Lionel O54 engines

I suspect that Lionel does O54 ratings due to the fact that many people already use Atlas or Ross O54 and they want to catch that part of the market. These are more typically higher end/more expensive engines and I suspect it is worth their while to go down to O54 to increase potential sales.

Here is personal experience……my last layout had Atlas O54 curves. The Niagara was rated for O54 and I purchased one. If it was rated at O60, I would never have bought one.

Peter

I'll second Peter's answer. That said, I have O48 Fastrack on my layout and have no problem running any O54 rated engines.  Same with O72 vs O60. I also have O60 Fastrack curves and they can handle any of the O72 rated pieces, at least whatever I own.  Appearance and overhang clearance are a factor, of course.  Here's an example of a Lionel ES44AC on O48 Fastrack from my Christmas layout last year.

Rob

Adding to the insights offered by Peter and Rob, regarding O54 track, even though O54 FasTrack has not been produced, Lionel did at one time make O54 tubular track.  Link to the webpage: Most Recent Catalog: 2016-17 Track and Power.   It's still plentiful on the used market.

In addition to Ross and Atlas (like Peter noted) O54 is also still available new from Gargraves (Phantom), MTH (RealTrax), and Menard's (tubular).

As to why Lionel makes FasTrack in O31, 36, 48, 60, 72, 84 & 96 diameters, for me to say would be speculation.  What I can factually say is this:

Having worked with a lot of track designs, the product line does offer many options for anyone wanting rigid curved track with built-in roadbed, designed for reuse and relative ease of assembly.

Going from the largest diameter O96 down to O36 (as depicted), each next smaller curve fits evenly inside the previous size, with O-31 being the exception (shown in red).  To fit O31 Fastrack inside O36, requires adding track to somehow widen the O36 curve.  One example is shown below at the right.

I hope this is helpful.

Thanks for the insight, guys. My custom-bent Gargraves curves fall between O48 and O54, so maybe it's worth taking a chance on a Legacy O54 rated steam engine. From what I've read on the forum, quite a few have had success running O54 engines on O48 track. The worst that could happen is that I would have to upgrade a few curves on my mainline.