If you are like me and love both Postwar and Modern, there are advantages to combining them.
I have a lot of Postwar, which includes a moderate size tubular track layout with sharp curves that are mostly 031, and with O22 remote control switches. I also have a lot of Postwar operating cars with sliding shoes that are part of the operating mechanism.
Over the last 25 years, I have had somewhere between 10 and 20 operating cars with sliding shoes that have gotten snagged in the 022 switches. This is largely due to the fact that my track work is far from perfect. I hire someone local to repair these cars when the sliding shoes get snagged.
Recently, a sliding shoe on a Postwar Lionel GG1 got snagged (the sliding shoe triggers the operating electro-coupler) so I brought it to a local train repair guy to fix it.
I also have a lot of Modern locomotives, at least 10 of which have speed control.
Lately, having a sliding shoe get snagged on a switch happens very rarely. That is because I only run my operating cars with a modern locomotive with speed control. The shoes hardly ever get snagged because I run my Postwar operating cars with a modern MTH Proto 2 and 3 locomotive using DCS, or a modern LC+ or Legacy locomotive using a handheld remote unit, at very slow and even speed.
I could be wrong, but I believe such slow and smooth speed virtually eliminates the occurence of sliding shoes getting snagged.
I will post a video or two later, to show how well Modern slow and smooth running locomotives pull Postwar operating cars with sliding shoes. Arnold
