I've repaired and restored vintage Lionel locomotives ... I've built and operated more than 50 layouts over a 40-year span. Like so many others, I started with a simple 4- by 8-foot O gauge ...

This isn't always a simple or inexpensive process ... try combining multiple Lionel postwar transformers. I once built a layout that combined one TW, two ZWs, and four KW transformers.