Okay, Let's Talk Trains.

Actually, that's not too unusual, especially for Lionel and other "toy trains" that are really collectors items. That's why people buy/build display cases.

I've been thinking about putting a display case under the railraod, running a helix down under the layout, and thereby allowing the display case to feed trains onto the railroad.

Would probably want to throw in a reversing loop somewhere so that trains would not have to be backed up the helix or turned by hand on the display case after coming back down the helix. Or maybe put in two helix, one on both sides of the display case?

I'm sure that all the reasonable people here wish you pleasure with your collection. Please permit me to offer a suggestion. I know e-bay considers any model railroad item as a "train". I tend to use that term for a series of cars pulled by a powered unit(s). While there is no "one true path" for cataloging one's holdings, separating your list into locomotives, cars, accessories, etc. should make it easier to organize and transmit information.

Also, don't worry about having more items than track. Most of us who have been in the hobby for any length of time can put only a fraction of our equipment on the layout at any given time. That's why interchange tracks and staging yards were invented. Thank you.

Jerry

Helixes (helices?) take up a major amount of room. A while ago I saw an article about a vertical transfer table: the rack of track moved up and down on a screw powered by a motor, and lined up with the track that gave it access to the layout. Took up very little space.

Time to sell them on ebay.

That was just my initial text list. I'm going to create an Access database with categories for rolling stock, loco, accessory, etc.

I think I saw Lionel accessory track that did a horizontal version of that idea - switching out one car or loco for another.

You've been busy. Win the lottery or something? :-{)

Yeah, that's a transfer table. Real rr's had them too, usually located outside shops so cars/locos could be moved to/from the relevant shop tracks.

snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com spake thus:

[doesn't matter]

Peek-a-boo, Curt, we see you.

I wish. Too much discretionary funds though. I've given up other things, like ever more computer equipment that I didn't need anyway.

Well, the baby has a college education fund already, so I wanted to create a Lionel education fund. He isn't getting it until he's big enough to beat me up though.

Under normal circumstances, a helix would take up a lot of room, but the area under the railroad is pretty much wasted anyway. It depends a lot on the existing railroad though.

Suppose you have this:

=============Main line=========\ \ \ \ >

/ / / =========/

Underneath it, you have room for this:

==========Display Case=========\ / \ / \ / \ < >

\ / \ / \ / \==/ A vertical transfer table means trying to put in something in that is as long as the trains on the display case track. This limits what can be put on the display case track. The helix doesn't take up as much space in that regard. In fact, with curved switches you could probably incorporate the display tracks into the helix fairly well, giving far more display area.

You'd want something that has reasonable access from all sides though, so that if something derails you can get to it.

I would hope you see him- since he has been using the same ISP, IP address, browser and usenet service as you the past few days. You guys obviously are living together!

Brad is my sockpuppet. You are trolling using a fake sockpuppet name. How hard is it to do that dude? Anybody can sign up for free accounts. You seem to know alot about it and why is that...........

Think up your own sockpuppet name.

_________

Steve the real

" snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com" spake thus:

Yeah, right, Curt:

" snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com": X-HTTP-UserAgent = Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; AOL 9.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR

1.1.4322),gzip(gfe),gzip(gfe)

snipped-for-privacy@aim.com: X-HTTP-UserAgent = Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE

6.0; AOL 9.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322),gzip(gfe),gzip(gfe)

brad ( snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com): no X-HTTP-UserAgent header.

We can all figure out who is who here, Curt.

STVE CAPLE you are using free accounts to sockpuppet yourself. Why don't you stop and quit trolling this train board and leave us in peace??