A stud system would be awesome but that train has left the station. There are too many legacy engines out there to convert. I think that very few people would purchase a stud track system and then convert their trains.
Probably the best looking 3-rail track would be 2-rail track running battery powered 3-rail engines. A modeler could pull the middle rail out of any manufacturers 3-rail track system or they could just buy 2-rail track. Pulling the center rail and converting a few engines to battery power would be much easier than converting an entire layout to a smaller middle rail.
I have converted several 3-rail engines to battery power with radio or cell phone (Bluetooth) control. All of them run much better than they did on track power. I use a battery powered engine to pull my track cleaning train these days. It works better than any track powered track cleaning train.
Most new Lionel engines come with Bluetooth. I haven't done it yet. However, I think that these engines could be converted to battery and run using the built-in Bluetooth. I have converted Lion Chief engines to battery and I use the controller that is supplied with the engine to run it. It works great. NH Joe
