santafewillie
Same Ol' Buzzard
Well known model railroad designer and author John Armstrong's model railroad, Canandaigua Southern, was outside third rail O scale.
DC 2nd Control station question
- Thread starter Patrick
- Start date
M
MHinLA
Guest
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 ?
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How would it be outside when it went through a reverse loop? The outside would then be inside.
M
MHinLA
Guest
Terry, There were 2 rail AC 0 scale layouts in the 50s and earlier which had an outside 3rd rail (same as LIRR). I believe it meant that the loco had to have a pickup shoe/s on both sides, and so once train came back to the switch having traversed the loop, the shoe on the other side of the engine probably took over on same 3rd rail. Maybe it overlapped a tad here to prevent stall outs, both sides on the common for a bit. And I think this would mean that the running rails were both the same polarity, Pos. or Neg. throughout ....
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M
MHinLA
Guest
Patrick , if you have 2 completely separate, we'll say, layouts with a powerpack for each, then no problem at all !! I'm just saying you don't have 2 powerpacks on the track of one layout... Even if it doesn't damage anything, it's redundant...As previously said: To run 2 or more trains on the same track, independent of each other you still use 1 Ppack and split the rails into blocks, each with their own on/off switch/toggle on a panel next to the Ppack... Ppack connects to them in parallel / each toggle out to blocks it's controlling..speed and direction still done on the Ppack...
Iron Horseman
Well-Known Member
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. And it answers MHinLA and BNSF971's questions for me... 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). And we thought we had problems with dead spots on frogs. 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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Bruette
Well-Known Member
Thank you, great post!
I'm so fixated on Lionel I don't know much of anything else. I do have some HO trains, I know enough about DCC to make them run, but that's it.
I'm just now getting my feet wet with MTH DCS.
Lionel is still King for me.
Americans tend to ignore anything and everything that is not American.
Iron Horseman
Well-Known Member
On a side note. Ever since I got a copy of this book when I was 3? years old. I've been fascinated by that first picture. A great picture in many ways. For the 1940's it is amazingly detailed and just exudes the overall feeling of a steam locomotive powered train driving through a small town.
I always wish I can do as well with both my models and my photography.
I always wish I can do as well with both my models and my photography.
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MHinLA
Guest
OH ! So that's where the shoes were !! Love this shot..It looks so real !! My guess is it's a Berkshire due to the square sandbox..
Patrick
Alien Attitude.
Not yet. I spent some of last night working on figuring out how to make black ties and nickle silver rails appear "real". It is on my list of next steps.
Patrick
Alien Attitude.
OK it is done!
For those who don't drink coffee, I successfully connected the 2nd controller and can move 2 trains in 2 different directions on different blocks (eg. 1 train moves clockwise on the outer loop and the second train moves counterclockwise on the inner loop). I spent way too much time overthinking this.
Thanks for all the assistance.
For those who don't drink coffee, I successfully connected the 2nd controller and can move 2 trains in 2 different directions on different blocks (eg. 1 train moves clockwise on the outer loop and the second train moves counterclockwise on the inner loop). I spent way too much time overthinking this.
Thanks for all the assistance.
