A friend of mine showed my this piece of track a few years ago. Made by Lionel, I thought it was quite nice looking--although I've never seen this track before. I wonder why Lionel discontinued it? Does any one have any additional information about it?
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VERY NICE, but a friend of mine with a HUGE Lionel T-Rail layout would beg to differ!
I believe they called this Trutrack. Late 1970s? Short lived as it never caught on. They even made roadbed for it:
They dropped it because it was made of aluminum and simply didn't work very well at all.
I do wish they'd retained the narrow center rail when they were designing FasTrack, though.
It is also very flimsy, the switches were rife with operational issues, and MagneTraction doesn't work on it.
Hi, Balshis is correct about the aluminum causing problems. Aluminum wether wire or track soon develops a thin film of oxidation on it's surface. The oxidation reduces elect flow from the surface of the metal. Very bad! In the 70s there was a copper shortage. Many homes built then were wired with aluminum wire. The resulting oxidation & consequent reistance cause heat build up resulting in many home fires. Very serious. The cure is to clean the aluminum & apply a very good layer of "no oxide grease" for aluminum wiring. I have some very personal experiance with alum. home wiring & have witnessed the results & danger.
Now getting back to track, I have a bit of this Tru-Track. It requires constant cleaning. I wonder if the copper shortage, which I think was world wide had anything to do with the aluminum rails?? They could have simply used steel, so maybe it was to ruduce rusting?? Really makes no sense.
If you like the looks of this track you may be interested in SuperO. A web search will show it in use. Made by Lionel '57-66 in fairly large amount. Very easy to come by today & less costly than FasTrack or many other track systems. It was only made in 036. Curves can be rebent to any radius. Switches are of course only 036, that is the limiting factor. The thin center rail was hard on some early rollers. By 1958 almost all rollers were of such material rollers didn't wear at all. None of the repro rollers I've found wear. So roller wear is no reason to not use it.
I've had a SuperO layout going for 25yrs. to good results. There is no track more smooth or quiet. None!
So switches are the limiting factor. Some folks use Gargraves or Atlas switches.
Very best, Don Johnson
If TruTrack had been made with steel or nickel rail, I'd definitely consider using it.
Wow, the info you pick up on this site! I had never heard of this TruTrack. It looks to be way ahead of its time except for the aluminum rails.
note the "middle Rail" is an N scale Rail!
Thanks everyone. I didn't even realize the rails were aluminum! I can see where that would be a problem.
I never knew this stuff existed until I bought a new-in-box MPC set last year. TruTrack was shown in the literature that came with the set, and I did some research to find out more about it. It looks like it was an ahead-of-its-time idea; with steel rail instead of aluminum it may have caught on. Think about it- it could be used with or without the roadbed, so you could use it an a floor, temporary layout, carpet-central, permanent hi-rail layout, whatever.
Hi Trainsrme, Interestingly TruTrack was behind its time. Should have brought it out in 1967. As I recall Gargraves came out in 1935ish. Lionel brought out T-rail. At the same time Lionel was prototyping SuperO. The WWII came & threw a monkey wrench it the plans. Who knows why Lionel sat on SuperO unitl '57. I guess folks didn't care that much for a few years they were in such a rush for toy trains.
However about then HO was getting really big. Folks were moving to that. Interesting how 2 rail has not caught on with hirailers. 25 years ago I expected the hobby to move that way. I guess the electrical simplicty & cool accessories has kept 3 rail popular. Any thoughts?
Very best, Don Johnson
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