[GreenKeys] Happy Holidays 2014

[hwhall at compuserve.com]

>
The 3 rd rail was to power the toy train.  Under the middle of the engine 
was a small roller that picked up one side of the power..  I guess that 
Lionel took an easy way out when they made the train sets.
>

The ones I had back around 1959-60 had a spring loaded shoe that slid along the center rail and the other two rails completed the circuit through the engine body and wheels. Not sure if they were taking the easy way out, at least not in the sense of being cheap, because the engine was a heavy and detailed thing. The smokestack had an simple air pump underneath that was operated by the turning wheels. You could buy some kind of pellet things (we never did) to insert down in the stack and the pump would puff something that imitated smoke. Seems like I recall seeing a movie or TV show once where some adult had stuffed his cigarette into the stack so it puffed when moving and also smoked when at a standstill.

Wayne
WB4OGM

 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/greenkeys/attachments/20141214/9f22b13a/attachment.html>