O27 45 degree crossings

[Butte Helper]

Did Marx ever make a 45-degree crossing?  If not, can a Lionel O27 45-degree one be substituted even if I run many of the older Marx engines with the huge gear on the drivers?

[ADCX Rob]

Marx engines will jump through and often derail over the 45 crossing by Lionel due to the guard rails.

You may be able to file/cut the guard rails down for use with these Marx engines.

[Seayakbill]

I wonder if K-Lines 027 crossovers would be compatible ?

[dsmith]

I have successfully used Lionel 45 and 90 degree crossings with Marx engines with the huge drive gears by  cutting and filing down certain areas of the crossings.  Using an Xacto knife cut slivers out of certain areas and then finished up by smoothing with a small file.   I have had no problems with the 90 degree crossings.  The 45 degree crossings have a longer "dead" area and occasionally certain engines will kick into reverse.  The "dead" area is caused by the outside rails loosing power and not the center rail as the engine travels through the crossing.  One way to reduce this is to make sure that the tender or car that is right behind the engine has very clean coupler connections with a very clean engine coupler connection.  This allows electricity to flow from the outside rails of the tender, through the couplers to the engine as it passes the "dead" area.  On one of my Commodore Vanderbilts I ran a wire from the tender frame to the engine frame and have had no problems going through the 45 degree crossing.  I have another Commodore Vanderbilt with no modification that has no problem going through the crossing so perhaps the clean coupler connections have solved this one.  I also have Marx engines without reverse units and the momentary loss of power through the crossing isn't enough to stall the engine on the track.

Here are the photos that should explain which areas that need to be cut out.

Lionel origional 45 degree crossing.

 

Lionel 45 degree crossing with cut aways for Marx large gear engines.

 

Lionel origional  90 degree crossing.

 

Lionel 90 degree crossing for Marx large gear engines.

[balidas]

No Marx never made a 45 deg crossing that I have found and I've looked, although he did make a nice 90. The suggestion by David above is about the best you'll find.

[Butte Helper]

Thanks to all for the guidance.  I didn't think Marx ever bothered with a 45-degree crossing.  What brought about the inquiry was a picture of a Christmas layout I saw in the January issue of O-Gauge Railroading--I know, they're competitors.  The layout featured a couple of 45s creating a 3-looped figure-8 on a 4X8 platform beneath a tree.  I run pretty much everything on my own layout, but, of necessity, have restricted older Marx engines to a dedicated loop sans switches or crossings.  According to the accompanying article, the layout in question was designed to elicit nostalgic memories of 1950s' Christmases with Marx tin and other toys appropriate to the era.  Thanks to everyone who responded, I have plenty of ideas to try concerning the 45-degree crossing issue.  The pictures of the layout show metal Marx streamliners negotiating the layout, but makes no mention of what was done, if anything, to the crossings.  

[dsmith]

I wrote the article in that "other" magazine and I used the modified 45 degree crossings as I mentioned in the above posting.  Oops, I guess I should have mentioned how I did the modification in the article.  Perhaps if I contact the magazine they might be interested in a short article about the crossing modification.

If you would like to see a video of my Christmas layout that appeared in the magazine article, here it is:

 http://youtu.be/RQgr3AP-YlQ

 

[Papa_D]

I have the current o-27 turn-outs that have been around for years. Thanks for the link. I see what I'll have to do to the turn-outs and crossing on the portion of my layout where it will be most convenient to run this Marx engine. 

[Pocono Jack]

Very helpful photos, thank you.

[Roger Carp]

Hi David

We at Classic Toy Trains would be interested in such an article. Please call me to discuss.

Thanks,

Roger Carp

Senior editor

262-796-8776 ext. 253