Read this whole dissertation, and of the one fellow noting the stud center rail, which Marklin still produces for HO. The switches and crossings seem to be a mass of insulated sections though. To me this argument is the classic lipstick on a pig, folks want and hope to hide that third rail without accepting that is just what it is. For most of us, we have been staring at that third rail since we were children. The old Atlas HO track planning book had a picture of a man looking at his 3 rail rectangular sharp curves with two dead end spurs rail layout and saying to himself, this is not what he had in mind, where in his minds eye he saw 2 rail empire with realistic 2 rail broad curve trackage. We who love 3 rail do not see that third rail, it is like our brain has a third rail filter. We can enjoy the relative reliable function of our trains instead of what can be hit and miss with smaller scales, and when the cat jumps up on the layout, you know his shedding fur will not bring your consist to a screeching halt. Don't get me wrong, I love both O and HO and have layouts for both, the HO layout I have cut up and moved 3 times in 45 years so it has an excuse to be iffy at times. I am still trying to get my golden spike driven on my new O gauge, bound and determined to get a 2 track arch bridge in front of a window that the survey crew is having a hard time laying it out.
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