Train room looking great !!
we finish moving this week, hope to start on mine when the dust settles
Paul -
What do the 5 gray controls on the left hand side of your control panel do? I don't recall seing anything like them before.
Thanks.
Good luck on the move, Paul. I was there not too long ago and hopefully won't be for a long time haha.
The gray controls are #91 Circuit Breakers produced by Lionel from 1957-1960. Lionel made a different style circuit breaker with the same number years earlier. These later versions were equipped with an electromagnet breaker. I'm pretty sure this is different from the transformers' built in breakers which take a while to trip sometimes.
What I love about these (besides their look) is that they have an adjusting knob to have the breaker trip anywhere between 1-6 amps. This is perfect because I only run 1 train per loop and won't exceed 5 amps. They work faster than the transformer breakers and give me a little peace of mind dealing with all this older stuff.
Circuit breakers are often deliberately designed to trip after some delay, to model the heating of the wires in the load circuit. The idea is to trip before that heat reaches a dangerous level, but not so much earlier that the circuit is unnecessarily opened--called "nuisance tripping". Motor and incandescent-lamp loads in particular benefit from this arrangement.
Bob Nelson
Hi Bob. You make a good point and that's why I like these 91 circuit breakers Lionel offered. Depending on the load I have on each loop (NW2 switcher vs twin motor F3's) I can easily adjust it so it doesn't trip when, for example, a whistle motor in need of some oil is trying to run. I actually just had a derailment and it instantly tripped which is reassuring... the ZW didn't have time to react.
On a side note Bob, an old topic you posted on activating signals like the #153 Block Signal and #450 Signal bridge using a GE57 bulb (instead of a relay) was extremely helpful. You bring a lot of great information to this forum for sure. Thanks!
Thanks for posting. It's always a pleasure to know that I helped someone.
I am curious if you have any updated pictures you could share or if your layout was featured in the CTT magazine. Very nice work!
Hello all,
Sorry for the radio silence. Its been an eventful year for us as I'm sure it's been the same for many of you. I hope everyone is healthy and happy as is possible in today's world. I haven't been on this forum for a while and wanted to post a few updates on progress. Here are a few pictures on my mountain in-progress along with the #455 oil derricks near by. I'm using scrap wood and other filler to create the rocks and then plaster strips for the surface.
On a side note, I've started testing the waters in the world of Garden Railroading. I should be posting a progress thread down the road on their forum as well.
IMG_6109 by John Ward, on Flickr" />
Hi BLT-By-Lionel,
I knew I remembered you from a previous thread, and now it's coming back to me! What a fantastic layout ! Really looking great!
Just wanted to share with you that I have had problems getting Flickr to work properly from my iPad, and switched to Shutterfly at the moment. It seems to perform reliably. Some of the share sites seem to have their own set of issues....
If one doesn't work, try another one...
Paul
Thank you Paul. I'm not sure what happened because Flickr always worked for me in the past. I'll have to take your advice and try another. Hopefully I'll get some pictures up soon. Thanks again and I'll see you on the GR side
Ok... heres another attempt. If it works, here are two small hills to display my #455 Oil Derricks (green and red top variations). I'm using plaster cloth and eventually will paint and sprinle on some #919 grass in spots to finish.
Here are a few pictures of my mountain in progress. I made some alterations from my original plan to have the upper loop cross over the two main lines utilizing girder bridges. It just didn't fit the space and I'm glad I was able to have a spot for the #356 Operating Station and #30 Water Tower along with the derricks.
John,
Fantastic! You have captured the magic, and the look of the dealer displays!
I always thought that Lionel Super O track looked great but it was only offered for a short time and was never reissued. I have not seen many layouts where this track is used. Its nice to see that you are building a classic layout with it. Takes you back to the 1950's or was it 1960's. Great job!
dlagrua ...I have not seen many layouts where this track is used...
...I have not seen many layouts where this track is used...
Rob
BLT by Lionel - nice progress and happy you shared some update pics!
Regards, Roy
Thank you all! Hopefully as the weather cools and my weekends get less crazy, I'll have some more progress to come.
Like to see some more. As I looked at yr early pics, I wondered if you had done a scaled track plan? It seemed as if your method was to lay track on table and arrange it as you went. I find the scaled plans which one makes with software often dont quite fit the theoretical space. So what was your method of track plan development?
Does yr layout have a grade from lower level to upper, or is the upper completely seperated? I tend to start with sheets of plywood as a (noisy) surface, temporariiy lay out track, mark location, and then cut into the plywood along my marks for grades, deforming the plywood up or down. Naturally, there is alway a place that I cross from one sheet to the neighboring sheet. I am frequently unhappy at these borders of one sheet and another, where i need to join the track boards together to continue; seems it is always on a curve in such a way that the boundary is somewhat along the centerline of the track. This makes for a flimsy joint.
Don't think i saw any bridges crossing areas depressed below the basic level. My sheets of plywood are on L girder construction, on the crosspieces, so I can have a depressed area below track level. Is that the way to go, or can you put plywood right on the L girder, and adopt another approach to riverbeds.
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