A Lionel floor layout somewhere inna good ol' Germany ...

[Anonymous]

Howdy,

my name is Eckard, I live in Germany and I'm reading in this very interesting Forum since a year or so. Today I want to show u some pics of the Xmas-floor-layout I've built last year.







I got all the trains and tracks via Ebay some years ago and yes, the cost for transportation and (german!) taxes are a killer. But what should I do? I love these big Lionel Trains ... [8D]

Nice week,
Eckard

PS: If u enjoy the pics, there are some more and yes - the layout has a story, too.

[hugoroundhouse]

Welcome to the forum Eckard! It must be difficult at times to work on you layout when everything is long distance over e-bay. With such a rich German heritage in model railroading, what made you choose Lionel?

Jim E.

[Anonymous]

Thank u, Jim! Yes, sometimes it has been really hard to wait some weeks until I got what I wanted ... but that's a part of the game, I think.

Why Lionel? As a child in the fifties and sixties of the last century I loved to play with my HO-Trix-Express: Tubular track with three rails, narrow curves, die cast locos ... and me between all that, being half as tall as I'm today. You guess what I mean? With Lionel I got back a little part of my childhood. Furthermore I always loved these big American Trains ... like my Lash-Up of four GP9 with nine Coal-Hopper and the Caboose at the end ... very cool train ... [8D]

On the other hand, from times to times I unpack my Fleischmann HO Trains ...

Nice week,
Eckard

[csxt30]

[#welcome][#welcome]zardoz1953 !! You have a nice collection there, you shouldn't have waited so long to drop in !! Come on over to the Coffee Pot if you get a chance ! 30s WILLGO is over there & he's from Germany also !! Well, we'll all be looking forward to seeing more from you, thanks for sharing, John

[Blueberryhill RR]

zardoz1953...Welcome to the Forum
You have a nice looking bunch of trains.
What part of Germany are you in?
I was in Giessen for 18 months in the US Army.
Tell us about yourself.
Chuck

[Anonymous]

Welcome, Eckard! Your layout and trains look very nice, so it was worth the trouble you went through to get them. Joe Hohmann

[spankybird]

HI Eckard and welcome to the CTT forum.

My mother-in-law is from Simbach, just outside of Munich. She came to this country back in 1954.

We would love to see more of your pics.

tom

[wrmcclellan]

Welcome Eckard!

Your floor layout looks great! Share some more pictures.

Welcome to the forum! Drop in as often as you can. We enjoy the company!

We have a big holiday weekend here in the US starting tomorrow.

Regards,
Roy

[Anonymous]

Hello Just started to build my new O gauge layout and I wanted to know what would be a good O gauge track to use along with my Mth realtrax? I would like to use a track so that I can cut and adjust to form a reverse loop over some existing tracks that are now on my lower level. Are there any better swiches that I can use in place of the mth switch that I will need to use in forming my reverse loop? My previous layout was made up of all fleischmann equipment. I spent 3 years in sevice with the 7th army in germany from 1957 till 1960 and was stationed at panzer kaserne in boerligen and at reese barracks in augsburg with the 97th signal battalion. I must say that those fleishmann engines and cars where great and they lasted 40 yrs wwith no trouble at all. Now that I am on with my yrs the screws are getting smaller to see so i thought I would try to get into something bigger to work with. Hope to here from you soon Felix

[lionelsuperotrack]

Eckard - Really like your layout photos. Would you provide a track plan?

Very best, Mike Spanier

[Roger Bielen]

Welcome to the forum Eckard and a belated welcome to you Felix.

We have another European forum member, Daan, in the Netherlands that frequently visits the coffee pot (almost a chat room), both you and Felix should stop in.

Felix, I'm not familiar with the MTH Realtrax but I would guess that they have a transition piece for going back to standard tubular track. Also, either CTT, or OGR, had an article not too long ago on cutting Fastrack, similar to Realtrax???. For switches, Ive heard good reports on the K-Line units. Personally, I have a mid-sized layout and use Ross switches and Gargraves track.

[spankybird]

Hi Felix and welcome to the CTT forum.

Realtrax makes many small pieces of track, like at 4", 4.5", 3" etc so you don't have to cut it. I have several friends that use the MTH switches for years without any problems. IMO they have one of the best switches on the market.

If you are wishing to mix it to tube track, then at the present cost of the tube track, just use all tube track and sell the realtrack. As Roger said, with tube track I like the K-line switches. BTW, that is what I use with 027 track.

[Anonymous]

Hi guys ... and a big thank u to everybody for the nice replies!

I hope to have the time talking about some of ur topics in detail in the near future. But first let's talk about - no, not sex, but the layout ... [8D]

Here's the track plan. Most of it is Standard-027 excepting the two rightmost sidings and the switch connecting them - that is real 0.

[img.nr]http://www.rentarasta.de/railroad/O27-05r.jpg [/img.nr]

But what is a layout without a story behind it? Not very useful ... so here is what I call the "story board":

[img.nr]http://www.rentarasta.de/railroad/O27-05rz.jpg [/img.nr]

Middleyard is the place, where trains "go to" or "come from". In Germay we call this a "Shadow Station". Unfortunately I've had only place for hiding two trains on the tracks "L" and "R", should be more next time.

Rightburg plays the role of the major station in my layout. The tracks "1/2" and "3/4" are long enough to hold the longest trains (as long as "L" and "R" in Middleyard), engines are serviced on tracks "8" and "9" and groups of cars and complete short trains are waiting on tracks "5" to "7" until they are used again.

Lefthaven represents the industrial district of the layout as a suburb of Rightburg. In it's freight yard (tracks "4" and "5") all the nice Lionel freight cars will be loaded and unloaded - naturally by hand and by myself.

Even though I'm a software engineer, I don't like digital controlled model railroads. Therefore all my switches are operated manually and every track marked in the plan can be switched on/off allowing me using a lot of engines - one after the other. So the last picture for the moment shall be that of my control panel:



In front of that I sit many hours on an old mattress enjoying model railroading "my way" ... [8D]

Nice week,
Eckard

[Dr. John]

Eckard,

Thank you for sharing your trackplan. You have a very nice layout! I like "your way" of enjoying model railroading - there is a special appeal to floor layouts.

Keep the pictures coming!

[Brutus]

Guten tag! Vie geht es ihnen? Ich kan Deutsch, eine bischen. Aber, ich habe das night gerspreken fur zwanzig jahren. How did I do? Please forgive the spelling and grammar etc! Great trains!

Welcome guys - these folks are really friendly and can tell you how to do about anything.

[Anonymous]

Hey Jim, u did very well. No problem for me to understand what u want to say. Ich hoffe, mich versteht man ebenso gut. Und ja, mir geht es gut! Wie geht es ihnen?

Dr. John, I think this "special appeal" of floor layouts has to do with the fact that there's only u, ur trains & tracks - and ur imagination. It's a little bit like a man and a woman: If u're really in love, u need no house, no car ... and sometimes even no food ... [8D]

Nice week,
Eckard

PS: Don't worry, next pics will come soon ...

[Brutus]

Alles gutte! I'm sure your english is 1000 times better than my German, that's for sure!

Anyway - welcome aboard!

[Anonymous]

Welcome to the forums! It's always great to have another member! It's good to see that we're getting a real mix of nationalities here who can give different prespectives on the hobby. Let me compliment you on your fantastic layout!

[Anonymous]

Howdy,

Thanksgiving is over and everybody still alive? That's good ... time for the next pics ... [8D]

Let's first have a closer look at the little Yardtower at the Freightyard of Lefthaven ...



As some of u might have recognized it's made of the top of a two-axle-caboose found in a docksider starter-set ...



... and the (reversed) bulkheads of a cheap yellow flatcar from another starter-set. You can see the flatcar standing in the background behind the elevating track to Rightburg.



The parts are not glued but just stuck together ... nearly no work, but a fine looking result ... [8D]

Nice weekend,
Eckard

[lionelsuperotrack]

Eckard - Thanks for posting the layout schematic. One of my favorite parts of the toy train word is the "floor layouts" that we all had as a kid. When my son was 5 years old he had a layout around his entire room of postwar Lionel. Was that cool or not! He loved it.

Very best, Mike Spanier

[daan]

Hi Eckard, Welcome to the forum. I see you use Lionel tracks? In Europe it's a lot easier to get Märklin or Bing tubular track, which I use too.
The Märklin 8 is about 031 and the 12 is about 054, both I used in my trackplan.
I like the trackplan you have, but (the same as I started with) very european. A shadow station, no returning loops and a lot of track in the mainline.
That's no critizism, but I recougnize my own "track-designing" in it. the trackdesigns on both continents are substantially different, and that's also an interesting point.
In Germany I've located a few online shops which sell American trains as well, but rather expensive. But you save on posting and tax. Thats www.american-train-shop.de and the "spur-0-shop" on ebay.de. Another site with interesting links is www.us-modellbahnen.de with a lot of links to shops in Germany.
It's probably worth to try the links if you need spare parts. On my website I also have a simple electric layout for a "horn/bell" trigger which you can build without having to ship it from the USA.
Hope you have a good time here, it's a very friendly and enjoyable website.

[Anonymous]

Hello Daan, u're right with this website: It's really friendly & enjoyable.

Maybe u're also right with ur notes on the different design approaches. But I'm an "operator", my trains must not only be nice to look at but also have a function: Transport passengers and goods from one place to another. To realize this with Lionel "Toy"-trains is an extra challenge ... [8D]

What u call a special American Trackdesign is an "Old school" design to me. Look at layouts of European Train Collectors collecting Trix, Fleischmann or Märklin ... they also look very different from modern approaches. They are more like these typical 027-Layouts ... just "Old School".

On the other hand American Trackdesign had a great influence on modern European Trackdesign. E. g. the idea of a shadow station, the walk-around-control, the returning loop ... which I don't use in my layout because I didn't have enough place.

Thank u for the provided links, I'll look there next time I need extensions for my Lionel-Trains. But the original 027-Track has become so cheap the last years ... [8D]

Last but not least: Model Railroading is fun!

Nice week,
Eckard

[Anonymous]

Hey There,

Welcome to the Forum. I am new here my self, but I am in the US.

I like that Postwar 221 in that photo. Would you post a few more of that engine please?

[daan]

QUOTE: Originally posted by zardoz1953

Hello Daan, u're right with this website: It's really friendly & enjoyable.

Maybe u're also right with ur notes on the different design approaches. But I'm an "operator", my trains must not only be nice to look at but also have a function: Transport passengers and goods from one place to another. To realize this with Lionel "Toy"-trains is an extra challenge ... [8D]

What u call a special American Trackdesign is an "Old school" design to me. Look at layouts of European Train Collectors collecting Trix, Fleischmann or Märklin ... they also look very different from modern approaches. They are more like these typical 027-Layouts ... just "Old School".

On the other hand American Trackdesign had a great influence on modern European Trackdesign. E. g. the idea of a shadow station, the walk-around-control, the returning loop ... which I don't use in my layout because I didn't have enough place.
...

Probably you're right with that. I was entering the hobby about 18 years ago, track design in Europe already started to work with shadow stations and oval based shapes. In my imagination in track design I always started with an oval, shadow and visible stations and a "mission" for the trains. To me the American track designs where odd and weird when I first saw them. Trains ran everywhere, to every part and in every direction, with no structure in the first sight of it. On my very small space of 1.6x3.5 metres a "european style" track design got boring after a while, because there was no space for any shadow station or freight yard.
To me, designing with returnloops, tracks in all different directions and sharp curves was something totally new, and it gives the extra "thing" which I need to get the small layout interesting for a long time.

[Anonymous]

Here we are again ...

Hello Daan, thank u for ur detailed reply! Ur view is very interesting to someone, who's "in the business" since 45 years. When I was entering, there were only ovals on big rectangular tables and trains running around without any mission ... [8D]

But here as requested a few pictures of the 221, the "black beauty". First we'll see her waiting in Rightburg between the whole bunch of all my steamers ...





... then uphill behind the freightyard of Lefthaven, running a passenger train towards Rightburg.



In my layout the 221 is not only pulling passenger cars, but also running express-freight trains.



Oh yes, it's a real beauty ... even though I'd to remove the heavy mechanical whistle from the tender before the engine was able to pull some cars ... [8D]

Nice week,
Eckard

[Anonymous]

Nice..

Thats a good number of steamers you have in the yard. I only have two.

Might I recommend buying some junky 0-27 streamliners and painting them to match your 221. Williams trains has a line of 0-27 streamliners in virtually every road name, So a set of NYC streamliners would be perfect for your 221.

Keep that 221 near and dear and don't let go of it. It is a real jem (Well, in my thoughts anyway)

[Anonymous]

Oh,

Might I suggest adding rubber traction tires on the front and back drive wheels on your 221. Then you can send it thundering down the line with a longer express for all those 1:48 scale passengers.

Good Luck if you decide to try it.

[Anonymous]

Hello steel rails,

thank u for ur comments ... and for two good ideas!

Next time I built a Lionel floor layout I'll try to find some matching rubber tires. And I'll also try to switch the slideshoe pickups to roller pickups, because one of them is broken during my last session ...

Nice week,
Eckard

[Anonymous]

Yes,

I really do recommend the traction tires and changing the pickups to roller pickups.
I recently purchased a "Riding The Rails Hobo Trains with the money I have been saving all year to splurge on trains this christmas.

The Erie Hudson has rubber traction tires and goes faster and can pull all of my cars (about 12 cars, including the Erie Chase Gondola, Erie Lackawwanna Boxcar, and the lighted Erie Caboose as well as my other caboose) without any wheel slip or loud noises.

And, the Erie Hudson is Jack-rabbit fast.