Hello all! This morning I picked up a carton of 100 Super O 9 inch straight sections at a train show. Has anyone else encountered a box like this? I've seen cartons for curved but never for straights.
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I no virtually nothing about Super O track, except that I think it looks very good, there is limited quality, that many believe it's highly desirable, and you might have a very good find re this box of Super O straights.
SuperO is great track and I have used it on my layout. The straights is not all that rare but finding a box is a good find. The problem is finding them in good condition with no rust, etc.
Good luck with them .
Dave
Yep, I remember that box from 40 years ago. While I have a Ross track, I do have a section of SuperO track to remember my post war layout I had as a kid. Wish Lionel would bring it back but with wider curves.
Arnold D. Cribari posted:I no virtually nothing about Super O track, except that I think it looks very good, there is limited quality, that many believe it's highly desirable, and you might have a very good find re this box of Super O straights.
So is the Super O box more valuable than the Super O Track? LOL
So is the Super O box more valuable than the Super O Track? LOL
To Some collectors - Yes
I think I have a similar box, but for insulated straight sections. I finally used a lot of it when I restored and expanded my layout last year.
Still great track, by the way.
Is the box collectable? Not even it was crisp.
Dave
if you want to sell the track, send me a email.
davidone261@gmail.com
Great find 
Having said that Super O shipping cartons are somewhat common - they turn up quite often
I must have 8 or 10 of them now
As recently as a few months ago I had an opportunity to buy some mint / brand new Super O that came from a Sears store - the gentleman shipped it all to me in the original Lionel carton - exactly like yours - the shipping label had the store address on it
This is how Lionel sent track to their dealers
I have shipping cartons dated for 1957 / 1959 and into the early 60's
Cool stuff
Thx
PS
There is a Yahoo group loaded with Super O junkies like me 
- this stuff is on there all the time
dorfj2 posted:PS
There is a Yahoo group loaded with Super O junkies like me
That Super O Yahoo Group moved to Groupsio.
"Super O" Bill
Not as a whole would be my guess. But if I used the track I wouldn't burn the box.
Super O is my favorite track for looks and function... Except the switches. They are ok. Great on most, but if there are loco issues; there is not much to do.
It is actually not too expensive, but good quality is pretty important. Mostly the condition on the inner tube for pin seating as the pins are small. They are thin copper flats, like a large staple straightened out. They conduct well, but are easily abused and break due to size and "work hardening" ...and working with them can get you a staple puncture on the thumb if you aren't careful 
The railhead is a regtangle tube and flat on top, so traction is better than most tube track. The center rail a copper strip sitting up on it's edge & n-folded copper clips to connect and align the ends. On occasiion a clip pops up and derails things. I dont bother, but the clips can be soldered in place pretty easy. Even one side soldered stops it and still allows it to come apart or go together (it's just a bit harder)
The thin rail is softer than (most) rollers and replaceable if you need to. (Wears noticably over time because it is thin)
There is one thing to know. Some old rollers we're very soft and would get a round groove from plain tubes too, but Super O cuts a line in those AND pick up shoes. I fill that shoe groove with solder regularly. If left to slice through it (& rollers) it will then eventually wedge on the center rail in straights and esp. in curves.
Great find... like others, i have found a box of mint straighs like this... good luck with Super O.
Watch out for repro power clips. They dont fit the track well and do come up.
Loved that track & had tons of it with all the accessories for it. If they would have made it in O-72", I would still have it. One thing that did bother me about it was several of the outside rails had a small gap between as they did not fit tight. Other than that, made well. Went to Atlas for that reason.
Adriatic posted:The railhead is a rectangle tube and flat on top, so traction is better than most tube track
I built an O scale trolley line with Super O as I had some and the outer rails were bonded together; The trolleys ran off of the overhead so the bonded rails were a plus. I do not remember if I left the" third rail" in or not.
LIONEL posted:Loved that track & had tons of it with all the accessories for it. If they would have made it in O-72", I would still have it. One thing that did bother me about it was several of the outside rails had a small gap between as they did not fit tight. Other than that, made well. Went to Atlas for that reason.
The gap is not on the early sections of track. I have some gap track and it is annoying. I think its the later track when they were 'saving money'?
A good friend of mine suggested that I mention that you can have your Super O Curves modified for wider radius. Last year, I sent a bunch of curved track to a gentleman named Rich Riley. He modified the curves for 042, 048, and 054. He does beautiful work-it looks like the factory did it.
Since I got the track modified, I finally can run some of my larger locomotives on my old Super O layout.
RAK posted:A good friend of mine suggested that I mention that you can have your Super O Curves modified for wider radius. Last year, I sent a bunch of curved track to a gentleman named Rich Riley. He modified the curves for 042, 048, and 054. He does beautiful work-it looks like the factory did it.
Since I got the track modified, I finally can run some of my larger locomotives on my old Super O layout.
Any more info on this? Price, contact info?
Great find indeed!
Though the painting and drawing on the rear cover of the Lionel 1957 catalog is a bit primitive, and I stand to be corrected, but I believe the L shaped double 5X9 ft. layout was designed for Lionel's new Super-O track system introduced 61 years ago. I still consider this layout to be one of the best ever designed. Check out the scene on the rear cover showing father and son coming down the stairs in a typical modern mid-50s basement.
Note the Airex fishing gear and sign on the wall. Lionel owned the outfit at the time if memory serves me well.
Off subject but when I purchased a copy of the Denver, South Park & Pacific Pictorial not long ago from a San Francisco book dealer it arrived in the original Rocky Mountain Railroad Club carton and still has the shipping label with cancelled 4 cent stamp (The US Postal Service provided special rates for books containing educational material in 1959) addressed to the famous author David F. Myrick, who wrote books on the railroads of Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico! Indeed, a rare find in 2018!
Trinity River Bottoms Boomer posted:
rear cover of the Lionel 1957
I have this trackplan from a Lionel document buried in my stuff (somewhere). It was drawn up and has the super O tracks set up for Super O... I may have posted it on the SuperOYahoo group years ago also.
I will dig tonite for it (I am not really unpacked from the move to my new house 7 years ago).
About Wide radius Super O... I got some O54" Super O from Elliot Welz years ago... He did a nice job... Then because of the wait I started doing it myself, but I do it in full 90deg curve sections to save work...
It is not hard to do. If you can bend gargraves you can bend super O. There are some tricks to it and a few more steps.
The switches are much more difficult. Here is a screen shot from my old layout (RIP) with Wide radius Super O: These are O-144" and O-134" Curves and that is a O-144" Super O Switch!
Great to see more interest in Super O... Some day I will get back into it... Checkout 'superobob' on Youtube for lots of videos on this old layout with wide radius Super O.
Incidentally, when Super O is CLEAN and NEW the center rail kind of disappears as in the screen shot below... You can see how nice the clean track looks... And for BIG layouts the conductivity is FANTASTIC and power drops are needed only every 18-FEET or so! Which is the best part is the operating performance of a REAL shaped rail section for low drag rolling and the electrical performance... Now you see why I am 'SUPEROBOB'...
Oh yea, one more thing! AVOID the Repro SuperO bus bar clips for center rail! These come up alot and do not fit the track right. They are thicker material than the original clips. They can be identified by scoring on the sides and the top of them is squared off or kindof creased. The original clips are smooth sided, and have a nice RADIUS at the top... this keeps them snug to track and wont be picked up. I never had a original clip come up from my layout (and it got a huge workload).
Also KEEP YOUR CENTER RAIL CLEAN. Use 3m abrasive pads and shine the top of that sucker up. You will never have cut rollers. The cut rollers is from arcing on dirty track.
Hope this helps you new guys to SuperO.
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dorfj2 posted:Great find
Having said that Super O shipping cartons are somewhat common - they turn up quite often
I must have 8 or 10 of them now
Hi Dorf-
Having that many, do you want to unload one or two? I can be reached at the email in profile...
Let me know... I could use some more in new condition... Thanks...
Super O Bob posted:Trinity River Bottoms Boomer posted:
rear cover of the Lionel 1957
I have this trackplan from a Lionel document buried in my stuff (somewhere). It was drawn up and has the super O tracks set up for Super O... I may have posted it on the SuperOYahoo group years ago also.
I will dig tonite for it (I am not really unpacked from the move to my new house 7 years ago).
About Wide radius Super O... I got some O54" Super O from Elliot Welz years ago... He did a nice job... Then because of the wait I started doing it myself, but I do it in full 90deg curve sections to save work...
It is not hard to do. If you can bend gargraves you can bend super O. There are some tricks to it and a few more steps.
The switches are much more difficult. Here is a screen shot from my old layout (RIP) with Wide radius Super O: These are O-144" and O-134" Curves and that is a O-144" Super O Switch!
Great to see more interest in Super O... Some day I will get back into it... Checkout 'superobob' on Youtube for lots of videos on this old layout with wide radius Super O.
Incidentally, when Super O is CLEAN and NEW the center rail kind of disappears as in the screen shot below... You can see how nice the clean track looks... And for BIG layouts the conductivity is FANTASTIC and power drops are needed only every 18-FEET or so! Which is the best part is the operating performance of a REAL shaped rail section for low drag rolling and the electrical performance... Now you see why I am 'SUPEROBOB'...
Bob,
Great layout. Nice, Custom made super O switches! Do you have a new super O layout planned?
Yes... i started something about 6 years ago, then didnt do much. Its no more than two loops of track in a back room.
I have future plans for a layout like the original one in the photo... i dont know when i will get to it.
Good to see that Super O track is alive and well. And is fairly easy to obtain.
I've always wanted to do a Lionel Space & Military themed layout and would love to use Super O since that fits for that era.
I'm sure I'll be back here with questions. 
Super O Bob posted:Yes... i started something about 6 years ago, then didnt do much. Its no more than two loops of track in a back room.
I have future plans for a layout like the original one in the photo... i dont know when i will get to it.
Understood, life, family, work take fore front.
While we are tripping down memory lane... Here are some good videos of the old layout with good old friends not with us anymore...
Train Parties (Had alot of these):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bx0-iisY5o
Big Boys!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5Bo5vfXqWY
Triple header Big Boys:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RlYLTU5gvM
Sitting in my chair...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggec2917NJk
Awesome Super O layout with huge radius curves. Very impressive, looks like alot of fun!
johnstrains posted:Good to see that Super O track is alive and well. And is fairly easy to obtain.
I've always wanted to do a Lionel Space & Military themed layout and would love to use Super O since that fits for that era.
I'm sure I'll be back here with questions.
Check this out...
Lionel Promo Film 1960 with lots of Super O and Military Trains...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...lNX4tzwCw&t=346s
Also this was my Lionel 1958 Catalog Cover Video... With PWC Space Set
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veo8LX8NpFs
Seacoast posted:Awesome Super O layout with huge radius curves. Very impressive, looks like alot of fun!
Thanks... It was alot of fun. I miss it very much... I loved Postwar, and got heavy into big scale engines, hence the wide radius Super O...
Polar Express... Closer look at track...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9olU7aN6TAo
Super O Bob posted:Seacoast posted:Awesome Super O layout with huge radius curves. Very impressive, looks like alot of fun!
Thanks... It was alot of fun. I miss it very much... I loved Postwar, and got heavy into big scale engines, hence the wide radius Super O...
Polar Express... Closer look at track...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9olU7aN6TAo
To bad Lionel didn't have the resources or time to develop Super O with the larger radius curves at the time in the early 1960's. I wonder why the newer Lionel did not produce Super O with the larger radius instead of fastrak. Super O looks a combination of Atlas O and tubular. I think its the best looking track out there.
LucasWSU posted:Hello all! This morning I picked up a carton of 100 Super O 9 inch straight sections at a train show. Has anyone else encountered a box like this? I've seen cartons for curved but never for straights.
Lucas-
Looks like we hijacked your post... You got all the Super O Geeks going again.
It looks like you have a table top and some Super O track on it... What are your plans with Super O? Just getting into it? Building a Super O layout?
To bad Lionel didn't have the resources or time to develop Super O with the larger radius curves at the time in the early 1960's. I wonder why the newer Lionel did not produce Super O with the larger radius instead of fastrak. Super O looks a combination of Atlas O and tubular. I think its the best looking track out there.
George... Yea, back about 15 years ago we petitioned Lionel to do just that. They had these great scale engines, yet no track for them. They let others do it. They had their head on fastrack (which is nice) but it is not scale modeller track. So we failed to get them interested.
I was close to getting some regular super o straights and o36" curves made by Lionel again and have some test shots of the old super o tooling with different colored ties. But it never happened.
Having built my big super o layout, i still would do it again... the performance was so good that it was worth the effort in forming the track to wide radius.
Didn't SuperO production end in 59-60? What my father used to build my childhood layout in the late 60's early 70's was left over stock, if I understand my Lionel history. By the 60's the Joshua Lionel was on the way out.
Too bad Lionel didn't go for it 15 years ago.
Super O Bob posted:johnstrains posted:Good to see that Super O track is alive and well. And is fairly easy to obtain.
I've always wanted to do a Lionel Space & Military themed layout and would love to use Super O since that fits for that era.
I'm sure I'll be back here with questions.
Check this out...
Lionel Promo Film 1960 with lots of Super O and Military Trains...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...lNX4tzwCw&t=346s
Also this was my Lionel 1958 Catalog Cover Video... With PWC Space Set
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veo8LX8NpFs
Thanks, Bob Great stuff !!
I think Super O ran up to 1966. I used to have a 'Museum of Super O' displayed in one of my trainroom cases. (Not that anyone of my buddies cared, you have to be a Super O Geek to appreciate it).. I would include any prototype super o pieces and wierd stuff i found in my travels. Its all boxed up somewhere... but i seem to recall some later super o manual switches from 1964 with black plastic.
There is also the EARLY Super O with the patent pending lettering on the ties! That looks cool and has sharper tie edges and different texture to the ties than the 1957+ Super O... i have alot of patent Super O, and used it in my old layout. I dont know how rare it is. It does show up, but 1957 sets seem to have regular Super O, so it may pre-date 1957.
Only Superwarp and some other Super O fellows may appreciate this... lol
Interesting Bob. To bad Lionel didn’t take your offer up on Super O. I personally like it best. I agree that with larger modern scale engines 036 doesn’t cut it. Interesting you had Super O custom wide radius track made for your layout. Seems like Lionel should of taken a page from your experience. Fastrak is ok & is not my favorite it reminds me of N Kato track or Marklin HO track.
George... yes the fatrack is more of a carpet track. I have noticed the thick fastrack rails are really draggy for trains of any great length. It takes alot more amps to pull a 50car train on fastrack than Super O. These considerations only stick up when you are being a REAL railroader!
When you have 44 diecast hoppers in tow up a 2pcnt grade in a multi unit lashup! On my old layout, during parties, we had big trains like this going up grade, and another big train on level or going downgrade sharing the same loop. We would hit 7amps on each loop many times with big lashups and Big trains, but it all ran great...
I notice a huge difference just free rolling a freight car on fastrack vs. Super o with a real shaped railhead. It keeps on rolling on super o. The lower rolling resistance helps keep the driving current lower. The solid (good 1950s) copper center rail is very low resistance...
Magnetraction works good on super o, as does the rubber tires...
Great discussion! I managed to miss this topic earlier searching Super "O" instead of Super O...
Note To Super "O" Bob:
Thanks for referencing your youtube videos! I'm going to enjoy those. The one with the GS 4 is awesome...
Super O Bob posted:While we are tripping down memory lane... Here are some good videos of the old layout with good old friends not with us anymore...
Train Parties (Had alot of these):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bx0-iisY5o
Big Boys!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5Bo5vfXqWY
Triple header Big Boys:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RlYLTU5gvM
Sitting in my chair...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggec2917NJk
Awesome long trains rolling down very good looking Super O track.
Super O Bob posted:George... yes the fatrack is more of a carpet track. I have noticed the thick fastrack rails are really draggy for trains of any great length. It takes alot more amps to pull a 50car train on fastrack than Super O. These considerations only stick up when you are being a REAL railroader!
When you have 44 diecast hoppers in tow up a 2pcnt grade in a multi unit lashup! On my old layout, during parties, we had big trains like this going up grade, and another big train on level or going downgrade sharing the same loop. We would hit 7amps on each loop many times with big lashups and Big trains, but it all ran great...
I notice a huge difference just free rolling a freight car on fastrack vs. Super o with a real shaped railhead. It keeps on rolling on super o. The lower rolling resistance helps keep the driving current lower. The solid (good 1950s) copper center rail is very low resistance...
Magnetraction works good on super o, as does the rubber tires...
Great endorsement for Super O.
