Old Atlas Track ?

Is this HO or O gauge?

This is O Gauge track.  1-1/4 between the rails.    Brass Rail   0.2 inch high rail  ( Code 200 ? )

Steve

I have never seen nor heard of any reference to this track since I have been here (28+ years).  The fact that it says "licensed under patent" leads me to believe it was not an Atlas product per se, but offered by someone else with some fee paid back to Atlas for use of the patent.

I have heard others here speak of older Atlas 3 rail track, but I have never seen any and have no idea what it looks like. My memory could be way off here, but it seems like someone mentioned it was from the '70s ??  Probably not much help...

Atlas made two rail track in the 70's of which I have several sections of.  I'm not aware of a 3 rail track.  The two rail track was made by Roco and marketed by Atlas.  It has a nice scale profile.  I believe Code 148 vs. the modern code 178 three rail track made now. 

GG1 4877 posted:

Atlas made two rail track in the 70's of which I have several sections of.  I'm not aware of a 3 rail track.  The two rail track was made by Roco and marketed by Atlas.  It has a nice scale profile.  I believe Code 148 vs. the modern code 178 three rail track made now. 

I believe the current 3 rail track is code 215 and the 2 rail is 148. Wish there was code 178 3 rail.

GG1 4877 posted:

Atlas made two rail track in the 70's of which I have several sections of.  I'm not aware of a 3 rail track.  The two rail track was made by Roco and marketed by Atlas.  It has a nice scale profile.  I believe Code 148 vs. the modern code 178 three rail track made now. 

I am probably not remembering this correctly then, and I bet it was 2 rail track that I recalled seeing in the other posts here on the forum. I do read all the forums here from time to time, so the 2 rail is most surely what I remember seeing.

Interesting.

My guess is that the track shown is from Bob Peare Engineering Corp and dates from the early 1950's.  Here is the 1952 catalog.  Check page 45 (actually page 5 of the pdf).

www.sscalenews.com/downloads/bobpeare1952.pdf

That track I like. If it had a Super-O/Scaletrax center rail it would be as perfect as 3-rail track could be.

Wish that they still made it. Takes me back to my brief HO Atlas Flex days, after the Lionel 0-27 was put away and a driver's license.

I would agree with Bob that it is most likely a Bob Peare product. The fiber tie strip was common for most flex track in that era before plastic ties came along.

Jim

Gary E posted:

GG1 4877 posted:

Atlas made two rail track in the 70's of which I have several sections of.  I'm not aware of a 3 rail track.  The two rail track was made by Roco and marketed by Atlas.  It has a nice scale profile.  I believe Code 148 vs. the modern code 178 three rail track made now. 

I believe the current 3 rail track is code 215 and the 2 rail is 148. Wish there was code 178 3 rail.

EARLY Atlas (Roco) is code 166 is plated brass , even the flex with plastic black ties . POLA also made 2 rail sectional track close to code .125 , ties were spaced a little wider apart  and I think 2 different radius .

Scratchbuilder1-48 posted:

Gary E posted:

GG1 4877 posted:

Atlas made two rail track in the 70's of which I have several sections of.  I'm not aware of a 3 rail track.  The two rail track was made by Roco and marketed by Atlas.  It has a nice scale profile.  I believe Code 148 vs. the modern code 178 three rail track made now. 

I believe the current 3 rail track is code 215 and the 2 rail is 148. Wish there was code 178 3 rail.

EARLY Atlas (Roco) is code 166 is plated brass , even the flex with plastic black ties . POLA also made 2 rail sectional track close to code .125 , ties were spaced a little wider apart  and I think 2 different radius .

Thanks for the correction!  I'll need to look at my track.  It must be the POLA track at it is nickel silver.  I would love to get some more.  Did Atlas offer POLA made switches to go with the track? 

Jonathan,

I believe that the Pola track with the smaller rail profile was imported by AHM to go with their 2 rail equipment. 

AHM hit the market in the 1970s with their FM C-liner diesel sets about the same time as Atlas came out with the F9 diesel and small industrial switcher sets.

I'm  not sure if they ever had switches to go along with the Pola track.

Also, the plated Atlas track looked very much like nickel silver. I used some on a layout and never noticed that it was plated until years later when some plating started to wear off the top of the rail surfaces.

Jim

Jim,

Interesting. I definitely need too look at my track.  I'll take some photos tonight with a two rail loco on the track for reference.  I

Here are a couple of photos. I'm not sure if the smaller tie size of the AHM/Pola track is really visible in the photos.

AHM:

Atlas/Roco:

Atlas/Roco also imported some larger radius #5 or so switches at about the same time. These switches were highly prized by 2 railers at the time since they were some of the only ready-made large radius switches available to 2 railers at the time.

Jim

Jim,

The track I have is flex track in 30" sections.  Thanks for the photos.  I'll compare this evening after work.

Kinda late in the discussion.  But, I think modern Atlas O 3 rail track is code 225 and 2 rail for sure is code 148.   Great topic.  A good history lesson on the evolution of ready made 3 rail and 2 rail track.  

About a year late, but I thought people would like to see this 1952 Bob Peare ad in Model Railroader. It offers the track for sale and references the patent.

SanDiegoMark posted:

About a year late, but I thought people would like to see this 1952 Bob Peare ad in Model Railroader. It offers the track for sale and references the patent.

I bought 3 - 4 pieces of this on eBay about 6 months ago; now I know who offered it. I do believe Peare offered switches, but didn't he have another, more GG/Ross-ish line of track, too?

Nice-looking track; those fiber ties are thin for a low profile. I got mine (not expensive) with display tracks in mind; the fiber ties are sort of delicate due to age, not surprisingly. Still useable, but definitely not a toy train take-it-apart-again-and-again track. 

I just got 45' of this track 15 36" pieces. its is nice stuff.

Jim Policastro posted:

Jonathan, I'm  not sure if they ever had switches to go along with the Pola track. Jim

Yes they did offer a right and a left switch. The curve and straight portions matched the sectional track offerings.

Funny this thread came back.  Between the time I asked the question and now, I acquired a large number of Pola turnouts at a local TCA auction.  Being the only one buying 2 rail in the room, I did pretty well on them.  Now to just find track joiners and more flex sections.

Oh ... I also need to get a space big enough to actually build the layout.  Next house in about 3 years hopefully.

The boxes for my turnouts are actually marked Pola and not Atlas. 

I recall in the early 1970s a flex track made by Lionel.  I considered buying and using it for my layouts then, but did not pursue that route.  Continued to use the sectional track as it was more easily available and workable for changes in any layout plan.  Does anyone else recall this track?  I know it was made by Lionel, checked into it quite a bit before changing my mind to use.

Jesse

Let's hope that this brass track operates better than its "HO" equivalents did back in the day due to its oxidation properties. Maybe the weight of "O" gauge locos will enable better electrical contact. There is a reason the "HO" crowd wanted nickel silver rails instead of brass......

Here's some 148 code Atlas O-scale track I used about 25 years ago on a layout.   The track was Roco?  / Atlas from around the 70's.   Both flex and rigid sections.  I added my own center rail.  I think I used an N-scale rail. using an N-scale tie glued to the O-scale tie, about every 6 inches.  The typical Lionel flanges still ran fine on the rails, but not through the turnout guard rails, so I had to dremel these flush with the ties.   Trains ran smooth and quiet,  with very small 'bumps'  through the turnouts.  

30024dava     zdavad

There seems to be a rash of early Atlas 70's two rail 36" flex track  around these parts.   Availability is hit or miss.    Both solid NS and NS plated brass.  They mike out at .157". 

Any cut end will show a brass core when exposed with the NS plated track.  

The rail profile has a much better cutaway profile than the obese newer Atlas 40".   The late model web is so thick that using ROW guard rails require a degree of grinding and fitting.

New or used the early 36" code .157"  usually is much less cost than the later .148" track. 

At first I was using .009" shims in half of the rail joiners for .148" turnouts but I found that is only necessary when perfectionists want to argue a point.  (Rivet counters are shot on sight around here.)  Have never had a derailment due to unshimmed mixed rail codes.

99% of my 2rail RR is N.O.S. 70's Atlas.  My 3 rail is Ross/GG

Hey Tim Tee,  Do have any pics of your 2-rail layout?   would like to see them is so.  Thanks.

"the Lord heals all of your diseases except the last one"

I tried to zero in on a selection of track photos.  8' strips of 1 1/4" tempered Masonite help to align tangent track while providing brad holes over factory  pre drilled ties

All track is early Atlas flex with a variety of turnout suppliers.

Five branch lines, five turntables.

I had a bunch of Atlas 2 rail track. Someone threw it out during a municipal collection, and my friend saved it for me. It was stamped Atlas on the underside of the ties if I remember correctly. It was very realistic, low profile rails, and scale sized and spaced ties. I used some for s coal yard, and some for making MOW muck loads.

Tom Tee posted:

... 8' strips of 1 1/4" tempered Masonite help to align tangent track while providing brad holes over factory  pre drilled ties

 

 

That's a cool idea. 

Bob posted:

My guess is that the track shown is from Bob Peare Engineering Corp and dates from the early 1950's.  Here is the 1952 catalog.  Check page 45 (actually page 5 of the pdf).

www.sscalenews.com/downloads/bobpeare1952.pdf

 

Possibly so.  Looking at the patent itself you can see who patented it and where they were, but I was not able to find an assignment: