The real cost of the track system is how well the switches operate, how the switches can be configured, and how well equipment can negotiate the switches without power loss and derailments.
Andrew
Watch my videos on-line at https://www.youtube.com/user/AndrewNeilFalconer
I tend to build my layouts on theme as much as everybody else. I prefer tubular track for tinplate and basic, less detailed postwar (like scouts), and scale rail for the more detailed equipment. When I rebuild my main layout I'll most likely end up using RealTrax. I'd like to use ScaleTrax, but I doubt I'll be able to afford it. So, my middle ground is an easy to work with system that has a "T" rail profile, and a plastic base which is both easy to glue ballast onto and is insulated right out of the box which makes blocks and signals easier to install. After all, all you need to do to isolate a section of RealTrax is rip off the connecting brasses. To that end, I've been running all of my equipment on a small O31 oval in my bedroom to test the track out. So far the only issue I have with it is with the operating track section. Prewar equipment and postwar Marx engines especially hate the electromagnet and jump like crazy going over it. My Marx 999 slams to a stop when it's pick-ups hit the magnet. Strange enough though, my Lionel prewar 259 runs much better on the RealTrax than it does on tubular.
But no, I wouldn't expect Standard Gauge to look right on RealTrax any more than a modern scale hudson does on old tubular with it's super high profile. And I whole heartedly dislike FasTrack. I just don't get it. With Gargraves, MTH and Atlas making more realistic track why would Lionel opt for a square chromed rail?
Becky
Trains, trains, wonderful trains. The more you get, the more you toot!
This is really just a grand plot so all those dealers at York and elsewhere with boxes of tubular track under their tables for "$10 for the whole box" can now get $4.75 per section.
Regards, Roy
I hve been using my Dad's original tublar that he got as a kid, plus a bunch of used I've picked up over the last 20 years. I've bought some new 3' sections, but I've ran nothing but used tublar.and I use Type Vs for power. maybe I'm stuck in the past, but I like it and it works great for me.
Dave
It's a TOY, A child's PLAYTHING!!! (Woody from Toy Story)
The north half of my bedroom layout has 2 levels. Upper level is a turnaround point. Before this sections construction I held up in the air a 48" fastrack circle,,, too wide as it stuck into the walkway. I didn't want to go as small as a Fastrack 36" circle. So everything on the upper deck of the layout is tubular. Some pieces of the grade going into and out of the closet are tubular. All the rest is Fastrack. It looks nice but its expensive. I hope to still be able to buy tubular in the long term future. Its just easier to do what you really want to do in tight spots. You can see my layout on youtube under my name mustangstrainsmowers.
Modeling the "Fargo Area Rapid Transit" in O scale 3 rail.
I'm sure if they had Forums in 1912, there would be those wailing about the end of hand-cranks being a plot to sell car batteries.
Hopefully it's not a plot to raise prices on tubular track that is left with the Lionel name on it. There are some companies that still make tubular track, so it's not a complete change over as of yet.
Handcranks on cars were dangerous or so I have been told! I never tried to use a handcrank to start a car, so I don't know. The storage battery was a very good idea as far as safety was concerned. But these newer types of track are not exactly an improvement for safety, but just a higher cost thrown at us, who are trying to model O gauge trains, and tries to drain our wallet faster!
Think about this, if you spend more money on new track styles, where is the money you were going to spend on a new engine or piece of rolling stock?
Lee F.
I just received a reply to an e-mail I sent Lionel and it states that they are NOT discontinuing tubular track.
Bob Keller
so then the rumors of the world coming to an end tomorrow is false as well....
yeah I guess so as I personally couldn't see lionel doing away with there staple track although someone claimed they got an email saying so from them guess they got an email from someone that didn't know and just shot off an answer.
Life's hard, even harder if your stupid John Wayne
http://rtssite.shutterfly.com/
Ogaugeoverlord I just received a reply to an e-mail I sent Lionel and it states that they are NOT discontinuing tubular track.
Sfill, it was an interresting discussion.
sure was
What a relief. I have bought a lot of 027 profile 42" + 54" circle track. I own about a dozen 42" circle switches,, most of them the discontinued K-Line which are easier to cut & modify. You can pull 20-30 car trains of MPC & newer 027 cars around a 42" circle track without a tipover (as long as the hopper cars have their plastic hinges replaced with bolts). I really miss the 72" circle 027 profile track discontinued about 5 years ago that I think was made by K-Line. To me 42" circle 027 is the poor mans wide radious track.
someone claimed they got an email saying so from them guess they got an email from someone that didn't know and just shot off an answer.
You would think that a reply from Lionel's information center would be accurate and not just a guess. Since tubular track and switches have not been in any of Lionel's last two catalog releases are they just not promoting it, time will tell.
Bill T.
LL675 so then the rumors of the world coming to an end tomorrow is false as well....
hahahaha the day is still young.
Seayakbill someone claimed they got an email saying so from them guess they got an email from someone that didn't know and just shot off an answer. You would think that a reply from Lionel's information center would be accurate and not just a guess. Since tubular track and switches have not been in any of Lionel's last two catalog releases are they just not promoting it, time will tell.
AHA! The plot thickens! Maybe they WANT to get rid of the stuff?
I have heard it said on a sitcom, "Without rumors where would war be?"
Anyway it was a long discussion on tubular track.
Hogan's Heroes, first season. "Without rumors there would be no war!" Love that show!
Penny Trains Hogan's Heroes, first season. "Without rumors there would be no war!" Love that show! Becky
I forget the name of the general, on that episode, who told col. Hogan that. Will have to check the first season DVD set again!
If I had to use any tubular track for a temporary or seasonal layout that has be packed-up, it would be the Snap Track now made by Ready-Made-Toys.
If I had to choose tubular track for a long term layout, then I would choose from what Gargraves and Ross produces.
I prefer solid-rail track, that is why I got Atlas O for one railroad layout. I might try MTH ScaleTrax for another railroad layout.
phillyreading Penny Trains: Hogan's Heroes, first season. "Without rumors there would be no war!" Love that show! Becky I forget the name of the general, on that episode, who told col. Hogan that. Will have to check the first season DVD set again! Lee F.
Penny Trains: Hogan's Heroes, first season. "Without rumors there would be no war!" Love that show! Becky
I don't remember either. But I do remember he had an eyepatch and it was an episode where Hogan was trying to convince Klink that the war was almost over.
I remember that episode.
Doug Murphy 'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers...' Henry V.
I watched it today.
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