Last year, I assembled all my train stuff and decided it was time to put it to use again after almost 10 years absence. Naturally my first stop was the local train stores, looking for some additional old style O gauge tubular track. Was I in for a surprise! Not only were they very strongly recommending the new Fastrack, but they did not have any traditional track to sell! The shop owner who was very nice and knowledgeable, did his best to convince me that I did not want the old track and to purchase all new. After many days of deliberation, I decided, I wanted to keep with the old style. I bought all his new back room new old stock, and hit the train shows. All I could find was crap that was either rusted, badly stained or corroded, switches that didn't 't work etc.. Found some new pieces on line but very expensive. finally decided this was an opportunity and not a problem. After months of research, trials, and errors, we perfected a method of cleaning track to rejuvenate it to useable again. Guess what, we are now in the business. One problem, we have to remove the pins as part of the cleaning/polishing process, resoze the holes and then reinstall, which was a pain, until my neighbor stopped by and made me a jig, which not only works well to reinstall, but also lines the track up perfectly. Simple to make, all you need is a piece of 1''X3" steel plate, a circular saw and a drill. Check out the photos. He wacked a piece of track on the table to use as a guide,drilled thru the Masonite, and plywood, measured just a squeak under 1/2 the length of the pins, took a skill saw and cut into the plywood, followed by tapping in the steel plate, Check out the PX, and be sure to check out our new web site, but remember: People don't grow old from playing with trains, they grow old because they stop playing with trains.
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