Switching?

Some O tin has "fat drivers"; where the gear edge is as big around as the flange. These won't work on most modern turnouts (guide rails interfere with the fat flange)

Some turnouts aren't center pickup shoe friendly; the large surface may short.

There is always way more plain track than turnouts, crossings, etc..; lots of the old accessory tracks didn't survive.  I don't think standard gauge sold nearly as many accessory tracks either.

The oval loop starter set was always the most popular set up; any gauge

Switching? Reversing with slot and tab isn't real easy imo. That and the 5 finger Railroad Jack means  backing into a stub to unload a gon. is about all the operating moves I make with tin.

There is better compatibility with Ross Plate switches for almost all makers of trains.  The problem is what Adriatic pointed out (gear diameter, driver tread width) and you can add to that the wide tolerance on wheel gauging.  The only way to be sure of compatibility is to eliminate the switches.  I use Rossplate switches and have had few issues, but Ive had em.  Picking the points of the closure rails mostly.  If you can make the points of the switch  face travel direction, that is best....So, if the train will predominately travel from left to right, the point should face right.

I'm 77 and I have a 9X15 layout with 2 access holes to maintain the layout. When I run My tinplate it seems like they always derail in the back of the layout at the switches. Well I just figured out I'm getting to old to keep crawling under the train table....SOOO this week I decided to remove all my switches in the back of my layout because that seems to where the most trouble is.  Since I'm almost as old as my trains I think this a good solution for me....

I have two 012 switches on my table display layout because I love the look of them. But I have to use 4 to get two to work and took one apart about 11 times. They are finicky and the flanges are always sparking on the guard rails. I don't know if I would have switches if I ever build a new layout.

gene maag posted:

I'm 77 and I have a 9X15 layout with 2 access holes to maintain the layout. When I run My tinplate it seems like they always derail in the back of the layout at the switches. Well I just figured out I'm getting to old to keep crawling under the train table....SOOO this week I decided to remove all my switches in the back of my layout because that seems to where the most trouble is.  Since I'm almost as old as my trains I think this a good solution for me....

 

The look on the boy’s face is priceless.

I would like to be able to do in O scale Lionel tinplate what I do at an HO model railroad club - simulate railroad operations with industrial switching, a classification yard and connections to through freights.  The big obstacle is mechanical.

With Lionel prewar or postwar, it is difficult to get the accurate speed control needed for switching.  Uncoupling is another problem.  Think about using a 622 or a 1656 to place a car on a siding with a precision of 1-2 inches.  Then reach out and uncouple the car without having to get your fingers in a very awkward position to get at the couplers.  With scale HO, O or G, I can use a pointed stick on the Kadee couplers.  We tinplaters can't have a UCS at every siding.

Just backing a train into a siding, uncoupling on a UCS or RCS and gently coupling to another train is challenging enough.

I suppose this is one of the reasons I get more pleasure from cleaning, repairing and restoring old Lionel trains than I do from running them as I get little pleasure from watching trains run around loops.

Malcolm Laughlin

Malcolm, I solved the problem of slow-speed switching by using MTH PS3 engines with Speed Control plus the car-stoppers I invented:

Thread about it here:

https://ogrforum.com/...85#90547142152123785

Lew, I was referring to genuine tinplate trains and postwar (or prewar) locomotives - the kind that you can repair with hand tools and a soldering iron.

Fair enough, but I did build my car-stoppers using a jigsaw, a drill, an electric screwdriver (this newfangled stuff lets me still do stuff regardless of arthritis) and....a soldering iron.   

And as long as it has Lionel-style knuckle couplers my car-stoppers don't care whether it is a high-rail car or a pre-war tinplate car they are stopping. 

geysergazer posted:

Fair enough, but I did build my car-stoppers using a jigsaw, a drill, an electric screwdriver (this newfangled stuff lets me still do stuff regardless of arthritis) and....a soldering iron.   

And as long as it has Lionel-style knuckle couplers my car-stoppers don't care whether it is a high-rail car or a pre-war tinplate car they are stopping. 

I do like the car stoppers.  I been in enough model railroad switching situations, that I'm delighted when the owner has a good method to allow holding a train on a grade while switching.  Many control options - choke cable from the fascia, switch machine or even the coil and plunger from a Lionel coil coupler.

I used to just lay a "rope" (string or piece of shoelace) on the track as a kid.