Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
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I know I have seen at least one of them at my local library,can't remember if it was a Modelrailroader book though.
bill
I know this is an old thread but....it's new to me!
I have used the older "Practical Electronic Projects for Model Railroaders" for years. I started using it in the 1970s when I was just a pup. I still have it, and I still love it. The designs are very simple, and probably would be considered crude by today's standards, but they are very easy to understand and build, and they provide rock-solid performance. I have built 3 different throttle circuits from that book, some of the Twin-T detector boards, the flashers, the optical detectors, and some of the sound effect circuits. The sound circuits are the only ones I would not bother with. They produce pretty lame diesel horns.
As for component availability, pish posh. All the components in those Thorne circuits are non-critical. You can look up the exact numbers he gives in the plans on-line and easily find equivalent cross-references. But even easier, just look at the descriptions. When he says "small signal npn, such as ....", just go find a small npn transistor. If he says "NPN 40 watt power transistor, etc", just find an NPN power transistor with equivalent or higher power and voltage ratings to what he specifies. All those circuits are very easy to build, and parts to build them are very commonly, and cheaply, available.
magliaro wrote: I know this is an old thread but....it's new to me! I have used the older "Practical Electronic Projects for Model Railroaders" for years. I started using it in the 1970s when I was just a pup. I still have it, and I still love it. The designs are very simple, and probably would be considered crude by today's standards, but they are very easy to understand and build, and they provide rock-solid performance. I have built 3 different throttle circuits from that book, some of the Twin-T detector boards, the flashers, the optical detectors, and some of the sound effect circuits. The sound circuits are the only ones I would not bother with. They produce pretty lame diesel horns.As for component availability, pish posh. All the components in those Thorne circuits are non-critical. You can look up the exact numbers he gives in the plans on-line and easily find equivalent cross-references. But even easier, just look at the descriptions. When he says "small signal npn, such as ....", just go find a small npn transistor. If he says "NPN 40 watt power transistor, etc", just find an NPN power transistor with equivalent or higher power and voltage ratings to what he specifies. All those circuits are very easy to build, and parts to build them are very commonly, and cheaply, available.
Same here. Back in the 70s I designed a throttle using his book and one of the designs as my starting point. It was DC, had a small corded throttle that could be unplugged and then plugged back in again without the locomotive changing direction or speed. I had lots of fun building those projects. I still have a copy of the book.
Engineer Jeff NS Nut Visit my layout at: http://www.thebinks.com/trains/