Hello Scale world ..I apologize if the mention of outside 3rd rail offends anyone ... causing this to move this to a different section .
Back in the good old days when O scale was new, it was hip to add pick up sweeps on your engine to draw current from an elevated 3rd rail ( akin to some subways today) ( no idea why, inside 3rd rail was the an eye sore and sweepers on a steamer engine was cool..can anyone fill me in?) . So the early pioneers in the hobby were fighting over 1/4" or 17/64" and 2 rail , or 2 rail with outside 3rd rail ..you know who won.
Most modelers loved to build from scratch, or kits and lay their own track. In Richmond Hill, NY, Fixen ( two guys in a basement) offered "sectional" ( snap together + -) O scale track with an outside 3rd rail .
I'm new to the early O scale world and would not have believed that "sectional" out side 3rd rail track existed till picking up a pair of "Fixen" switches at the last York.
I'd like to set up a loop of O scale with outside 3rd rail to run MI-Loco's, Mini-Scale and Scalecraft on ...does anyone have any "Fixen" sectional O scale track with an outside 3rd rail? Does anyone still run outside 3rd rail ? The great Delta Lines and other such early scale empires all ran with outside 3rd rail.
Below pair of Fixen switches . & ..copies from a Fixen catalog found at the TCA museum ( circa 1937). Fixen in the Tinplate world are famous for their Ives passenger cars kit bashed modifications into Interurbans ...they also made standard gauge two rail track , with outside 3rd rail for the total fringe element.
Thank you
Carey Williams