If anyone could help, I'd be grateful

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone. I'm pretty new into lionel trains. My father just dropped off his set from when he was a kid and gave it to my son. I got so into it myself, now I'm interested in getting more track.

The question I have is I'm not exactly sure what track I need to purchase. It is a tubular track with three rails. I'm pretty sure the track is either O gauge or O-27 gause, but to be honest, I'm not sure what the difference is. Can someone assist?

Thank you in advance.

[ChiefEagles]

Take a piece of the old to the hobby shop and match it. O is taller and has wider turns [well not anymore as you can get wide turn O27]. O27 is lower.

[Anonymous]

OK, thanks. I'll look into that.

I noticed on another thread people referring to O-27 guage as having smaller pins. Can I measure the pins I have to see which gauge track I have? Thanks!

[waltrapp]

Another easy give away is the color of the metal 'ties'. O27 tubular has brown ones, at least all of mine does and that includes track from both Lionel and K-Line. All of my 'O' tubular track has black metal 'ties'.

- walt

[wrmcclellan]

Chris,

Welcome to the forum!

To determine which track you have, you can use a ruler and simply measure the height of the rails and cross ties.

For 0-27 (for 27" dia circles) - the ties are about 1/8' thick and the rails (not including the tie) are about 1/4" tall.

For O Gauge (O-31 for 31" dia circles) - the ties are about 1/4" thick and the rails (not including the tie) are about 3/8" tall.

Some Lionel trains require 0-31 curves vs 0-27 curves.

Tell us what you can about the train set (ie numbers on the engine and cars, how old it might be) and we will try to assist you.

Regards,
Roy

[ChiefEagles]

FYI, my old O27 track from 1952 had black ties. Now they are brown [O27] and black [O]. So if he has old track, they could be O27 black.

[spankybird]

Some of the older Lionel O27 track has black ties. See how old Chief is.
I have some O27 track with black ties also. My Great Great Great Grandfather gave it to me.[:D][:D][:p][^]

All O gauge track ties have a curled lip on the ties and O27 ties are like a box.

tom

[ben10ben]

Probably the easiest thing to do is to take a section of track to a hobby shop and match it there. That's the simplest and most reliable way to tell.

Outside of that, what others have said about tie height and tie shape is correct.

[Anonymous]

I just measured the rails and ties. The rails are 1/4 inch tall and the ties are an 1/8 tall. These must be O-27 rails. Thanks everyone for your help. This forum is awesome.

[wrmcclellan]

Chris,

Enjoy the trains and let us know how it is going.

Happy New Year!
Roy

[lionelsoni]

Normal straight sections of O (also called O31) are 10 inches long. O27 sections are about 8 7/8 inches.

[Anonymous]

Hey, does 027 make fastrack? I have O but I was just wandering...

[wrmcclellan]

Colin,

Fastrak is 0-36 like Super-0.

I am not sure if that answers your question, you might want to restate it.

Regards,
Roy