Lionel Super O Track

[lionelsuperotrack]

My thoughts on Lionel reissuing Super "O".............don't hold your breath!<G>

Very best, Mike

[arkady]

I have a 2026 locomotive that was built in 1950 and never run on any other track than Lionel 027. I can confirm this because I got it myself in 1950. The tender rollers (but not the locomotive rollers) have grooves in them. The moral is: all steel track can wear rollers. During the few years I had a Super O layout, I never noticed any wear of any kind on any of my rollers.

[stuartmit]

I am using Super O uncoupling sections, with a littler difficulty on my  layout of Gargraves track, and turnouts which are a mixture of Ross and Gargraves.  The pins which are in one end of one rail and the opposite end of the other rail, are smaller than the Gargraves pins, so the electrical connection is not great; I solder jumpers along the outer flange of the rail, but that does insult the integrity of the piece for a collector. Further I  must soIder a jumper from the copper center power blade to my adjoining Gargraves track.  I also sometimes need to remove the male protruding plastic extension which would be  engaged with a mating piece of Super O in a Super O layour. This allows the closest possible fit with the neighboring Gargraves track. But it does allow the most flexible track arrangements; I can provide as much adjoining straight track as I feel is required for good coupler allignment. But if you can tolerate the alteration of the piece, I think the uncouplig sections can be very useful in a Gragraves layout.

[8ntruck]

Rob -

That was a good informative link.  Thanks.

[traindaddy1]

 PhilaKnight:

I spoke to a Lionel Tech today about another subject and mentioned Super O.  The tech indicated that there has been some recent interest in Super O and that, maybe down the road, Lionel might be making it again but with modern ties.  I guess we'll just wait and see.

Thanks for your note.

[PhilaKnight]

I have some Super-O track to make a good oval but not enough to use on my layout. I wish Lionel would of came back out with the Super-O instead of Fast Track. Fast-Track is too noisy for me and you really can't do much with it as far as making custom pieces, it to complicated to cut. I still see it a show and on E-bay and it goes for quite a bit and I'm to cheap so I stick to tubular and just add extra ties.

[RockIsland52]

Thank you Ben and Rob for the picture and the links.  This one gets saved in my "Next Layout" folder.  I have also enjoyed the friendly thread exchanges on the pros and cons of the various manufacturers' swiches.

The help from all of you serve as a valuable guide to everyone else contemplating a change or just entering the hobby.  I think this is the first time I saw all of the O gauge track laid out side by side.....great visual.

Jack 

[traindaddy1]

Rob: Great! Thanks.

[ADCX Rob]

8ntruck

I think I've seen some comments that the thin center rail on the old Super O track caused more wear on the pick up rollers that the standard tubular track of the day...

 

Check HERE for the scoop on that issue.

Rob

[8ntruck]

I think I've seen some comments that the thin center rail on the old Super O track caused more wear on the pick up rollers that the standard tubular track of the day.

Friend of mine in grade school had a Super O set.  I was jealous.  Of course, he was jealous of my #210 Texas Special Alcos. 

[ADCX Rob]

All you need to know & then some HERE.

Rob

[traindaddy1]

Lynbrookyankee:       Runtime:    Thank you.

Ben:  I am certainly "loosing it".  As soon as I saw your photo, the "lights went on".....I dug out my notes AND lo and behold, I found a copy of your picture that I made from a previous post.  Thanks.

[runtime]

Super O was a nice system, as I recall, with more realistic looking switch motor housings.

I remember it as coming with only 10" straights, and 36" diameter curves and turn outs.

My dad \bought some, and we added it to our layout.

It's biggest disadvantage, for us, was that it had a lower rail profile than 031 tubular, and therefore was unsuitable for running prewar, with its larger wheel flanges.

Once we realized that, we didn't buy any more.

But since it should have been suitable for most postwar operators, I don't know why it didn't thrive and replace tubular O.

[ben10ben]

 Here is a "file photo" that I took a while back to illustrate several of the various track types.

 

From left to right:

Fastrack-silver center rail

Fastrack-black center rail

Atlas O

Gargraves(wood ties, phantom rail)

Super O

Close tie standard O

Standard O

O27

 

Like Bob said, Super O was made starting in 1957, and extending up through the '60s some time. You'll also note that the center rail is a thin copper strip.

 

 

 

[lynbrookyankee]

Super O was a new more realistic track system that Lionel brought out in 1957. It had more realistic ties than tubular and had t shaped outer rails.

[traindaddy1]

I saw some E-Bay ads for Lionel Super O Track so I looked through the Lionel catalog.  Found FasTrack, O27 and O but no Super O.  Am I vision impaired or did I just forget what it is?      

As always, many thanks.