gauge model railroader. Arnold

Cont...

It fell to OGR's Marx enthusiasts to dangle the lure in front of me that caused me to go for the bait. With their help, after all these decades, I was able to learn exactly what Marx 3-rail "hand-me-down" train set I had been given as a youngster when I was 7 or 8 years of age (in 1959 or 1960): It was a Marx "25225" set.

Perhaps it was mere coincidence, or perhaps something more, but of all things, a very nice "25225" set was on the Bay that was an exact fit with my memories (or so close I don't know the difference)... so I went for it! With a point/click... the boxed set pictured below was on its way to me, complete with a Marx 50w Model 729 transformer and some track.

(Note: The above story is all told in detail in the "Marx Train Pictures" thread here at OGR.)

My25225set_5sm

My25225set_9sm

Alas, when received, there was not enough track that remained with the set in order to set up a loop or oval. So, I simply cleaned up the engine and cars, lubricating where needed, and fixed the transformer issue (broken wire connector). Now the little 999 engine purrs like a kitten when powered at the workbench!

When the Marx track bundle I purchased arrives, after right at 60 years, I will again see a very familiar Marx set racing around an oval of track, with it's little side rods in a blur. It will be doing exactly what Louis Marx en company designed it to do: Bring pleasure to its owner.

Oh, it should come as little surprise that additional Marx items have already arrived at my doorstep.

But Marx is not my only interest. No, Marx is just the mfg'er that is responsible for my return to 3-rail.

The other siren call for me has been Lionel Postwar. I have long admired select Lionel postwar items. I am already watching for reasonably priced items that I hope to eventually obtain. Though my most basic interest within the Postwar era are the products of Lionel and Marx (and possibly AF, Kusan, and such), in addition I will also be interested in "traditional sized" (similar to postwar) types of newer offerings, as time and opportunity afford.

The Scent Of Ozone...

Back in my Lionel collecting years (1990s), it all started with a humble little boxed Lionel 202 UP diesel set that I purchased for about $45. It was my intent to simply have a small oval of track running under the Christmas tree, for the Christmas season had arrived. I threw a white sheet down, placed the tree on it, and set up the oval of track around the base of the tree. There our the little pumpkin-colored Lionel Alco FA resumed its Christmas Tree duties that no doubt it had performed in the past. (We nicknamed the little 202 "Pumpkin"!)  No sooner had "Pumpkin" made a few circles, than that magical ozone smell began to drift into our nostrils. My daughter (I think she was 12 at the time?) noticed it too.

Like an aphrodisiac intoxicating us with the desire for more, we both laid down to get an eye-level view of our little Pumpkin, and as it neared we would raise our head up from eye level and sniff that wonderful sweet smell of ozone as it passed under our noses! She loved that aroma! Of course, so did I. With each whiff of that wondrous aroma, memories of childhood times gone by wafted through my mind! (Scenes of my little Marx set from my childhood... a friend's little Marx Monon FM set... some friend's and their Lionel sets... oh my!)

Within a day or so, I had the idea to get some of those cheap, illuminated, ceramic buildings at Walmart. We soon had a "Main Street" scene for Pumpkin to hum past, complete with snow-flocked spruce trees. This grew into a tradition that lasted for several years as our Christmas Tree trains grew in length and variety, and the town kept growing. By the next Christmas, I had some Postwar Hudson's to add to the mix for running. Much more 3-rail "stuff" followed over the ensuing years.

Those were special times, and to this day, my daughter (now in her early 40s), still talks of the fun we had laying on the floor during Christmas and enjoying the sights, sounds, and smells, of Lionel Postwar circling our Christmas tree.

Dare I hope to have that wonderful aroma of ozone to be filling my olfactory senses again after so long?

From that magical Bantam Book: "The Signal Tower operator watches as a mighty Hudson locomotive storms by on its way out of town, while behind him a hard pounding freight on a nearby track, also leaving for parts unknown. Soon, those Engineers will be pulling those throttles open and hooking their Johnson Bar's back... and the race will be on!"

BantamBook3

To be continued...

Andre

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Cont...

BantamBook4

So why, you may ask, is an HO modeler of some 58 years (and "serious" since the early 1970s) that currently has a 20' x 16' out-building housing a 100% functional HO/DCC w/Sound layout, deciding to also return to 3-rail?

That's a good question.

If you noticed in my previous post above, I actually was quite into 3-rail during the 1990s as an adjunct to my primary interest of HO scale modeling. Though at the time I had an elaborate HO scale layout, I had no 3-rail layout. What I did happen to have was a growing collection of 3-rail equipment. Along the way I also acquired track, tons of it. Brand new "O gauge" tubular track purchased by the case, and excellent condition 022 switches, too. However, I had no permanent place to run such equipment.

Instead, I scratched my 3-rail itch by using a two wheel dolly to transport my stacks of storage boxes (engines and rolling stock) as well as cases of track, and on a Thursday evening, I would make several trips to/from the house across the paved parking lot of the church I pastored at the time, to our "Fellowship Hall". (That contained an unobstructed 35' x 50' or so of carpeted seating/table area.) Therein I would set up portable tables, pushing them together, and assemble a track layout. Lockons and jumper wires would serve as simplistic wiring. Upon that I would run trains for a couple/three evenings, running diesels or swapping out steam engines, same with the rolling stock. Often times, I would invite an O gauge 2-rail friend over that also had a past history and appreciation for 3-rail, to join in on the fun and we'd run my trains a couple evenings before I broke it down, packed it up, and back over to the house for storage until the next month or so for another night of 3-rail trains.

This was modus operandi until early 1998, when the opportunity to own our own home appeared. (Up to that time, our housing had been part of the pastoral packages provided by the churches I pastored.) The deal was extremely attractive, but the bank wanted a significant amount of "front" money to secure the deal. I didn't have a large bank account, but what I DID have was trains... lots of them.

SO, they went to market. I sold as much of my 3-rail as I could. (In the end I only had a couple pieces of rolling stock.) I raised about $6000-$7000 dollars in train sales, essentially liquidating my 3-rail and surplus HO in the process. (In fact, just about ANYTHING I could sell. Except the wife and daughter. I decided to keep them.  )

It paid off in spades, and the wife and I still live in that house we purchased (paid off long ago), and intend to continue to do so until assisted living may be required.

So, that was it for my 3-rail affliction until the early 2000's during The Great Scale Experiments when I dabbled in several different scales and themes on a small around-the-walls layout in this small computer room that I'm currently sitting in while typing this installment.

One of my more promising scales/themes was 3-rail. What I learned was with 3-rail, a small area can be quite effective when using traditional equipment. I also learned that by going to a "City" setting, cramped, track-filled scenes would much more acceptable to my eyes. (As opposed to trying to cram spacious mountain railroading into such a small room, a theme that most of my non-3-rail scales had reflected for the previous 20-30 years.) I settled on GarGraves track and switches, and that choice went even further to enhance the impact of the traditional trains. (They looked really good on it.)

In all, 3-rail was working for me. I had a "Kansas City" theme and was collecting equipment for KC roads of the 1950s/60s. I know I've shared the following picture many times before here at OGR, but it's about the best surviving picture of my KC Lines 3-rail experimental layout, and at least it illustrates where I was heading with my 3-rail:

12thStYd

Like I said, it was working. The traditional trains said to my mind: "You're playing with toy trains so don't take this too seriously", so my mind accepted the center rail as simply part of the toy train scene. Plus, the "Phantom" center rail of the GarGraves track system minimized the center rail (see above pic!), and over all, the visual impact of the traditional trains upon GarGraves "Phantom" track was quite pleasing to my eyes.

Then I made a fateful decision: I started migrating toward "Hi-Rail".

Big mistake for me. As soon as the scale equipment started appearing, all of my scale "givens n' druthers" kicked in: I wanted ALL the equipment to be scale, I wanted the engines to run as smooth and as slowly as my quality HO stuff had performed... and as I tried to migrate toward that goal something reared its head that I didn't anticipate: That center rail stuck out like a sore thumb to my eyes, as well as the deep flanges, large couplers, etc.

Then it hit me: IF I'm going to do "scale", I can't do it with 3 rails. So that was that. I went back to 2 rail scale modeling, sold off what 3-rail I had acquired, and aside from one minor 3-rail collecting spree several years ago, 3-rail was no longer on my radar.

But that was going to change.

More fodder for dreams and imagination from The Bantam Book...

BantamBook5

To be continued...

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Last edited by laming

Andre, I had totally forgotten about that book Model Railroading until your photo brought back vague memories of when I was about six and seeing the cover of that book.  Along with that memory was of running my two first Postwar engines, a 675 steam engine and a single motored GG1. I had the two next door neighbor boys over along with a girl across the street to look at my train setup. When I blew the air whistle of the 675, the youngest boy asked “what does that mean?”. At his question the girl said “it means to be quiet”. Even then I appreciated her response and it brought a smile to my face. The girl did not want the dumb question of that young boy to interfere with her concentration of the train operations!

N5CJonny:

LOL! That's a good response from that young lady! Did you end up marrying her?

Bantam Book:

It's very gratifying to read that this thread of mine, and my use of Bantam Book illustrations, has rekindled pleasant memories for you.

I can't begin to explain how many hundreds of hours my original, and this replacement, Bantam Book have rewarded me with. Over time, I think I've come to enjoy the artist renderings (such as I've been sharing) as much, or more, than the actual pictures therein. For some reason they seem to stir my imagination more, as well as spawn more daydreaming about what I would do with 3-rail if I had a lot of space, and could just cast care and $$ to the wind.

I have discovered, and continue to discover, that for me 3-rail is primarily about nostalgia. It transports me to simpler times, it retrieves memories of childhood fun, it draws forth images of Kansas City railroading, and has the potential to indulge me into childhood dreams about having a model railroading empire similar to the ones pictured and illustrated in The Bantam Book. Plus, I just like handling them. I like the size of the traditional rolling stock, I like the heft of the engines, I even like the smell of cold engines! (To say nothing of The Scent Of Ozone when they're running!)

Strangely, I just like having them around.

Ah well, I never claimed to be "normal".

Andre

NC5Jonny:

Good for you! It helps to have a wife that's supportive of our silly obsessions!

redjimmy1955:

All the way over in MD? Wow... how's that for vibes? Yup, already got my fingers greasy when working on the Marx transformer and for sure the little Marx 999 steam engine. Also used sure 'nuf "hold-'em-in-yer-hand" screwdrivers and a small tack hammer! You know, "HE-man" stuff.

Clarence:

Wife says the towels smell like your trains?  So... where's the problem?

Andre

I do not remember the smell of ozone when running our Marx 999 set a kid at Christmas time in the 1950s. 

But the open frame electric motor, with small black transformer with a cloth covered wire from my Dads wooden box erector set, made lots of green sparks and really stunk the room up.  I do not believe the set was an official Erector set but an earlier make from the 1920s.  My brother and I built lots of gadgets powered by that motor and we remotely exploded lots of fire crackers at Halloween using steel wool as an igniter with that transformer to scare the younger kids trick or treating.

Charlie

Last edited by Choo Choo Charlie

CC Charlie...

You may be right. It's only been about 60 years since I've run a 999!

I received my track today, so I quickly cleaned an oval's worth, and after throwing down a furniture moving pad on the kitchen table, I slapped together an oval. I've been running my little 999 w/train off and on this evening, and there hasn't been that distinct smell of ozone, but more of a hot grease smell. Still quite good, though!

Now, I might be smelling a bit of ozone in the mix, for the aroma is very sweet smelling. Very pleasant.

However, it doesn't seem to have the strong scent of ozone like I remember from my Postwar Lionel back in the 1990s. SO, my memories of the 999 aroma may be a bit too distant to truly trust the recollection. No biggie... still has a great smelling aroma!

Andre

Welcome, back!

I'm just about sure I'm leaving HO now. I'm staring at it as I type. Wonderfully running equipment, but it has become so "fiddly" to me. I recently went to replace the decoder in a friends beautiful Rapido diesel ... I broke just about every detail on it trying to get the body off. I break lots of little stuff now. Enough.

I've had a little narrow O scale switching layout at home, just to play with sometimes. Time to sell the HO equipment and expand the O.

Ozone.

Happy railroading.

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