atlas track with old trains good or bad idea?

And how would pre-war American Flyer with the geared drivers with the gear teeth down by the flanges track through the switches and crossings?

yea that is a good question also to i have some flyer and i know they dont like 711 switches much or really any switches at all

You can run your engines on atlas track but when going thru switches you have to turn e-unit off or they will stop and some your dump cars with shoes won't go thru atlas switch and watch some of the cars when wheels are not fasten to the axle will not go thru switches but other then that they should work fine. 

Magnatraction does not work on Atlas track.

Outstanding track and we use it extensively with the club modular layout. However, it's not worth a hoot with Magnetraction.

Gilly

I have an old Marx locomotive with the gear teeth on the inside of the drivers, and it doesn't like FasTrack switches or crossings because it climbs out, so I'm sure Atlas track wouldn't be much different.  It also has a shoe for center pickup and it doesn't like switches either, it shorts out.  Works great on a simple loop of track though.

My layout is the old Atlas steel, and magnetraction works fine. My only problems have been with the sliding shoes on older Lionel equipment. Atlas switches come with a plastic filler piece that's supposed to solve the problem, and it does somewhat, but not entirely. I think if I spent more time on the problem it could be solved, but I haven't.

I have all atlas track the engines work fine. My 1946 671 turbine pulls 10-12 freight cars on a level plain, my 675 & sf 2343 work fine. But like brr said for grades I have atlas steel track. The slide shoes could be a problem. I either glue them in the up position or fill the switch area with ballast to help hem over. Vic.

Why would you run old trains on Atlas track? I would think you would want to run them on tubular track. That's what they were meant to run on.

Atlas switches have caused activation of old sliding shoes.  I've had a few trains rear end themselves by unintended de-couplings.  I've had one or two shoes broken as well.  Fortunately I have a rivet press with bits made for shoes.  However, I have tucked the shoes up to the bottom of the trucks with small cable ties running in the groove of the shoes, and this has eliminated the problem.  My PW GG1 will derail on a 072/054 turnout in one direction only.

Alan

I laid my track with O27 tubular using a minimum O42 curve and use the new Gargraves switches that have the two slender power rails and I do not have any problem with magnetraction, derailments, E-units clicking into neutral or power pick-ups catching.

Bad idea. I invested in the brown ties and discovered PW trains were useless on the brown ties. So, I bought the black ties. They were discontinued. So, I went to Gargraves and then to Fast track. Today, I have Fast track and a Super "O" display layout (D-223).

My Atlas track is OOS (out of service) and I may offer it up on the Buy/Sell Forum. I hate to part with anything, because it has been my experience that I want it back. There is no Logic  to this.

I'm assuming you already have the Atlas track.  I have a pre-war O-gauge set and it runs around the loop of Atlas track just fine as long as there are no switches nor crossings.   If you already have the track and just want it to run around in a loop and don't need magnetraction go for it.   If you don't already have the track I recommend going with tubular track.

--Greg

At our club layout, we have all Atlas O track for each line.  One mainline uses Atlas O's solid steel track system (black ties) with NO turnouts.  This combination was incorporated into the track plan specifically so that all O gauge trains of any vintage (including and particularly Marx engines with the gear teeth level with the driver wheel edges) could all run on that line with as little to no issues as possible, as well as for magnetraction engines.  This setup works just fine.

The remaining 3 mainlines are regular nickle-silver and have switches for everything else.