tubular track

[BDT in Minnesota]

Well said John,,The tubular is a classic item in itself....there is no reason to change due to a trend...BDT

The design has gone practically unchanged for 92 years. Not many manufactactured goods have this kind of track record.

     Yep   a track record with a track record   BDT

[Anonymous]

My local LHS guy tried to convince me that "everyone" (meaning collectors) is going to the Fastrack because "everyone" wants the Legacy stuff, and so they don't sell a lot of tubular.  I just looked at him and said, well, "If someone wants to spend twice as much putting together their layout, I guess that's their choice, but as for me, I'm going with the stuff that's been around awhile."  My guess is that he somewhat overstated his case a bit.  BTW, I bought a bit of tubular today, and created a nice curvy loop on my benchwork.  Not a bad Birthday present if you ask me! 

[Anonymous]

My local store told me that tubular track was going to be discontinued, does anyone know anything about that?

  Thanks

I was in my LHS the other day and was reminded of this thread when one of the guys who worked there told me that they were discontinuing tubular track and switches.  I just grinned and said, "Hmmm, is that right?"  Needless to say I didn't put much into what he said, of course this news is from the same LHS where a worker couldn't tell the difference between O-27 and O-31 tubular track.

[Anonymous]

csxt30 wrote:

You fellows with the tubular track could be in a real bind if we have to go to war & the Govt. has a scrap drive like in the 2nd. world war. There goes all your tubular track, with 48 million tons out there, for the War effert !!   

 

  

 

   Umm... we are in a war. Glad I use Super O

[Wes Whitmore]

One of the LHSs that I used to visit told me that we are using the 027 track that was produced in the 1970s.  They haven't made any since...I just assumed he meant that he isn't selling any of it and I was buying stock that he has had laying aorund for 20 years.  It's one of those hobby shops that turned to role playing card games to stay afloat.  I haven't been in since.

Wes

[lionel2986]

Lee,

I doubt if Lionel would give up the rights to tubular track. There are too many people that use it. The Williams tubular has 5 ties. Lionel has 3 ties. I do have some older Lionel track that has 5 ties.

Chuck

 

Does the number of ties really matter? I have some old Marx with 3 ties and K-line with 3 ties. The K-line looks just about identical to the Lionel except with tiny "K-line" written on the ties. Did this have anything to do with their lawsuit?

   Umm... we are in a war. 

I'm surprised it took so long for someone to respond.

[phillyreading]

There is plenty of tubular track to go around as Williams is now making and selling tubular track. Gargraves makes track for those that want a more realistic tie appearance and uses wood or plastic for cross ties.  

GarGraves, American Models or S Helper makes S gauge track.

Far as the war effort goes you are just blowing steam to make anybody think that the government will collect scrap metal to recycle like toy train track.  Has anybody watched the show on History Channel called "The Boneyard?"  They take old steel train rails and recycle these into fence sections or metal panels.  Copper wire or lead fishing weights would be more needed to make bullets with than tubular train track because the cost of heating up and reshaping the track is too expensive compared to other forms of recycled metal today.  Even used automtive batteries would supply a source of metal if needed.

Lee F.

[csxt30]

There is plenty of tubular track to go around as Williams is now making and selling tubular track. Gargraves makes track for those that want a more realistic tie appearance and uses wood or plastic for cross ties.  

GarGraves, American Models or S Helper makes S gauge track.

Far as the war effort goes you are just blowing steam to make anybody think that the government will collect scrap metal to recycle like toy train track.  Has anybody watched the show on History Channel called "The Boneyard?"  They take old steel train rails and recycle these into fence sections or metal panels.  Copper wire or lead fishing weights would be more needed to make bullets with than tubular train track because the cost of heating up and reshaping the track is too expensive compared to other forms of recycled metal today.  Even used automtive batteries would supply a source of metal if needed.

Lee F.

Lee: I was making a joke !!

I have noticed though, that scrap prices are way up right now & China is buying it all. That means our trains wil be from with American steel again !!

Thanks, John

[phillyreading]

John,

Didn't know for sure that you were joking!

Any way Japan buys American steel and sends it back to us as; Toyota's, Honda's, Mitsubishi's and Subaru's or as stainless steal cutlery(eating utensils). So now China is going to send our steel back as toy trains and automobiles?   Don't know if China has the capability to melt raw materials needed for steel or the machinery needed to roll or press steel.

The reason I know so much about the steel industry is that my dad was a metalergist and shop supervisor with Carpenter Steel Corporation for about 30 years.

Lee F.

 

[Anonymous]

They'll have to pry my tubular track from my cold, dead hands.  Right...Frank53 ??

word up.

That goes for me too.

 - Clint 

I may only have this one piece, but I'll go down a fightin' for it !!

Thanks, John

 

John thats dedication right there. I love my 027 Im right there with all of you

[thor]

I like tubular, if only because of the way it sounds, it makes the right noise with the wheels running on it, almost like the real thing. I'm considering experimenting with fitting tubular rails to FasTrack bases, keeping the connection pins but inserting the rail to get the best of both worlds. I'd have to trim away those plastic tabs that support the hollow rail or else open up the seam of tubular rails to fit over them but it might be worth a shot. I already replaced the center rail with copper wire on a couple of pieces and it looks great and has held up well so far.

To my way of thinking, the fun of the hobby is making stuff, experimenting with inventions and modifying ones own equipment to give the desired results. Just buying stuff and running it palls quickly, at least for me, I would rather be inventive and experimental.

Though to continue on this speculative thought, the guys who would be in REAL trouble would be the guys who like the new electronic loaded scale sized trains. For one thing, all the trains are made overseas in China, so that would stop.

To change the subject a bit, based on that remark of yours Brian, it does worry me a bit that there's a possibility the supplies of electronic circuits for spares might dry up though I doubt I'll be around long enough for that to be much of a worry factor! However, I've often wondered, how hard would it be to reverse engineer these boards? For some talented E.E. to make a circuit diagram and etching pattern and list the needed components to populate the board? I suppose its the integrated circuits, the chips, that would be the most problematic, the discrete comonents shouldn't be a problem.

I've many times wished there was a book out there with circuit diagrams for the hobbyist to make his or her own controllers, sound boards, control circuits and so forth. I'd like to do that and its often much cheaper than buying ready made units. When I was last a gung ho model railroader, only in HO, I made most of my own circuitry including some neat back EMF controllers that worked really well. I didn't invent any of them, in the U.K. at the time, the magazines regularly printed How-To articles and so did the mags for the Electronics enthusiasts, carry a lot of model railway circuits, I mean.

I was just at Barnes and Nobles - talking about books and mags - and I'm very disappointed at their sparse coverage of our hobby. I checked out a few current magazines too but there really isn't much of a choice and the electronics ones seems to be mostly Audio/Video and Radio Control oriented.