Am i the only one....

I have the Lionel set given to me for Christmas in 1959.  My father and I ran trains under the Christmas tree every year, all the time adding to the trains.  Forward to the '70s.... my mother bought two $1 closeout Marx sets for my Father in Jan. 1977, and the bug was alive again!  With the trains I still had from childhood, and all we purchased (a LOT!) that year, we had 7 and 1/2 sheets plywood for track in his garage before long.  My father passed in 1978, I inherited all and my 2 sons ran trains with me.....     Now they are grown and my lovely wife built me a 1000sqft room above the 3 car garage.... still working on the newest layout.  But, above all, I still have trains my father and I ran together, and his presence is always with me when I am running/working on our trains.  It has grown quite a bit larger, a lot, and still growing......   But the trains we ran together every Christmas, and other times when we did, are the best of memories, and the connection 3 rails have made for all of us, each with our own reasons and memories.

Welcome to the family of 3 rails........

Jesse   TCA

I collected and operated S gauge for 30 years or more. Got into O so I could operate on club layouts.

I got the 3-rail bug for Christmas 1974 when my grandfather gave me his first Lionel set - an O gauge tinplate set from the 1930's that he bought to put around his Christmas tree.  Growing up, the trains were Christmas-only, and I looked forward to Christmas all year long because it meant getting to set up and run the trains.  I drifted away in my later teens as cars/girls/college took over.

Flash forward to my first Christmas in my first house, and I realized that the Christmas tree I set up didn't look right without trains, so off I went to get some new track and one thing lead to another and next thing I know, I'm buying my first scale, command-controlled engine with digital sound.  The snowball had started an avalanche...

It didn't take me long to figure out that, since I was paying the bills, the trains didn't have to go away after Christmas!   In a way, O gauge trains are like the bell from The Polar Express for me- they keep the magic alive 24/7/365.25.

Next thing I know, I'm subscribing to magazines, joining forums, taking long road trips to places like York, PA and Timonium, MD and Dalton, OH, and I'm roped into a train club by a bunch of shady characters...

Oh, and the third rail never bothered me.  Once the trains are moving, and the lights and smoke and sound are all going, the third rail all but disappears from notice.  It's all about the trains!

To borrow again from The Polar Express, "The thing about trains [and this hobby, I might add]... it doesn't matter where they're going. What matters is deciding to get on."

Andy

When I was 5 years old I hated the 3 rail track.....it didn't look like real track.......

Today I like it for making my life simple (wiring, triggering etc)

Clearly, 3 rail track doesn't bother many folks, otherwise the O gauge hobby wouldn't be where it is today and the two rail forum would have a lot more than 3,500 topics vs. the three rail forum with almost 44,000 topics.

Besides, I've seen some 3-rail scale folks over here on OGR that rival or exceed the work of some HO modelers.

Rusty

I've been in the hobby since I was about 4!  My first train was an American Flyer.  Then I moved up in the 70s to HO.  I HATED the look of three rail track; especially three rail track with three ties!

Then I saw Gargraves in the 2010s; with the darkened center "phantom" rail.  There are other producers as well.  People don't even notice my center rail!

I was honored with a visit to my layout by the Lionel's Collector Club of America's Board of Directors.  Two Board Members came to me and said: "I thought this was a two-rail layout!"  They had seen many photos, but if you weather three-rail track well, and you have scenery all around, people just don't seem to notice.

I've even asked first-time visitors who had seen the layout, but were away from it, "How many rails does my track have?"  Most just laughed because they thought I had lost my mind.  Railroad tracks have two-rails, right?  The answer is: most do but there is a three rail road out there!  And it is full-sized electric using a 3rd rail!

I LOVE 3 rail track--with darkened center rail.  It makes wiring, turntables, wyes and reversing loops a snap!!!  No more having two direction toggles or an Atlas Controller to change polarity!  That's one less thing to confuse the novices with!  :-)

GARGRAVES AND ROSS have REAL wooden ties!  Outstanding track!!!

I have been around 3 rail track since the late 1960's. I like the older style of tubular track. I went over to Gargraves track because of some switch issues a few years back. The look of 3 rail track doesn't bother me.

I have tried Fastrack, and to me it is extremely over-rated!! 

Lee Fritz

AMCDave posted:

When I was 5 years old I hated the 3 rail track.....it didn't look like real track.......

Today I like it for making my life simple (wiring, triggering etc)

ME TOO!  That's why I asked Santa to make my first electric train American Flyer.  Now I'm into three-rail O and blessed by negative desire for realism.  In case I ever want realistic I got some HO stuff.

Pete

I didn't like the 3 rail track until I had my first O guage trainset (about 5.5 years ago).  Now, I don't mind at all and like others enjoy the simplicity it offers.

"Am I the only one...who actually likes the look of three rail track?"

Yes.

I don't think I hated it, but I wished the tube track looked more real. Oh yeah, Pete I play bass too.

I got mine as a gift from my great grandad. He got me a used MPC set, gave it away once I got a Marx one. Gave away the Marx one after I bought some of my own trains, run tinplate and old family trains. Still looking for my great grandad's set though lol

Simpler wiring and other features.

I love 3 rail track.   I am a toy train guy and love Lionel style O gauge track.

I think because I grew up with 3-rail track, it doesn't bother me, and, with limited skills as it is, it's appropriate for me. However, even the best 3-rail track systems don't compare to 2-rail - if I find treasure some day I would hire someone to build an O-scale 2-rail empire, and of course a large enough home to put it in.

I grew up with 3 rail Lionel tubular track and I am still using it today on my permanent 8x20 O gauge layout and my little all tinplate O gauge layout.  The third rail has never posed a problem for me and I really like the nostalgic feel it gives to my layout.  That being said, a couple of months ago I started monkeying around with Lionel's old Super O track and absolutely love it.  I have looked at all of the current manufacturer's offerings on the 3 rail market and have come to the conclusion that Super O is the best looking one of the bunch.  That thin 3rd copper rail is virtually invisible and my trains run great on it and since it was made from 1957 to 1966 it still provides me with that good old nostalgic feel.

When I'm running my trains I enjoy the sounds of the engine, the sounds of rolling stock wheels on rails, the smooth speed control, the detail I can admire and the big easy to see size. The last thing I look at is the number of rails on the track.

With 3 rail you have a dedicated center hot rail and TWO return rails. I could be wrong but I would think that makes for more reliable performance than 2 rail because you have more electrical contact area to work with.

Been messing with trains for years, mostly 2-rail HO & O, plus a few Flyer S gauge items, with a brief foray into N. (N got out of my system quite quickly) No big layout accomplishments, just switching layouts, except for the 2 x 9 N project. I always liked the heft and rumble of O scale, though.

I'm a recent convert to O 3-rail, as I found I was getting interested in tinplate as I grew older, and had no interest in the electronic side. Now I have my pile of 0-27 track collected and a few sets, plus a couple of Z-1000s. I never did like the tubular track or 3 rails originally, so coming from the "scalier" side I decided on the lower 0-27 track profile. L-shaped 10 x 16 layout in the works for this winter! 

I actually do like the looks of 3 rail track. I use Atlas track and I really like the looks of it and how well it works with very little maintenance. The 3rd rail does not bother me at all.

I love three rail track, always have and always will.

As for that German engine, all I can say is

I like 3 rail track.  All switches on my layout are 054 and 072 coupled to good ole Lionel tubular by way of a transition piece.  Works great for me.

My first trains were American Flyer hand me downs as a boy in the mid 60s.  At that time I detested 3 rail Lionel stuff as being too unrealistic. I couldn't wait to graduate to HO for maximum realism.  I remained an HO guy until my early 50s.  along the way i dabbled in G and O for around the tree, but that was it.  A couple of years ago i began picking up O Gauge magazine and liked what I saw.  I became a big fan of the Hi Rail concept.  The contradictions of scale elements blended with toy trains evoked nostalgia that i didn't appreciate as a kid. So yes, I now am a big fan if 3 rail track.  I use Gargraves painted with cammo brown and all my track is ballasted.  I think it looks fantastic 3 rails and all!  I'll never go back to HO, having more fun than ever with my O stuff.

When viewed from track level, the third rail disappears and, in time, you don't notice it at all.

I have my original Lionel equipment (circa 1953), however, TMCC/DCS and more realistic models relegated it to long term storage.  I tried HO and N in the '70s but became frustrated with the teenie-tiny trains that wouldn't run for shucks.  It didn't take long for me to return to 3 rail O Gauge and it has been my choice ever since.  In the late '70s Lionel started making more interesting equipment then competition from MTH changed the hobby forever.

I want to run trains, not spend my life trying to get fussy low voltage DC stuff to move.  As important is the fact that the passage of a good heavy O Gauge train will make the floor shake - isn't that what trains are supposed to do?

Maybe:

Don't like wiring a layout either, with all 10 of my steam engines battery-powered, remote-control there was no need for the middle rail or wires.  Photo below shows 2 MTH RailKing 2-8-0s (1 in engine house) and 2 Williams brass 2-8-2s.  The coal loads (actually dense foam rubber) lift out to access the charging jack and on/off switch.

Removing the middle rail permitted me to keep my track plan and use the 072 radius curves already in place.  I believe Gargraves and Ross offer their track in 2-rail.

I even have a Weaver RS3 with the new BlueRail bluetooth/wifi board running off batteries also.

No more dirty track to worry about, no sparking, no wiring headaches, just flip the switches on the handheld transmitter (in bottom photo) and receiver in the tender and go.

Does anyone else "out there" recall a track made, I believe in the early 70s, that did not have a solid middle rail?  In it's place were close spaced, thin, protrusions to make contact with the pick up rollers.  I recall seeing pictures of it somewhere, and, the middle rail was hard to detect without a close and dedicated look.  Supposedly the contact rollers were to also have a solid contact between the protrusions as they were close enough in their spacing.  So... does anyone else remember this type of track once offered?

Jesse    TCA

Texas Train,

Marklin made the track you are talking about. They are a German company that is about as old as Lionel. They use a three rail AC system for their trains also.

Nice yard lead Marty!  And a good looking CP F7 set in the lower right corner as well.

My dad got me into Lionel trains in the early 50's while we were living in Washington DC. Never looked back, and love O gauge even more today. Don't mind the third rail at all, and still like traditional tubular and Gargraves/Ross. And FasTrack is also good for a temporary/carpet layout or one that will be changed frequently IMO.

Rod

I accept 3-rail as part of the toy train heritage. It facilitates operation of wye junctions and balloon tracks that would be more of a hassle on my scale HO layout.

Three-rail also has potential for imagineering good BS stories about engineering variations in a parallel universe. It might be an alternate form representing real-word electrification.

I wouldn't choose 3-rail for prototypically correct scale models.

Ace posted:

I accept 3-rail as part of the toy train heritage. It facilitates operation of wye junctions and balloon tracks that would be more of a hassle on my scale HO layout.

Three-rail also has potential for imagineering good BS stories about engineering variations in a parallel universe. It might be an alternate form representing real-word electrification.

I wouldn't choose 3-rail for prototypically correct scale models.

In my parallel universe, advances in 3rd rail technology have lead to the electrification of diesel and steam engines. Larger wheels allow for a very tight turning radius capability (036) even for larger cars and engines. Hence, car "overhang" continues to be the most serious safety issue on my layout.

I love the look of three rail tubular Lionel track. brings back memories of helping with  Dad's  train under the Christmas tree (mine now), and my Uncle Jim with his trains and Christmas platform (also mine now).

TNCENTRR,

    Yes, I am very familiar with Marklin, and thanks for the information.  I recall seeing this years ago, but not who manufactured it.  The three rail, and others, layouts I saw in many museums and other displays when in Europe in 2012 were fantastic.  Even the tin plate layouts, with old German, Italian, British, etc. products are some of the pics I like best from our trips.  A really great one was of the Union Pacific RR in Utah.  It was done in two rail S gauge, but the detail and over all construction was superb! But, still, the old Marklin, Bing, etc. in the many tin plate layouts are hard to surpass in the nostalgia they display.

Again, sir, thank you...... take care.

Jesse   TCA

Marty,

I am very curious as to where you obtained that switch in the middle of the picture of your yard.  It looks like a three way switch, I need one of those! 

Mr Union Pacific posted:

Marty,

I am very curious as to where you obtained that switch in the middle of the picture of your yard.  It looks like a three way switch, I need one of those! 

Looks like a Ross 3 way to me; but I am sure Marty will clarify soon.

Rod

I wonder if remote control car/airplane operators worry about their toys and equipment as much as o scale train people?  I mean do they operate only on correctly striped and proportioned streets and runways?