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All Gauge Model Railroading Page

Classic Lionel Layouts Revisited

Old Lionel Track plans from Train Set Manuals & Catalogs redrawn in O, O27, Atlas O, Fastrack, Realtrax and Super O



Two things entertained little boys when it came to Lionel: the catalogs and the manuals. Those catalogs fueled many dreams of having an O Gauge railroad that could match the Santa Fe or New York Central. We pored over the well-drawn images of locomotives, freight cars, passenger coaches and the most awe-inspiring accessories. The manuals supported the catalogs. Along with instructions for the most popular operating cars and accessories, each manual showed several track plans. Each plamn illustrated an appealing way to enjoy pone’s Lionel trains.

A challenge in this day and age, i decided to see if those track plans ran true. Did the Lionel artists give an accurate portrayal of size, track-work and the placement of accessories? I tried the old plans in the track systems of the day: tubular o, tubular O27 and Super O. Sadly, the Lionel artists were off a bit when it came to the track layout. They also dropped the ball with several of the accessories. The actuall accessories might be too big to fit where the track plans indicated them.

That being the case, I redrew the layouts and then took it three whole steps further. I redrew them for track systems of more recent origin: Atlas O, Lionel Fastrack and MTH Realtrax. In doing so, I retained as many of the old accessories as possible. Most were from Lionel’s Postwar Era (as were ht original track plans), 1954 - 1969. Granted that some of these accessories may be a poor fit for modern track systems. Many have been reissued in the pats 20 years and may be more amenable to Fastrack and Realtrax.

The different systems affect the dimensions of the layouts. In many cases, the layout space had to be expanded to hold everything.

Keep in mind I did this mostly for my own amusement. Have fun with my results (More will be coming in the next few weeks).

Click on the images to get to the page for that track plan

Originally 4 x8 for O27

 14 X 9 layout for Super O, in catalogs and manuals
Originally 4 X 8 O Gauge
 
 The Four Seasons Layout, 1975
Originally drawn for Super O
Originally a 5 x 9 plan for O gauge, with siding
Originally a Super O plan, different from the layout at the top.
Trackplan "X" Layout used to introduce scenery




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