o gauge Archives - The Silicon Underground

Where to buy Lionel trains in St. Louis

Dave Farquhar — Fri, 22 Sep 2017 11:00:47 +0000

If you want to know where to buy Lionel trains in St. Louis, you have a lot of choices. It’s more than possible to make a day of train shopping in St. Louis. I’ve never seen a comprehensive list of

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Scale vs gauge: Not quite interchangeable

Dave Farquhar — Fri, 18 Aug 2017 11:00:35 +0000

Wondering about scale vs gauge? You’re not alone. It’s a common question, and I’ll try to provide a simple answer. The two terms may appear interchangeable, but they aren’t quite. Gauge is the distance between the two rails, or the

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Why do Lionel trains have three rails?

Dave Farquhar — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 11:00:35 +0000

Why do Lionel trains have three rails? After all, real trains usually have two. This unrealistic feature is a legitimate drawback for Lionel and other makes of O gauge trains, but the decision made sense at the time. Lionel didn’t

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Wire a Marx motor without a reverse unit

Dave Farquhar — Sun, 19 Feb 2017 20:19:50 +0000

At the last train show I attended, I bought a Marx locomotive that lacked a reverse unit. I found a mess of wires in its place, and of course it didn’t run. So I had to figure out how to

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Tin buildings for train layouts

Dave Farquhar — Tue, 27 Dec 2016 12:00:52 +0000

When it comes to trains, I prefer older ones made of tin, rather than plastic. And I like tin buildings too. Any time I open a magazine featuring someone’s train layouts, the buildings all look the same. I want something

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Vintage tin litho buildings

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 26 Dec 2016 12:00:46 +0000

Years ago, I decided I wanted to take a different approach with my trains. I heard about a guy in Springfield who has a traditional toy train layout with no plastic on it. I wanted to see if I could

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How to quiet Lionel Fastrack

Dave Farquhar — Fri, 09 Dec 2016 12:00:31 +0000

The biggest problem with Lionel Fastrack is that it is much louder than tubular and other types of O gauge track. So people frequently ask how to quiet Lionel Fastrack. There are a few things you can do to make

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How to sell Lionel trains

Dave Farquhar — Tue, 13 Sep 2016 11:00:51 +0000

Since I’ve covered other makes of trains, someone asked me how to sell Lionel trains. So I thought I would give similar advice on selling Lionel trains. Lionel is an iconic, legendary part of Americana, so there will always be some market

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Cost comparison of Realtrax vs Fastrack

Dave Farquhar — Fri, 27 May 2016 11:00:48 +0000

Someone asked me recently for a cost comparison of MTH Realtrax vs. Lionel Fastrack. Both are similar O gauge track systems with plastic roadbed. MTH’s system has been on the market a few years longer, but Lionel’s is more popular,

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Selling Marx trains

Dave Farquhar — Fri, 29 Apr 2016 11:00:01 +0000

Since my advice on selling other makes of trains was popular, I thought I would give similar advice on selling Marx trains. Marx never got the respect that its competitors got, but its trains have built up a following over the years,

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