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Lionel Thomas the Tank engine 2 rail track. Made from Super 0 parts?

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Lionel Thomas the Tank engine 2 rail track. Made from Super 0 parts?
Posted by trains2353 on Wednesday, August 30, 2017 11:15 AM

Picked up a Lionel Thomas 3 rail 027 engine. Needed a little work; now ok. Was looking for some cars for it and ran across some 2 rail Thomas track. Looks like Super 0 track without the center power rail and has different ground pins. Lionel still have tools to make Super 0 track?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Model-Train-Lionel-Curved-Train-Track-O-Scale-Thomas-The-Tank-Engine-Friends-/291623200417?hash=item43e618e6a1:g:D3cAAOSwHQ9WUyao 

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Posted by rtraincollector on Wednesday, August 30, 2017 11:19 AM

That looks like Lionel G scale track to me. 

Life's hard, even harder if your stupid  John Wayne

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Posted by phrankenstign on Wednesday, August 30, 2017 4:16 PM

rtraincollector

That looks like Lionel G scale track to me. 

 

That's exactly what that is.  The first Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends set made by Lionel was in G Gauge set #8-81011 as shown here:

Lionel Flyer Front - 1992Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends

It came with a circle of Large Scale (Lionel's name for its G Gauge) track and a transformer.  This initial set had brown track.  Subsequent sets used yellow track.  Apart from the color, the track was exactly the same.  It used rail pins and snapped together.  The switches (available separately) used rail joiners and also snapped together.

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Posted by trains2353 on Sunday, September 3, 2017 10:45 AM

Thanks for the info. I guess that was too much to hope for; bring back Super O.

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Posted by phrankenstign on Sunday, September 3, 2017 11:18 AM

There is a lot of Super "O" track out there available.  I just did a quick check on ebay, and I found a lot of different sellers of just about everything Lionel released as part of their Super "O" line.  True, most of it is used.  However their is a lot of New Old Stock (NOS) also.  It would just take awhile longer to find everything you want.  The price is higher for it, of course.

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Posted by thesiding on Thursday, September 7, 2017 9:35 PM

In the mid ninties there was a battery powered set featuring blue no i  

It ran on 2 rail track AND was O scale

 

Also does your thomas take curves well?  My first Lionel DID NOT (on 027 curves no less)

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Posted by phrankenstign on Saturday, September 9, 2017 2:43 AM

thesiding

In the mid ninties there was a battery powered set featuring bue no i ran on 2 rail track AND was O scale

 

Also does your thomas take curves well?  My first Lionel DID NOT (on 027 curves no less)

 

I bought both the Large Scale Thomas and the original O27 Thomas.  I liked the Large Scale one better.  I don't know which one was more accurate, but the O27 one seemed to be more cheaply made.  I may be wrong, however my son liked it better also.  The Large Scale Thomas, along with his buddy James, has been running around our Christmas tree every year, while the O27 Thomas has only appeared a handful of times.

Both Thomas engines and James never appeared to have any problem negotiating curves.

We also had a couple of Bachmann HO Thomas the Tank Engine sets and a Hornby set.   The Bachmann sets appeared to be better quality and heavier than the Hornby Thomas.  All were similarly reliable though through straights and curves alike.  The heavier Bachmann Thomas Engines were able to pull longer trains due to their additional weight.

 

btw I don't know what you meant by that phrase I underlined.  What did you mean?

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Posted by thesiding on Wednesday, September 13, 2017 1:18 PM

Thomas is no 1         hence the reference                 will try to finf the ad for the battery powered one

 

Several Thomas's were made by Lionel including the remote one

 

Mine is second versdion solld the first one

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Posted by cwburfle on Thursday, September 14, 2017 4:20 PM

I had the first Thomas set that Lionel did. In my experience, the engine itself ran fine. It had moving eyes and changeable faces. But the couples broke very easily, and the track was terrible.

I ordered a bunch of couples from Lionel and went through them.

The ends of the metal rails and the plastic ties underneath did not line up on most sections. It was a challenge to get the track arranged so they could join together into a loop.

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Posted by phrankenstign on Friday, September 15, 2017 6:40 PM

I didn't have a problem with the track at all after figuring out a good way to put the track together.  I'd insert both pins halfway into the two tracks.  Then I'd pull the ties on one side together until the ties snapped together.  Then I'd pull ties on the other side together until they snapped.  The rails seemed to line up fine for me that way.  Taking them apart was about the same.  I'd push the ties apart on one side with my thumbs while grasping the ties on the other track, and then the other.  This prevented pushing one side too far, because then the pin in the other rail might bend.

I did find the couplers did tend to break and fall apart.  They appeared to uncouple at random times also.  I'm not sure why they weren't engineered to be much more reliable.  I used wire ties from loaves of bread to keep the couplers connected together.  At first I used small rubber bands, but they kept falling off.  The wire ties ended up being much more reliable.

Last year I asked for help acquiring replacement couplers on this CTT forum.  rtraincollector suggested I ask the guys in the Garden Railroading forum, since they're much more familiar with G/Large scale stuff.  Luckily he was right.  A member of that forum calling himself homo_habilis notified me Brasseur Electric Trains carried them.  I ended up buying enough to replace all of the broken couplers.  In fact, I even ordered extra ones as replacements for use in the future.

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Posted by trains2353 on Sunday, September 17, 2017 10:44 AM

Thanks for all the info. Sorry so long to reply; a death in the family was the cause.

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