Lionel & American Flyer Classic Resources DVD

Your old and new trains are in good hands. Right here, you can get the original instructions to bring your trains to life!

Here it is:

The best set of resources for old style model railroading ever! Prepared by experts and standing the test of time and technology. Even in this digital age, the basics have not changed.  This DVD puts them all at your fingertips.
    You get the best of classic O and O27 Gauge, S Gauge and HO scale information. These resources cover everything you need to get started and build your own model railroad empire.  Here is a partial list of what is on board.

How to choose a track layout that is best for you.
How to assemble track
Wiring your layout, from simple power to automated train operations.
How to set up and run your trains
The way to set up and use the most common accessories
Cars that do something: Automated cars and how they work.
How to repair your trains and accessories
Games you can play on your railway
Tips on better scenery for your railroad
Courses that teach you about real railroading
All about O, O27, Super O, S and HO track
Genuine resources from real classic railroads.

Get started today!  See that old train set come roaring to life. You can do it with the original instructions written specifically for those trains in the attic.

Here is what is on board:

Original O and O27 manuals by Lionel covering from 1945 through the 1980s
Original S Gauge manuals from American Flyer
Original sets of instructions for HO from Lionel, American Flyer and Tyco
Lionel and American Flyer manuals on track plans and layout building
 Instructions for K-Line O and O27 trains
Tips on everything from trackwork to scenery to wiring your layout
Extra instruction sheets for operating Lionel accessories
Track plans from Lionel catalogs for O, O27, Super O and HO
Track plans for HO and American Flyer S gauge
A book on making common repairs to electric trains

The Lionel and American Flyer manuals themselves are massive resources that give specific instruction of using track, wiring, setting up accessories, maintaining and running trains, troubleshooting, track plans and layout building. These aren't the little, cheaply-printed booklets packed in to modern train sets. These are crammed with up to 64 pages of good, reliable information on all aspects of model railroading.

And we have added to this DVD.  Here is a list of the classic hard-to-find Lionel booklets you also get:

Train Layout Planning Book for Pop
Romance of Model Railroading with Lionel Trains
Scenic Effects for Model Railroads: Lionel Trains
Official Book of Model Railroading by Lionel
Fun with Lionel Model Railroading
Lionel Track Layouts

And there is more: For those who want to know more about real railroading, we located a set of Army School of Transportation correspondence courses on railroading that covers everything from planning operations to loading cars. We also found resources from classic railroads, including blueprints of classic locomotives and photographs of cars and motive power.

Many of the manuals and instruction books are considered "collectible" and bring high prices. If you bought these manuals individually, you could spend several hundred dollars easily. On our DVD, you get them all for a low price of $9.99 (Plus $2.00 postage and handling). For a total of $11.99, you get all of this in one convenient place. Order now and start building your railroad empire.

Click here to get your DVD now: http://thortrains.net/ads-sales/index.html

Review: Morning Sun Books: NH Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment

Morning Sun Books: NH Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment

by David R. Sweetland, Stephen Horsely

 

The New York, New Haven and Hartford railroad connected New York City with Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Commonly known the New Haven, it was the largest and most powerful of the New England railroads. I first learned of the New Haven through Lionel Trains when I was a child. The black boxcar with NH in block letters was very appealing. Over 55 years later, it still looks fine.

 

The New Haven was a very attractive railroad. Its original color was green with yellow trim. Its logo at that time was New York, New Haven and Hartford in cursive script. The color scheme changed under a company president named McGinnis. Though a failure as president, he introduced the bright color scheme of black, white and orange with block letters. Known as the "McGinnis Scheme", it made the New Haven the most colorful Northeastern railroad.

 

I have no personal connection with the New Haven, except for having ridden Amtrak from New York to Boston’s Back bay station a couple of times in the 80s. Amtrak followed the old New Haven route. My interest was due to the attractive boxcars, locomotives and passenger cars. It was a big part of Northeastern railroading for many years, until it was absorbed into the Penn Central merger.

 

This week, I received the New Haven Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment by Morning Sun Books. It covers the era of color photographs: 1940 to 1967. Most of the photos were taken between 1955 and 1967. Some show older equipment that was still on the line. Most photos are of equipment that was current at the time.

 

The quality of the photos is excellent. This has been a constant through all of the Color Guides I have seen: the Erie-Lackawanna, CNJ & LV, Erie & DL&W, New York Central and the New Haven. This volume covers boxcars, flat cars, hoppers, gondolas, MoW, cranes, cabooses, cars converted to head-end or MoW, and passenger cars. Because of the interest of the authors and the involvement of the New Haven Historical and Technical Association, there is information of rebuilt wood boxcars and captions with specific details of most cars.

 

Other companies have published photo galleries showing New Haven rolling stock, but they are not in color. This color guide is in crisp, sharp color. The photos are excellent and they give you a much better feel for the equipment. Good photography is a standard in Morning Sun Books. I have ten of their books and the color images in each are superb.

 

I recommend NH Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment to fans of the New Haven Railroad.

http://morningsunbooks.com/

 

***

I am primarily an operator of O and O27 trains. I have a few railroads that I especially like. One thing I enjoy is running models of trains in the livery of those railroads. I like having good references to the motive power and rolling stock of those roads. The Morning Sun books have been useful to me. They average about 130 pages and are chock full of excellent photographs.