First post, confused a bit-long winded

For quite a selection go to www.grzyboskitrains.com and click on "Holiday Items" along the left side content listing. Then click on the "Halloween" icon.

First, welcome to the forum!

  To hopefully answer your second question, you may possibly have a bad connection between sections of track, or a bad section of track, where you notice the "noise". Remove the track, and inspect the rail joiners. As a test, swap that section of track with another one elsewhere on the layout and see if the problem follows that track.

 

Larry

With respect to your trouble "making ends meet".  It is a geometry problem, and I do mean problem making an irregular layout.  Perhaps someone on the forum who uses the track planning software can help.

thank you guys, I just tore it all down, so i will restart, and see and Dave. lol 100 bucks disappeared when I went to that site.

Fastrack is sold in 1 3/8, 1 3/4, 4 1/2, 5, 10, and 30 inch straights! A combination of them can be used to solve your spacing problems. I personally have all of them on my layout.

Curves can be found in 31, 36, 48, 60, 72, and 96 inch diameters from center rail to center rail. I would suggest sticking with one size diameter to keep spacing issues to a minimum.

By going to Lionel.com and doing a product search, you should be able to find all of the halloween products they have ever produced.

To identify what diameter curves you bought at the hobby shop, look underneath the track and it will say O-36, O-48 etc.

Does your set have tubular or FasTrack?

 

Draw a picture, lines on paper of the track layout shape that you want and scribble the space dimensions. Take a photo and post it.

 

I and some others can work out the track plan for you.

 

You'll need multiple feeders with a large layout using the CW-80. Almost all tracks are terminal tracks with FasTrack. Don't buy anymore terminal tracks.

 

Can you solder?

ok all my railroad ties are the same color, i took a small video, not sure what i want at the moment but cool I have something atm, jut the point in the curve wont connect all the way. how do I add extra wire to make any track terminal, kinda spooked on wires as I have never messed with anything like that. not sure if it tube or fast track, look fast to me. I guess I will stick with the O36 dont judge video quality lol

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CA-KzzbrAMo

 

 

You have FasTrack. You should have at least one terminal track on each side of the layout.

Here are some layout designs for FasTrack, and some others here. These may give you some ideas.

 

Larry

You have FasTrack. if you look on the bottoms you will see terminals for making connections to the center rail and the outer rails.

 

here's a 10' x 4' that is close to what you have. I saw some curves not used. This needs a 4 1/2" straight and a 1 3/8" straight, 10" 30" and 036 curves.

 

What's your track inventory now?

Thanks guys, not how to make a terminal with wires. On stock off top of my head 2x 30 in pieces 12x curved and not sure how many small straight pieces. Believe it is 10x

Check underneath your curves and make sure they are all O-36. It will be written underneath

Here's a plan that takes up 4' wide by 11' long. You need 4 additional pieces. You can make it narrower by removing the 10 in the curves and shorter by removing an equal number of 10" on the sides.

 

 

Welcome to the forum & yes you have fastrack.

Welcome to the Forum.

To get started with your carpet central, lamp cord or speaker wire will do. Two places will do for now, as previously mentioned.

 

The lamp cord will rough ribs on one side and smooth on the other to designate A(hot) and U(common). Speaker wire will be identified by color or ribs.

Thanks for layout, and on wiring, I don't get it still. I am completely cofused. It will move from carpet when I figure everything out 

Are you confused about the track layout or the wiring?  Let us know and we can work you through either or both.

 

Poppyl

oh sorry not to clarify, the wiring, I mean, outside of plugging a lamp or runing a thermostat on a snake tank I have never did anything with wire or electricity. maybe there is a youtube video

 

Per your video, it looks like you got the basic wiring correct. You do not need more than that as long as your layout stays simple. If you experience your train slowing down on the far side of your layout, you may need to add a set of wires from your terminal track to the other side of the layout. This is simple, but may not be necessary now. Just get a layout together that suits you, and go from there.

 

Larry

counted up I need the 1 3/8 stuff and the 1x 5 in piece and I am good to go on layout

 Hey, PennywiseThere is a free windows track planning software called SCARM who's author posts here regularly.  http://www.scarm.info/index.php  Playing around with it eases things considerably, and gets downright fun once you begin to really catch on. "Anyrail-5" is another free one, simpler but limited in comparison.

 What they are trying to say is adding another track power feed across will allow the electricity to travel by wire easier, and in larger amounts than if it travels along the track only. Copper conducts electricity better than steel. Speaker wire, etc. was suggested because it might be handy, is normally large&long enough, and makes less of a wiring mess than individual strands such as automotive wires.

 Your connections, and/or piece of track may be the issue, but if moving the track piece around doesn't change things, it likely needs a second(or 3rd) power feed. Some people add feeds every few pieces. Look into the advantages, and styles of "bus wiring"(large feed with take offs) as you progress in the hobby.

thanks for the link, gonna mess around with it, the wire I see how it is on the termina, but how would I add one. i mean is there a tutorial out there. I just dont wanna start chopping and adding wires cause I dont know how

Look for .110 Quick disconnect terminals on eBay. They are the part that pushes onto the bottom of the track. Those can be crimped or soldered to the wire. You make your own like the ones that you get with the set or buy separately.

harbor freight has a wire stripper\crimping tool cheap.

Spade terminals go on the transformer end to secure behind the lugs.

 

Not a difficult technique to learn.

Here's how that layout could grow. First a passing siding by adding 2 switches and some straights (yellow)

Then add 4 more switches, a 90º crossover and some more straights for two reversing loops.(blue)

 

Just an example to show how you can grow from the starter oval.

 

The SCARM file is attached if you want to mess around with it.

The product finder on lionel.com shows 40 items with the keyword halloween.

Some of them go back as far as 2000.  Prior to 2000, there was maybe at best a few pieces that I can think of.

thanks for help guys and the link, love messing around with it. 

I saw your link to the terminals. Those will do for now. You will need one for a larger wire size if you build a permanent layout.

 

The spade terminal ends for the transformer can be found at your local hardware store or home store, where you can purchase a few at a time. The others are not usually available locally.

OK, ready for long winded  (two posts really, lost net access for a bit and had to save.)

 

 SCARM file posts may have/need a ".txt" instead of ".scarm" at its ending.

Change ending if necessary. Don't try, and learn everything at once, slow & and

steady. Lots of help available here or SCARM if your stuck. 

About the "0-27" box claim. Although it came with larger diameter track, the

"0-27 loco" is capable of taking the 27 inch diameter curve of 0-27. Many people

still have 0-27 track, and need to know it can take the tighter turns without

issues.

 Halloween may be the ultimate goal, but don't forget you could get a little

practice on a winter holiday "loop" too.("Santa" was once a little scary, and could

be a meanie in different times, places, & and cultures..Elves too.)

  I cant wait to see what horrors you have in store for us. How about

a spoiler? Effects? (Like sounds or lights) Realism? Whimsy? Tradition? Movie

scene recreations? "A" list, "B"list? Barrel bottom classics?

 While the Lionel stuff is a great start, if you're like most horror/Halloween

people I've met....

I see fantasy builds in your future!

 

  You may want to check out my inspiration to do some whimsical fantasy O

gauge. While on You-tube, I ran across a video of Chris Walas's large scale "Futuropolis", and knew I had to do something crazy in O gauge on occasion(see attachments below). Look around in the menu, I figure you'll get a kick out of Count Trackula if nothing else. I also have a Lionel PW(post WorldWarII) K-4 that sort of waddles down the track in a very animated fashion (due to bent wheels, or an axle). I always thought that much extra motion in real life would be "scary as hello from the devil", and have also thought it would make a fine Halloween loco with all the wild action. Some other  thoughts-

• Any friends really into Kong, Godzilla, Gargantuas or other "big stars", should be closely supervised around your trains(by a responsible adult. I guess you'll do
• Black cat, bat, werewolf, regular wolf, and regular hair(yuk) should be cleaned up regularly to avoid getting into gears & and such. 
• Do not ever clean your plastic track with Simple Green, unless you are trying to create your own Blob model.
• Do not attempt to recreate "The Bride's" hair doo, or color steaks with a ZW transformer (use a pre war Z for the 5 extra volts)

 

 

 Here's the tabs, and what your end wiring result should resemble  http://www.lionel.com/products..._CatImages/130-2.jpg

Not a bad place to learn a thing or two either.

 The connections for your track are simple, and good safety mech.s in the controls keep it pretty safe. I wired my own by 2cnd or maybe 3rd grade. Keep red to red, black to black, stay consistent on left to right orientation of tabs used. The Train will still run with accidental mix up of which color set(hint) goes to the center rail (hint, hint). They will run, but the operation of whistle, and bell buttons will be swapped/reversed.(a mix up within a color set would be a "short circuit", the track power should get shut down by the transformers internal breaker.)  

 As you go, first testing track with a meter, test lamp, or bulb lighted car if you have one -vs- the locomotive. It's safer to bulb test than use modern "microchip" electronics. This is an old style diagram but the principles remain the same, center to variable, outside rails to common.