Lionel Dealer Display Layouts, Factory Layouts and Postwar Layouts

Notch 6 posted this D-133 on Facebook some time back

A restoration on Facebook... The green used to match the original was listed as HC-132 Harrisburg Green from Benjamin Moore paints

D-63 images and videos

That moving highway animated feature is really nice!  Great track plan and automatic action!  Thanks for sharing!!!!!!!!!!

Take care, Joe.

More D-63 

D-192

Another fun thing with this layout- the 132 station was modified to allow multiple trains on the same loop of track. I've seen a 132 on eBay for sale that had the additional circuits

Lionel D-40 pics from eBay

D-289 from eBay

Just bought this display and will reproduce the shelves and banner for it for a complete restoration--running out of room, too many displays!!

Restoration started. 90% of wiring original but am replacing 3 and 4 conductor wiring as is brittle. Working on graphics and reproducing the display shelves and signage

D-165, I believe, pulled from Facebook

Again from Facebook, supposed to be the original Storytown display built by Lionel for the park

I read an article about the Storytown display layout, really cool. I always admired that layout.

The last two photos are from Ed Dougherty's collection- read here:

Ed Dougherty Lionel Trains Train room  the history is described on an 11/26/2013 post by Frank G.

Latest eBay pics, this time a D-147 from 1955. Seller says ballast was added as well as roads (as opposed to the tan paint) at some point in the display's life. I also spot some trees and telegraph poles that aren't original

Thanks for posting the 1955 Dealer Display Catalog images.  These are very informative, of course, but for those who are planning to use them as a guide to building a replica of the layouts, one has to use caution.  Often times what was pictured was not exactly what was produced.  For example, the D-147 shows the ZW and controls sitting atop the platform, when in actuality, the layout came with a separate control panel, which was typical for the 5 X 9 displays.  Also, the D-148 shows a RW transformer, when in fact, these layouts were shipped with a LW, which was introduced in 1955.  More drastic, is the fact that in the catalog, the siding at the "front" of the left hand lower loop is shown as a stub end siding, when the production layouts were made with this as a passing siding.  There are many other examples as well.  In 1956, the D-165 as illustrated in the catalog was based on a modified D-148, but the actual layout produced was much different!  I ended up building my replica on the catalog illustration and thus ended up with replica of the prototype layout, not the actual production layouts!

How true, also the graphics vary and in some instances by a lot. The drum head display doesn't even show the animated featutre and the semaphore display it went from cartoon images showing a coupler, whistle and smoke to just the words. A lot of artistic license was taken by illustrators or some major league reworks performed in the display studios was being done. It woul be neat to be able to interview/talk with some of the workesr

D-146 at the Train Room in Hagerstown, MD. The accessories are not all correct on this, but this should give a good idea on the colors of paint and materials used at the least.

D-147 from 1955 on eBay at the moment