Model Train Journal

...and it's November.

I have a young couple with two little girls who've asked me to round up a train set for them for this Christmas. Easy enough...I started pulling stuff out of storage to make up a set. My good friend Howard had sent me this modern era Lionel Columbia-type #1058 when he downsized his collection; figured this be a good place to start:



Amazed how quiet this thing is compared to the pre- and postwar stuff I usually mess around with. Runs like a champ, smokes, whistles, headlight, they're going to love it!

Somebody's going to be happy.

[quote="healey36"]...and it's November.
I have a young couple with two little girls who've asked me to round up a train set for them for this Christmas. quote]

Interesting. My wife told me that when she was a little girl that she always wanted some trains but her daddy wouldn't get her any. He said those were boy's toys not GIRL'S

It was my wife's insistence the I set up some of my childhood trains around the Christmas that got me into TCA and collecting more trains

At three and six years old, these two are right in the wheel-house for some train fun. The mom is a rather joyful person, so I'm sure she'll make a big deal out it. It's nice to see some youthful enthusiasm, male or female

Right now I'm tearing apart the storage closets, shelves, rubber tubs, and every other rarely explored space looking for a red caboose. I'm thinking a kid, especially a young one, will think a caboose should be red and include the cupola profile. The only red caboose I've found here so far is an LRRC issue bay-window type. It has interior lights, so that might add a bit of excitement, but no cupola. Still looking...gotta be one here somewhere.

healey36 wrote:...and it's November.

Amazed how quiet this thing is compared to the pre- and postwar stuff I usually mess around with. Runs like a champ, smokes, whistles, headlight, they're going to love it!

No buzzing electro/mechanical reversing relay and no growling open frame universal motor. The new engines with electronic reverse and can motors are very quiet (normally.)

O on O-27

In the lead, a very quiet O-27 DC only Lionel 8314 2-4-0,
next a Lionel O C&IM 17207 boxcar,
next a Walthers O Southern 525952 boxcar,
next an MTH O Conrail 555817 gondola,
in the Conrail gondola an O-27 IDM by UMD (Industrial Rail) Southern 7975 coal car.
followed by a Lionel O-27 Southern 6486 caboose.

They are all happy with the O-27 curves and the straight portion of a Lionel 6-5021 manual 027 turnout. The O cars cannot negotiate the curved portion of the turnout without modification of the turnout control mechanism.

Wayne, you must get quite the rumble running stuff on that hollow-core door. A buddy of mine had a few loops of N-gauge nailed on a hollow-core door, and even that was loud.

healey36 wrote:Wayne, you must get quite the rumble running stuff on that hollow-core door.

Yes.

A guy on one of the other forums was asking about the lighting on the Lionel 259/259E...I took this shot to show him what that one little light bulb up front provides:



You get a headlight, illuminated number board, green (or red) marker lights, and the red smokebox glow coming up through the stack. Pretty ingenious for this entry-level O-gauge locomotive. Plus, you got the bonus of the often disparaged sheet-metal frame, so no worries years later that the cast frame of the more expensive locos would crumble to bits from metal impurities.

Maybe some kid got this for Christmas one year in the 1930s, and probably went crackers the minute he laid eyes on it.

Good work, Paul!

Absolutely nothing wrong with girls liking trains.

George

webenda wrote:

healey36 wrote:Wayne, you must get quite the rumble running stuff on that hollow-core door.

Yes.

NOISE LEVELS (for the train in the image.)
Not running: 37 dBA, 0 dBC
Running at 6VDC: 78 dBA, 76 dBC

Here are some common sound levels measured in A-weighted decibels (dBA):
0 dBA: The quietest sound a healthy human ear can hear
10 dBA: Normal breathing
20 dBA: Leaves rustling, mosquito buzzing
30 dBA: Whispering
37 dBA: Train room with ticking wall clock and computer fans running
40 dBA: Quiet office or residential area, light rain
50 dBA: Moderate rainfall, refrigerator
60 dBA: Normal conversation, electric toothbrush
70 dBA: Washing machine, dishwasher
76 dBA: Lionel train running on a hollow core door
80 dBA: Noisy restaurant, vacuum cleaner, garbage disposal
85 dBA: Blender, heavy traffic
90 dBA: A lawnmower, hair dryer
100 dBA: A motorcycle or a construction site
110 dBA: Shouting in ear, rock concert or jackhammer
120 dBA: Thunder
130 dBA: An aeroplane taking off 100m away
135 dBA: An air raid siren
140 dBA: Threshold of pain
150 dBA: A handgun
180 dBA: A rocket launch

G3750 wrote:Good work, Paul!

Absolutely nothing wrong with girls liking trains.

George

Absolutely...I'm looking forward to dropping this thing off. Got a note today from Kent Schwartz that he's shipping a suitable reconditioned transformer, so then just some track and we should be ready to go.

Looking at that list of aural phenomena, Wayne, I can understand the "Lionel train running on a hollow core door" checking in around the middle. I wonder what the dBa rating would be if running on a solid-wood door...probably not terrifically less.

Alright, the set going to two deserving little girls is tested, packed and ready to go:



Just need to wrap it and drop it off.