Standard Gauge

Dan Padova posted:

Of late, I have been thinking of delving into Lionel standard gauge.  It's only a thought at the moment.  I basically know very little about standard gauge other than what I have read in books and magazines.  I'm sure some of you own standard gauge and might be willing to give me some pointers of what to look for.  

Dan

you should move this to the tinplate section.

Steve

As Steve says, all the Standard gauge is in the Tinplate section of the forum. Come on over and browse the posts. When I first got back into trains, some shop owner told me to stay away from it because I couldn’t get track, but he was so wrong. You can buy old tubular and clean it, USA Track and MTH make tubular, Ross makes switches, MTH makes plastic roadbed track, and Gargraves makes track. Next, all Standard gauge is tin and much is modeled after or original Lionel, American Flyer, and Ives pre-world war II trains. There are other new and old makes too, which you can find out about in the tinplate forum. MTH has made a lot of modern reproductions, but this may be the last large quantity year of production due to falling sales, China problems, and expiration of the Lionel license. There is an abundance of Standard gauge, new and old, on eBay and at auction and at York though. Final thought, there is one size of track, but many sizes of trains and no real scale. They are true toy trains (but for adults).

George