santafewillie
Same Ol' Buzzard
Well known model railroad designer and author John Armstrong's model railroad, Canandaigua Southern, was outside third rail O scale.That is I never heard of 3 rail DC or outside rail hot.
Well known model railroad designer and author John Armstrong's model railroad, Canandaigua Southern, was outside third rail O scale.That is I never heard of 3 rail DC or outside rail hot.
How would it be outside when it went through a reverse loop? The outside would then be inside.IH, how could the outside 3rd rail have problems if it's the common side, same as the common in the middle of Lionel 3 rail 0 track ? Was it because of switches (TOs), where the 3rd has to be split, in turn causing stall outs with certain engines' wheelbases ?
Yea we Americans tend to ignore our HO cousins in Europe and Japan. If you look at Marklin track you won't really see a rail. That is because the "rail" is really a button on the center of each tie (that they would call a sleeper). Under the locomotives is a slider so it glides over the bumps.That is I never heard of 3 rail DC. What was the center rail?
That would put you in the majority. Back when O-Scale was king of the tiny trains, many people wanted to run Lionel, Marx, and other center third rail trains but didn't like the looks of the 3rd rail. So instead of the very difficult conversion of those locomotive to two rail, they did an easier conversion and put a feeler or whisker on the outside. Sort of like the real subway trains use. There were all sorts of problems with it loosing contact through turnouts and the like and the power had to be shifted from one side of the track to the other.I never heard of .... outside rail hot.
Thank you, great post!Yea we Americans tend to ignore our HO cousins in Europe and Japan. If you look at Marklin track you won't really see a rail. That is because the "rail" is really a button on the center of each tie (that they would call a sleeper). Under the locomotives is a slider so it glides over the bumps.
That would put you in the majority. Back when O-Scale was king of the tiny trains, many people wanted to run Lionel, Marx, and other center third rail trains but didn't like the looks of the 3rd rail. So instead of the very difficult conversion of those locomotive to two rail, they did an easier conversion and put a feeler or whisker on the outside. Sort of like the real subway trains use. There were all sorts of problems with it loosing contact through turnouts and the like and the power had to be shifted from one side of the track to the other.
I found two photos of outside 3rd rail. Both of these are from the "Practical Guide to Model Railroading. 1952". I do not have permission to post them but the 50 years copyright has expired. In the first I put two red lines on the feelers off the locomotive. One can see how they had to work the rail so the train could switch from the left side (of the loco) to the right if it goes down the track to the left (in the photo). Also note in this picture they are using actual rail.
In the second picture it is harder to see the outside rail because not only is the picture taken from further away, the "rail" is a much lighter gauge wire instead of a full blown rail. Once again less distraction from the train track. Don't know how long it lasted. Never saw a real one in person.
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Patrick, I know you have been busy with more important things, but I was wondering if you have had time to connect your 2nd power supply?
Also I edited my earlier post in this thread, #13, for clarity and to add addtional information.