old pullman 2 rail track vs atlas

That's an old site. Old Pullman seems to have gone out of business. For flex track, you can get Micro Engineering. JDsTrains/AMHobbies sells it for a pretty good price (http://www.jdstrains.com/mi2ratr.html). Get the non-weathered as it's easier to work with. For turnouts, you can go Atlas, but there are a couple of other manufacturers making custom 2-rail turnouts with Code 148 rail. One of them is Signature Switch Company (http://www.signatureswitchco.com). He makes #6's and above, but I've heard he'll cut #4's and #5's. The other company is O Scale Turnouts, Inc. (http://oscaleturnouts.com/). His turnouts come a couple of ways -- ready to spike, and ready to lay (a little more work than an out-of-the-box turnout). I've seen samples of both and they're pretty impressive. I like the M-E flex track a little better than Atlas as the tie spikes are more substantial, but both will look nice laid and ballasted.

 

Hope this helps.

Sorry to hear Old Pullman went out. That gave me a glimmer of hope for 2rail O scale.
Without my large HO collection  selling anything it's not possible to raise the funds needed to do in O what I hoped for,so I guess I'll have to stay there.
Thank you for the information.
Alan

Alan,

 

Try the Fast Tracks System and roll your own!  It's fun and more economical than you might think.  I posted sometime ago on how to do it w/o spending a ton of $$ on fixtures.

 

Peter

Absolutely...hand laying is very rewarding and freeing.

 

I never laid 1 oz of rail&know nothing about wiring but am willing if you fellas got the patience.
I'm looking for #4or#5 track components 1st. What would be the cost vs Atlas assembled?
Al

Absolutely agree with Peter, Chris and Malcolm.  Doesn't matter if you use the Fast Tracks system and Jigs, lay your own rail on wood ties, use RoW castings/details or some combination, you can certainly create some amazing track work in O Scale.  Chris's track work is second to none plus he has a lot of instructional videos on his techniques.  

You could also take a look at track from Trout Creek (Tru Scale).

 

http://www.troutcreekeng.com/bko.html

 

 

Mike where can I find Chris' instructional videos? Thanks in advance.

 

 

Easiest to search for the forum for

 

cwex track laying

 

You'll find them.

Thanks again Mike.

I just looked at what I posted and in my copy and paste of it I noticed the pictures got a little squished so they look funny, especially that Y switch.  Sorry,

If you right click and pick view picture you will get the proper perspective.

Peter

This link should take you to the videos I've done.  By no means is it the bible, it's just the way I did things and I'm happy with the results.  I'm STILL working on all the tracks at my RH/TT area and when I'm done there I will post some photos of the area. 

 

Thanks Mike & Malcolm for the kind words.   

Is "Old Pullman" really out of business??

A website is up, with a new Email address; apparently they had trouble with the old one.

Old Pullman hasn't been heard from for quite a few years.

 

Ed Rappe

Don't take me wrong here,but it seems like so many things are either not made at all,are out of stock,or like in the case of Old Pullman that seemingly had a great variety of track switches at decent prices,is out of business. This makes a fellow looking into O scale heavily,start to rub his chin&wonder if getting into O Scale is smart.(?) I came out of 30+ years of HO,when things were to a large degree,the same as they are in O now. I realized from the start that O Scale has a much smaller percentage of modelers,so things wouldn't be as easy to come by as they are in HO,but I'm beginning to get kind of worried here.  Instead of an incline in O availability,are we going the other way,down instead of up?
I only been buying into O gradually since January,so I'm still sort of on the outside looking in,so-to-speak. It pains me to even bring this topic up,I'm trying hard to get out of HO into O,but is there something I'm missing here fellas?
Thanks for all your replies in advance.
Al

I sent an Email to the email address ( oldpullman@earthlink.net ) on the Old Pullman website and got this "Undelivered Message" back:-

quote:

A message that you sent to the following recipient could not be delivered due to a permanent error. ** The remote server 209.86.93.229 responded with: ** oldpullman@earthlink.net 550ldpullman@earthlink.net...User account is unavailable This message was created automatically by mail delivery software on the server avasout07.

We'll take that as a "Closed", shall we??

 

I've been researching building my own track in the last couple of days, and I have to say it seems much easier to get P48 track components on-line than it is standard O Scale.

"On-line" is a key word - before everyone says "Right-O-Way", I am in England, UK. I doubt that Mr Cross is able, without a computer, to accept payment by Cards, in Foreign currencies.

 

Lack of ready-made track components has always been a problem in O scale.

 

This is actually sort of a golden age of 2-rail if you rely on ready-made, due to the availability of Atlas track products. We have never had the range of track products in the past in O scale to compare with the current Atlas.

 

Last time I built an O scale layout, all I had were Old Pullman turnout kits (one step above handlaying) and the occasional Atlas-Roco turnout, a rarity that would appear once in a while. NOw the Old Pullman kits will probably appear on the secondary market just as rarely.

 

As others have said, the typical 2-rail O scale layout doesn't get built quickly. Unless you want to go all modern Atlas, handlaying is a skill very much worth learning. 2-rail O scale will never approach HO in availability of product or ease of construction with ready-made products.

 

It's just the nature of the "beast", and also one of its big attractions in the eyes of many modelers. The fun for many is in the building, and in overcoming lack of availability with ingenuity and modeling skill.

 

Jim

 

 

Thanks a lot for posting the link Chris. I just watched parts of your videos. I don't have the time to watch the entire video right now but I saved copies of all 9 videos and will definitely watch every minute of it. I have to say your track work is awesome! I can't believe how realistic it looks. I have tried to build my own turnout and it came out OK but there are a couple of things I am not happy with. I'm hoping your videos will help me solve those problems. I'm using the Fastrack jigs and I don't particularly care for the non-hinged type of turnout. Number 1, I don't think it is realistic as the prototype (to my knowledge) did not have such a thing and number two the turnout I built always stays facing in the diverging direction due to the tension of the non-hinged rails. It seems to require much more energy to go to the straight route and then no energy at all to face the diverging route. It should still work but I don't like it. It doesn't seem "right" to me. Anyway, down the line I am hoping that (I don't know if this will work yet) if I could somehow combine Lou's parts with parts that I make using the Fastrack jig that I could build a nice turnout (not super detailed but halfway decent) that operates reliably at an affordable price. Thanks again for posting the videos. I really appreciate it.

Your welcome Phil, they are long..I just couldn't make them shorter because I talk too much.    Thank you for the compliment on the track, it takes time but I'm very happy with the results...it's been a ton of fun.

     I'm in the same camp as you with regards to the turnout points, I prefer hinged.  Hinged does not put as much stress on the spikes and such.  Turnouts can be tricky but they became easier as I went and now it's a pretty smooth process.  Here's a couple pics.

Now if I made a video of all the mistakes I've made....yeesh we would be here for a year...

 

 

That track work is some of the best I've ever seen. Thanks again for doing the videos. I am in the middle of #6. I am already starting to feel more confident about laying my own turnouts.

Thank's Phil they were fun to make.  I'm glad you're feeling better about laying some turnouts...it really is fun.  I'm looking forward to seeing photos of your progress, so please post some when your ready....and have FUN.