But my point was that installing stud rail at this point might be more expensive than ripping and converting. Ask yourself why the proponents did just that in the end?
Yes, some 2–rail brass is five times as expensive as MTH, but there are other ways to go 2-rail, like just buying 3rd Rail, or even 2-rail MTH. Bells and whistles do come with the MTH 2-rail.
I have some sympathy for those who want to run a 1939 700E, but not much. I 2-railed mine a very long time ago. Everybody who proposed to offer zip-in stud rail has given the idea up after checking manufacturing price and market viability. They all found it cheaper and more satisfying to go 2-rail with existing products.
I guess it depends on what you want/have. For example, I have 20 E6 AA and ABA locomotives from Lionel and MTH for my passenger trains. These cost about $400 each, on average, used. That is about $8,000 total. These locomotives were not offered in 2-rail by MTH (or Lionel, of course) but they are very scale in appearance, with scale couplers installed. My only option in 2-rail would be brass. Sure, I could buy 2 or 3 Key brass versions of these in 2-rail used for that same $8,000. And I would have to paint/repaint a lot of them to get all of the same roadnames. All of that would be extremely expensive! I do not want to spend $80,000 plus painting costs just for those locomotives, even though they are more prototypically correct. I see that as only a marginal improvement, visible on close inspection only, and certainly not worth $70,000+.
Since I am planning a new layout anyway, the stud rail option looks much cheaper and easier going forward, once it is in place and working.
