Back some 5 1/2 decades ago, my mom bought a copy of the BSA Railroading Merit Badge booklet published in 1961. There was a short section on model railroads which included the image below:
B, E & F show 6 volt connections, and the “Farm lighting outfit” suggests the original drawing dates back to the 1930’s or 40’s at the latest.
What particularly intrigued me was figure “D.” for the “Direct-current reducer”, which I assume was a set of dropping resistors to reduce 110VDC to 6VDC, which must have gotten very warm. The other aspect is that having it plugged in the wrong way would mean the track would have been at line potential.
I’ve seen a number of references to the old time transformers but not much about other sources of power back in the olden days.
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Interesting! Considering the use of storage batteries in the chart it strikes me they’re suggested work-arounds for areas with no electricity, believe it or not the US wouldn’t hit 90% electrification until the 1970s!
How much of what’s shown in the chart is still viable is open to question but it might make for some interesting experiments.
Parts of that drawing date from the 1910s and '20s. Some places were getting DC house current, and, as noted, some places had no electricity at all. Dry cells were safe but expensive. Wet cells, complete with acid and exposed connections, were “rechargeable” but not exactly safe.
The transformers depicted are step transformers, which offered specific voltages at each position of the throttle rather than continuous voltage variation. These worked fine till the advent of the IVES Reversing Unit (which became, after refinement, the Lionel e-unit) which tripped at the interruption of voltage. The interim fix was to offer a new version of the old battery rheostat to lower the transformer output, and the final fix was the rolling tap transformer we all know and love, which eliminated the interruption.
It was *Popular Mechanics * (I believe, maybe Popular Science) that offered a scheme for generating track power from a stationary bicycle. We are quite spoilt today.
For what it is worth, the 32 volt “farm lighting outfit” was very common with charging done by a single cylinder as engine (e.g. Delco) or a windcharger. There were quite a variety of appliances that were built to run off of 32VDC. A 120VDC to 6/12VDC converter can be bought off the shelf now, so there would be no need for dropping resistors.
Thanks for the tidbit on the IVES Reversing Unit.
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Looking the parallel blades on the plugs in A and D, that suggests drawings dating to the 1930’s. The 32V farm lighting installations also had the heyday in the 1930’s, with rural electrification taking over post war.
I run a Frankenlayout 
I also had a 100 watt Type T and a 60 watt Type A. There’s a type R out of sight to the left along with an AristoCraft DC pack. I can switch the O Gauge line between the KW and the AristoCraft with the big knife switch.
I’ll get some images of wet cell batteries and other oddballs soon. How about getting your little sister to turn a hand crank dynamo?
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My mom told us about her grandma using the old Maytag washing machine that had a small kerosene engine. I remember at grandma having a small generator on her farm for when she lost power.
Becky, shades of the usenet group alt.technology.obsolete! One of the items I remember seeing was the water powered generator along with other water motors similar to “No. 8”.
The DC reduction using wet cell batteries is an interesting trick that had been used on high voltage DC interurban cars. That is having the batteries in series with the traction motors for charging, and the batteries would be used to provide relatively low voltage for lighting and running the air compressor.
Some of my wiring jobs do shares a resemblance to your “frankenlayout” wiring.
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I used to display my paper stationary steam engine (which operated by friction drive of the main wheel) next to my transformers
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I’m just a talented amateur. Take a look at where the master builders hang out: https://www.papermodelers.com/
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Amateur or not, your talent is remarkable!
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The Greenberg repop of the paper train.
This one is G Scale and is available from Canon Creative Park to download, print and build. It’s Himalayan by the way and they call it the “Toy Train”.
A better picture of the whole viaduct.
This one wins the “most complicated” award.
It’s a 1:48 scale model of the Lunar Excursion Module Aquarius complete inside and out. I haven’t had the guts to get back to work on it because my hands shake more these days than they used to.
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You will know you really have a problem with your hands shaking when you can thread a running sewing machine.
I’ve had low level shaking since I was a child - though I have figured out how to anchor my hands when soldering surface mount parts, though where near as good as my co-worker Tram.
Spiffy! I have really begun to appreciate that period.
Cool! Those reproduction dry cells are pretty cool too. 
My home made power station at it’s best circa 2010. On top were types A, T and K Multivolt Transformers plus their #95 rheostats. On the lower floor was the AristoCraft Train Pack 7000, a Dorfan switch controller (not connected) and a #91 circuit breaker. Hidden under the floor behind those 2 was a Lionel air whistle and the mess of plugs from the 4 transformers.
On the left outside wall were 2 terminal posts wired to the #95 rheostat and the Type K for Standard Gauge operation. The AristoCraft was wired to another pair of posts for G Scale. Namely a big Lionel NYC Atlantic. The types T and A were each connected to 10 slot barrier strips for lights and accessories.
The structure itself was made using a pair of discontinued add on Playmobil Victorian Mansion doll house expansion floors I got cheap. Being approximately G Scale in dimensions the doll house parts made for a reasonable office building. I added 2 Grandt Line doors to one end and used the unnecessary stairs and railings to create doors where only windows were. Up top I used strip and sheet styrene to create a half open roof with industrial looking lighting. (They were metal Christmas tree bells.)
Besides the power supplies, only the front of the top of the building survives. I made the sign using wood letters and shapes and I always intended for that side to face a Standard Gauge layout. I also wanted to have a fake set up of glass jar batteries with Standard Gauge sized figures as power plant workers generating the power for the trains in a building next door .
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Oh wow, something out of Leonard William’s collections!
I’m telling you, one of these days he’s likely to have a yard sale for the ages!
