Run 206 February 2005•

$5.00 • $7.75 Canada

Build a Lionel E-unit TesterA polluted Bog for Your LayoutThe Function of Junctions in Prototype Layout OperationsThe Utz family Layout

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February

O GAUGE RAILROADING February 200598

Story and Photos by Jim Barrett

OGR readers know Jim Barrett’s skills as a train repairman. In this two-part story, he shares his skills as a talented layout builder.

Ah, it was the thing of dreams!Imagine being a kid in the fifties andtraveling with your mom and dadfrom your home town to the “BigCity” for a Christmas weekend. Thesights and sounds of the lightedstreets, the department stores, thepeople, the clanging bells out on thesidewalk — it was all part of Christmaswhen you were a kid in those years.

The biggest thrill for me was toget to the toy department on thefourth floor of the department storeto see what was new from Lionel.There were always the orange boxes,parents buying trains for their kids,the new catalog, and, most importantof all, there was the Lionel displaylayout!

Lionel Dealer Display Layouts Lionel had many of these layouts

over the years, either 4´x 8 ,́ 5´x 9 ,́or maybe even 8´x 8´ in size. Theywere relatively simple things com-pared with what I see in today’sworld. They had modest scenery,including painted-on grass and roads,some lichen or cut up sponges hereand there for shrubs, maybe amountain tunnel, and that was that.But they always had the newestLionel trains, accessories, and trans-formers! The only thing better thanthose layouts were your own dreamsafter you had studied the latestLionel catalog.

I didn’t find out until much laterin life that most of those layouts

were built by the elves at Lionel, andthat they had a style number andwere offered to the stores (for a price)with the gentle hint that they couldeasily be sold after Christmas to someeager customer. Over the years, Icame to recognize all the layouts ofmy memories by their assigned Lionel“D,” for display, number.

Recently, I learned a lot from abook owned by my friend RogerBockman: Classic Lionel DisplayLayouts You can Build by Roger Carp,Kalmbach Books, 2000. In it you canfind almost anything you might wantto know about those Lionel Dealerdisplays, including one layout I’dnever seen, the Lionel D-265.

It is right there in the book: an

P a r t O n eNew Life for Lionel’s D-265

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The original Lionel D-265 display layout (Photo courtesy of Classic Toy Trains).

8´x 8´ layout with three loops, twosidings, and a couple of bumpertracks. It even had a trestle and anelevated section. But I couldn’tremember ever seeing that one. Myfriend Roger Bockman filled us inon some background (see Ed Boyle’s“Collector’s Gallery” story on page104), and also steered me in the rightdirection of existing D-265 displays.

Re-creating Lionel’s D-265Most of you know me by now.

After the first “ooh, aahh!” all I couldthink of was: how can I build thisthing using modern track, switches,and accessories? This layout wasreally neat, but it just wasn’t practicalin this day and age to hunt down oldSuper “O” track to recreate it, andavailable standard Lionel tubulartrack just didn’t have the geometryto produce a layout that was originallybuilt with Super “O.” Super “O” trackwas based on curved sections thatmade up a circle of 36˝ diameter,and the curves of Lionel tubular trackcome in lots of circle diameters, butnot 36˝. But then, eureka! Lionel’snew FasTrack is made on the exactsame O36 footprint as the old Super“O”.

That discovery made the trackplan very easy! Now I was on my way,and my plan was to make a newupdated version of the original D-265and show it off in our booth at the

Train Collectors Association meet atYork, PA, this spring. I thought ourreaders might enjoy seeing this thingcome to life again after 46 years.

AccessoriesLuckily, most of the accessories

on the original layout have beenreissued by Lionel in recent years,and the reproductions would allowme to build a modern layout thatwas almost exactly like the original.To determine precisely what acces-sories were available, O GaugeRailroading called the good folks atLionel. When they heard what wewere up to, they were willing to“kick in” and make this dream cometo life. They donated what they hadon hand, which included all the nec-essary FasTrack, the switches, lights,billboards, trestle sets, modernequivalent transformers, and even afew accessories the original D-265didn’t have.

One of them is the ingeniousoperating Train Orders Building (6-14166). You just have to see thisone to appreciate it! The continuouslyilluminated interior is complete witha potbelly stove that has a flickeringfire in it. On the platform out infront of the building is a flood light.When the Train Orders Building isactivated by either a passing train ora momentary push button, the doorslowly and smoothly opens, and a

station agent emerges with the trainorders attached to the end of a longpole. He swings the stick up in theair for the passing engineer to grabthe train orders, while the doorslowly closes behind him. At the sametime, the semaphore signal on topof the building slowly raises its twoarms to the outstretched position.After the train has passed, the doorslowly opens again; and the agentretreats into the building, loweringhis pole as he does so. The doorthen slowly closes. I placed theagent right were the original D-265layout had the No. 1047 Switchmanwith Flag, and he’s right at homethere.

A quick look through our dealerswho advertise in the magazine pro-duced reissues of the postwarRocket Launcher, Culvert Unloader,and Fork Lift Platform. I was alsoable to come up with the reissue ofthe flat car with the rocket on it, aculvert car with the necessarysloped ramp, and a flat car withboards for the Fork Lift guy toremove and stack.

The D-265 Table A look at the layout diagram

makes you realize that the originalD-265 layout must certainly havebeen built on two separate 4´x 8´ tables joined together on thelong edge, with only two track sec-

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ABOVE: an overhead view of Jim Barrett’s modern D-265 layout.

LEFT: the track plan of the 1959 Lionel D-265 (drawing courtesy of Classic Toy Trains).

tions needed to bridge the joint between thetwo tables. It is a clever design that lets youbuild the layout and complete the scenerywith everything in easy reach before you jointhe halves together. I decided things wouldbe even more convenient if I designed a tablewith legs that folded up into the frame so thetwo sections could be easily transported.

Since I wanted to use minimal dimensionwood to keep the layout sections as light aspossible, I made the frames out of 1x4 #2pine boards with a 1x4 joist at the middle. Inbetween the middle joist and each end of bothframes I added a 2x2 joist for additional sup-port to the table frame. The legs were madeof 2x2s with 1x2s for braces. I covered thetops of the tables with a 4´x 8´ sheet of 1/2˝BC plywood. A quick glance at my Backshoparticle in Run 185 (OGR, February 2002) willgive you the materials, dimensions, anddetails for building a table in this manner.The only changes I made were to make the

February 2005 O GAUGE RAILROADING 101

joists in the table spaced at 24˝ instead of 16˝ and to change the joists near the ends to 2x2s to allow the legs to fold into the frame.

I made the two 4´x 8´ frames and put them up side by side forthe track plan. If you were making this layout for a permanentlocation, you would simply join the faces of the two table frameswith #6 x 1-1/4˝ drywall screws every six inches or so. That wouldmake a nice 8´x 8´ table. Because I want my layout to be trans-portable, I will simply clamp the frames of the two tables togetheralong the underside with some “C” clamps or their equivalent.

The original D-265 layout diagram shows layout power furnishedby a Lionel postwar 275-watt ZW and a postwar No. 1033 trans-former. I wanted my sources of power to be as close to the originalsas possible but in a form that is currently available from Lionel. Ialso thought it would be neat to add capabilities for Lionel’sTrainMaster Command Control and MTH’s Digital Command Systemto this layout, so I decided to move the transformers and otherhardware to a separate transformer stand attached to the side ofthe layout.

The transformer stand is a simple plywood piece measuring13̋ deep by 42˝ long on a three-sided frame. The frame is onlyunder the front and the ends of the transformer plywood, and theunframed back of the stand’s plywood is attached to the under-side of the table anywhere the operator wants. This modification,the only one I made to the original table design, would give methe room necessary for the new ZW and power supplies, the CAB1, the Command Base, and the Track Interface Unit (see myBackshop column in this issue on page 110).

Reproducing the Track PlanI followed the original track plan faithfully, with a couple of

exceptions. I squeezed the ends of some loops just a bit closer tothe table edges. I also stretched the length of the grade in oneinstance to make it a little easier for the locomotives to do theirjob. That change resulted in the relocation of one road, but Ithink the trade-off is well worth it. Since Lionel LLC didn’t havean arch-under bridge, we substituted the Lionel #6-12772 bridgefor the arch-under bridge on the descending slope in the back.

It becomes pretty obvious that this department store displaylayout can be easily modified into a more functional layout for anindividual owner. It contains, for instance, two tracks that end inbumpers solely for demonstrating “bump-and-reverse” motorizedunits. I made a gentle “S” shape in the bumper track located between

TOP: the completed table.

CENTER: The completed leg set, hinged up. and into,the underside of the frame.

BOTTOM: Jim screws the completed leg assemblies tothe table frame.

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the Fork Lift Platform and the CulvertUnloader. It just made a more inter-esting path for a Lionel Fire Car totravel on. The space for those tracksmight be better used for a siding tomount an operating accessory, orsimply for scenery. Another obviousfeature of the layout is that it can beadded to on any, or even every, sidefor future expansion. It’s a wonderfullayout to start with.

Placement of the trackside acces-sories can take a bit of fiddling. Theplastic base of FasTrack is much widerthan the ties of original Super “O”,and I had to trim the edges off sometrack sections to fit them into themetal bases of the Culvert Unloaderand the Fork Lift Platform. Theresults, however, were worth thetrouble because Lionel’s FasTracklooks much better than Super “O”ever did in those accessory bases.

I completed the track plan by snap-ping together the Lionel FasTrack andjust laying it in the general area wherethe track would ultimately go. Some-times this meant that track was lyingon top of other track, but it’s whatyou have to do to make sure the trackplan actually fits. The original design-ers weren’t above making “fieldchanges” when they found the draw-ings just wouldn’t do it in real life! Ihad to make a couple of them myselfto get the track to conform to thepicture of the original.

Bridges and MountainsOne thing that needs adapting is

the graduated trestle set, which isdesigned specifically to fit with Lionel’stubular track. I was able to make itwork with FasTrack by making a fewchanges.

On the underside of the newFasTrack are plastic bosses where thescrew holes are. These bosses are toolong to fit into the openings in thetops of the Lionel trestle supports,so I removed them from the trackbase by twisting them off with a pairof pliers. I had to do this at everylocation of a trestle support. Atlas Omakes some long, narrow screws withwhich I attached the Lionel FasTrackto the trestle supports by passing thescrews through the hole in theFasTrack and down through the plas-tic of the trestle support.

That anchored the track nicely, butI still had a problem. Because thetrestle support was now inside thehollow base of the FasTrack, the skirtsof the FasTrack “ballast” made theoverhead clearance too low for a trainpassing underneath. The cure was tofind a nice piece of scrap 2x4 lumberfrom which I cut a bunch of piecesexactly 3/4˝ long. To make them looklike concrete bases for the trestlebents, I sanded each piece to removeburrs and sharp corners and spraypainted it with light gray primer.

These concrete bases raised the trackto exactly the right height. In the finalassembly of the track plan, I gluedeach of the wood bases to the top ofthe train table with some Elmer’s glue.

The last piece of table I addedwas a “floor” for the mountain to givethe track something to come up toand descend from. It had to be bigenough to come out to where thetunnel portals would be, and I didn’tforget to add some on the inside ofthe curve for a nice rotating beacon.No mountain is complete without arotating beacon!

I cut some scrap lengths of 1x2s tomake legs to attach to the undersideof this floor piece with #6 x 1-1/4˝drywall screws and made sure I spacedthem so they would not interferewith the tracks inside the mountain.After I positioned the mountain floorsubassembly, I put some Elmer’s glueon the bottoms of the 1x2 legs to fixit permanently on the layout.

Now we have a completed table,track plan, trackside accessory place-ments, and mountain floor. In PartTwo (in Run 207) we’ll do the wiringand scenery.

LEFT: the modifiedLionel piers.

RIGHT: Jim locatesthe rotating bea-con on the moun-tain “floor.”

About the Author:Jim Barrett is OGR’s Dealer NetworkManager and the author of the“Backshop” column.

Finishing the Wiring If there is one lesson I’ve learned

the hard way, it is to make sure thelayout runs the way I want it to beforeI add any scenery. Reverse those prior-ities, and you’ll almost certainly have totear up scenery to correct mechanicaldefects. So take time to run the layoutbefore you do any scenery. What awonderful excuse!

The original Lionel display layoutswere wired by the buss bar method.The “buss bar” in thatinstance was a bare metalbar attached to the under-side of the layout alongthe width of the

table. It allowed the power from thetwo transformers to be easily availableanywhere under the table.

Lionel used one buss bar for eachpower terminal of the two transformersand one bar for the AC Common toboth transformers. The center railswere wired to the bus bar from the“hot” terminal of the appropriate trans-former, and the outer rails were wiredto the shared Common. On the origi-nal display

layouts, the two tabs of the old ZWpowered two bus bars for accessories,and the two handles powered loopsor circuits of track. The 1033 usedone bus bar for the variable handle,and one buss bar for fixed voltageaccessories. Three different voltageswere then assigned to thethree accessorybuss bars,

O GAUGE RAILROADING April 200582

Story and Photos by Jim Barrett

P a r t T w oNew Life for Lionel’s D-265

Jim Barrett finishes the D-265 layout in this second part of the story.

and switches for the accessories werefed from the bus bar carrying the volt-age that made a specific accessory runbest.

I decided immediately that our lay-out would have a slightly more sophis-ticated system. On my new D-265, trackpower was indeed supplied directlyfrom the transformer, but I added athin plywood panel (1/8˝ plywoodavailable from Midwest Products atmost hobby stores) on the lower rightcorner of the layout so that I couldcontrol the accessories individuallywith toggle switches (Photo 1). Thatpanel let me use the three remainingvariable power supply terminals for allmy accessories.

Controls for the original D-265were situated on a corner of the layout;but my switch panel, Lionel TrainMasterCommand Control (TMCC) commandbase, and the new ZW and Power-

House units required a separatetransformer stand (Photo

2). It looks better in anycase to have the

transformers off the layout, and I alsowanted to make this layout work onM.T.H. Electric Trains DigitalCommand System (DCS) as well asTMCC, so the additional space camein quite handy.

Instead of bare buss bars, I used16-gauge supply wires from each ofthe three voltage sources. I decided inadvance that two of the three would befixed at some predetermined voltage,and the third would remain variable.The variable source would supplypower to all the toggles designated foroperating accessories. This arrangementwas necessary because the electricaldesign of most postwar accessoriesrequires individual power adjustmentto make each accessory perform at itsbest. On my reconstruction of this lay-out, a dedicated toggle switch turnedeach accessory on or off, easily regulat-ing power to individual accessories. Allother accessories were powered bythe two fixed voltage wires.

I wired the three main loops withpaired wire (AC + and AC Common ina pair) and used the buss bar Commonfor accessories only. Sometimes DCS

and TMCC work better withthis wiring scheme. For each

accessory toggle switch, I

ran a supply wire from one of mythree main accessory voltages,depending on the accessory, then rana wire from the toggle switch to theaccessory.

For street lighting, I used a trickBill Bramlage taught me (see Bill’sstory on page 88 in this issue of OGR).I stapled a piece of N gauge track tothe underside of the table runningroughly along the line of the street ontop of the table. From each mountedstreet light, a pair of wires (one red,one white) drops through the tabletop, and I soldered each red wire toone side of the N gauge track and eachwhite wire to the other side. It doesn’tmatter which side (Photo 3).

Once that was done, I connectedone of the N gauge rails to an ACCommon wire under the table and theother to the toggle switch labeled“STREET LIGHTS.”

Ta Da-a-a! That is a simple way to wire up

countless lights! N gauge track makesa nice buss bar! The insulated ties per-manently separate the rails, so there isno need to tape or insulate each joint.Less work equals more fun.

I continued running wires fromeach toggle switch to each

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accessory’s AC + until all were runningat the mere flick of a switch.

SceneryI like to keep scenery as simple as

possible. There is a wonderful book inmy library titled How To Build RealisticModel Railroad Scenery by Dave Frary(Kalmbach Books; ISBN: 0-89024-124-4).If you can find a copy, by all means getit. I use Dave’s water-based techniquewhenever possible.

The space between the table topand first track level of the mountain isfilled with strips of cut-up corrugatedcardboard. One end of each strip isattached to the layout surface with hotglue, and the strip is then rumpledthrough the fingertips. The other endis attached to the top of the upperfloor of the mountain. Strips aremounted in succession, left to right,until they fill a side of the mountainfrom one end to the other. Once thevertical ones were complete, I wovehorizontal strips of cardboard throughthem. At each cardboard strip crossing,a little spot of hot glue holds it to-gether. If you follow my procedure,start at the bottom and go to the topuntil your cardboard hillside looks likePhotos 4 and 5. Attach strips to the backside of tunnel portals also.

For the top of the mountain(Photo 6), I crushed sheets of newspa-per and taped them down with mask-ing tape to create valleys and peaks.It’s a good idea at this point to cover

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all tracks on the layout with 2˝ wide maskingtape to keep scenery materials off them. Thisstep now will save lots of time later.

Next comes the surface. Mountains lookintricate, but it’s unbelievable how easy it is tomodel them with the materials available to us inthis day and age. One of the OGR Online Forum(www.ogaugerrr.com) sponsors is Scenic Express(175 Sheffield Drive, Suite 100, Delmont, PA15626-1723; phone: 800-234-995). It sells a fantastic product consisting of a roll of plaster-impregnated cloth called Plaster Cloth. All youhave to do is cut the roll into squares, dip themin a paint roller pan of warm water, and lay themon your cardboard strips and newspaper. That’sit! That’s all you have to do.

While the plaster cloth is still wet, smooth itdown into the valleys, along the base of themountain, and along the track roadbed. It sets upin a hard shell in about an hour. I found thatsome areas needed a little more plaster, so Imixed up some plaster of Paris (sometimes calledmolding plaster) and made a “slurry” that Ipainted on to the surface with a sponge brush.It gives the mountain surfaces just a little extrarigidity and thickness.

When all the surfaces were complete, I paintedthe entire area with a light brown paint to simu-late earth where there was no scenery (Photo 7).It looks surprisingly realistic where scenerymaterials leave a gap or on lightly covered areas.Once the paint was dry, I brushed Elmer’s gluedirectly on the surface, working roughly onesquare foot at a time. I then added various con-sistencies and colors of Scenic Express landscapematerials to give the area a nice country look.These materials were firmly fixed in the surfaceglue by an overspray of water mixed with a fewdrops of dishwashing detergent and appliedwith a Windex spray bottle. This mixture is called“wet water” by scenery experts, and it coats thescenery material and lets it sink into the glue.Sometimes I also apply water-diluted Elmer’sglue right on top of the material by dribbling itfrom a squeeze bottle, such as an empty French’smustard container. Finally, a few trees werespotted in, making the mountain look very real(Photo 8).

Roads and sidewalks have always been achallenge to me. But not anymore. WoodlandScenics (P. O. Box 98, Linn Creek, MO 65052-0098; phone: 573-346-5555) makes a materialcalled Smooth-it that makes great roads and side-walks. It works with another of their products, anarrow strip of thin foam tape. After the tape isapplied as edges to a road or sidewalk, Smooth-itmixed with water is poured to fill the areabetween the edges and then smoothed with a

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O GAUGE RAILROADING April 200586

plastic spatula. When the Smooth-it has dried, the tape ispulled up, and the surface is then lightlysanded to remove any bubbles or irregu-larities. Woodland Scenics also makessqueeze bottles of paint labeled“Blacktop” or “Concrete.” Squeeze one ofthese on and spread it with a brush. Theresult is a very real looking pavement(see Photos 9-11)!

Grade crossings were made from acombination of balsa wood flat stock andstandard spackling compound. The balsawood is attached to the edge of the railswith Super Glue. When it is secure,spackling compound is pushed into theedges of the ramp, making it look likeearth or asphalt mounded up. A gentlesmoothing of the spackling compoundcompletes the edges of the approach(Photo 12).

For the grade crossing itself, I cutbalsa wood to roughly match the spacebetween the rails and then trimmed off aspace for the wheel flanges with a pair ofscissors. Once the crossing “filler” wasroughly shaped, I glued it between therails and corrected any trimming errorswith more spackling compound. Whilethe spackling compound was drying, Islid a scrap piece of balsa wood along theflangeway next to the rails for a smoothsquared-off groove.

After the Woodland Scenics blacktoppaint is applied and dried, the tops of therails are easily cleaned with a fingernail orsome scrap pieces of balsa wood. Be sureto clean out the inside of the rail edge forthe wheels as well. Electrical contact ismade on the inside edges of the rails aswell as the top surface.

For O scale gravel roads, I used HOscale ballast, and my favorite way ofapplying this gravel is with a layer ofElmer’s glue applied straight to the tablesurface. I sprinkle the gravel over theglue and then spray with the aforemen-tioned Windex bottle with the wet watermixture to let the gravel sink in to theglue. When the glue dries, the gravel isgoing nowhere (Photo 13)!

To complete the layout and hide amultitude of sins like mismatched tunnelportals, I added loose rocks, weeds (lichen),and brush. When I was done, I steppedback and got that old feeling I had as a kidlooking at the original department storelayouts. The thrill of what toy trains usedto be came flooding back.

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A wise old model train nut once told me weneed all the super sounds and remote control oftoday because we’ve lost the imagination we had aschildren.

I don’t know for sure, but I have a feeling he’sright. Running this completed D-265 layout put mein the good old days, and in no time I was rightback there running the freights, unloading andloading materials in the cars, making timed runs tothe next town, and watching the lights in the nightscene. There’s just something about all those wheels,the noise, whistles and horns, watching that rotatingbeacon flash red-green-red. . . .

It just doesn’t get much better than this!

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