Let's face it, I've always been a fan of trains. 2 rails, 3 rails, steam, diesel, electric, whimsical, prototypical, etc. I love them all. To this point in my life I have been involved in N scale and in the last few years O scale. N was fun but at the end of the day I wanted more detail. I also like the size of O scale. When I watch them go by I don't feel like I'm in a helicopter 1000 feet above the tracks. It feels like I'm next to them.
I initially started messing with the standard tubular O-27 track and Lionel postwar trains. Then I removed the metal ties and used my own hand cut wood ties of a more scale size. Then I painted the rails. Then I started using O-42 then O-54 track with the goal of going up to O-72. Space being the limiting factor. I then started wanting to disguise the center rail. First by painting it black which had the opposite effect and did nothing but to highlight it's existence even more. Then I started trying to replace it with smaller center rails. I still wasn't satisfied.
Off I went in the stud rail direction using 2 rail track with a stud system. Then off to outside rail which I am currently at but only on a small historical switching layout. I started to despise the large couplers and switched first to old Monarchs but later to Kadee's. Then the large 3 rail wheels were killing me and I switched over to scale wheels. The swinging pilots became an eyesore and they are getting fixed.
The whole time though I've had a fascination with track. I love track. It too is a model. While some people love building structures, mountains, or perhaps scratch building train cars, my love has been hand laying and detailing track. Strange then that I'd choose 3 rail. I've always had the goal of retaining a 3rd rail in some fashion for a couple of reasons. 1 is so I could still run my dad's old postwar Lionel trains with little modification if I wanted to. He's still alive though so it's not like it's a memory thing. He just hasn't seem them run in years and running them on a nice layout would be neat. The other reason is so my nephew can bring over his Lionel trains and play with them on mine. He has a started set and some tough WBB engines so he doesn't have to destroy mine. Then again he's a kid now but he won't be forever and sports is his first love. Who knows if he'll still like trains in a few years or if I'll have a layout for him to run them on anyways.
I can achieve those 2 goals as long as I stay 3 rail. The problem is that while I actually like 3 rail, I don't like a solid center rail. I like my stud rail or outside 3rd rail. I can still maintain a degree of realism with those techniques that even the best center solid 3rd rail track could ever hope to achieve, regardless of who does it or how much effort they put into it. Of course 2 rail is the most real. I'm not making the jump to P:48 though so if we really want to nitpick then of course it too has issues.
My wife and I are trying to buy a house. No more 9' x 12' back bedroom space that I have to fit more than just a train in. The house we hope we can get has a nice 17' x 23' game room. Now we're talking! True it's not big compared to basements or other people's setups but we don't have basements here and I love switching so I know I can pull off a pretty nice layout in that space. It will be focused around the perimeter of the room though since we'd have a pool table to work around.
This leaves me with a dilemma. Do I complete the transition to go full 2 rail where I can mix code 100, 125, or 148 rail into a very nice realistic layout where I can only run my trains or do I sacrifice a bit and use a larger rail code with either stud or outside rail to meet the other goals? Either way I know I can build a nice layout but the thought of going completely over to the dark side is calling me and I'm not sure that I'll be able to resist. But I do have a strong love of outside rail and a fascination with my stud rail. My progression over the years has gone more and more towards realism. The good news is that I only have 3 diesel engines that would need to be converted to 2 rail and no rolling stock that needs to be.
Decisions, decisions...
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