Tinplate on Atlas O Track

i have witnessed some prewar wheel flanges large enough that they will hit/ ride on the molded in spikes/ tie plates of Atlas track.  to me it just doesn't look right with prewar, but obviously this is coming from a tubular track fan.

Gene,

 

I have run my Pre War on a loop of AtlasO O-54 curved track under the Christmas tree. As I recall, the engine ran fine on it, but the rolling stock bounced along. The flanges were too big and hit the ties. I'll double check when I get home. 

Last Christmas at a Party for the Summers County Spokes program I set up a display for them which consisted of four loops of different styles of Track.  One of the program directors brought in his dads tinplate set and we ran it on a loop of Atlas to see if there would be any problems.  We had none the set ran great

 

I love Atlas track but for tinplate I would stay with your Ross plan. My question is if some of the flanges hit the Atlas track would they also hit the Ross track? Are not the rail heights the same?

I think that Atlas track has the plastic sticking up a little on the molded ties with their track, not sure.

I would rather use 031 or 042 tubular track for pre war trains. I have a 224E with passenger cars, and a 249E with freight cars, they work best on the old tubular track in the Lionel style.

Other brands of track that should work well are Marx or Ives or American Flyer 3 rail O gauge. Be careful of  pre war A.F. track, as it can have sometimes have 4 rails, forget what the fourth rail is for.

 

Lee Fritz

I run Atlas O on a dedicated Christmas layout.
I have a modern 262e and the three car 1695 six wheeled truck consist.
The all do well even on the grades. The switches and O27 inner loop give the passenger cars a rough go if I run it too fast.
A little ballast would help. If I run the set at a decent slow speed everything runs fine.
I don't notice any wheel hop from the plastic ties regardless of speed.
Track is easy to maintain.

I could care less about prototype. It's a fantasy layout to spark the magic of the holiday season. Well...maybe in that one regard it is a prototype.

Run the standard gauge under the tree on tubular track to cut down on noise.

710 and 712 passenger cars ride the ties, but they have standard gauge wheels. As far as I know, everything else "plays" well with Atlas track.

(of course the switches are another story...)

the rail height (above the tie base) is not the question here, it is the height of the rail above the ties.  Atlas track tries to imitate spiked rail more than any other track and this is where the conflict with oversize wheel flanges comes into play.

 

likely not a problem with the majority of prewar trains, but i have observed the "bounce" of prewar cars on this track more than once.

Many thanks to all who gave me all the information.  I have a long straight section of Ross and Gargraves and have done a little experimentation on them.

 

I found that running an old 603 passenger car over the Ross section that the wheels hit the "spikes" about 30 - 50% of the time.  It's not severe, but too much to suit me as a regular wear issue.  These same wheels run fine on the Gargraves.  And even if they occasionally skim a tie its metal on fairly soft wood.

 

Since I believe that Atlas is slightly lower rail than either Gargraves or Ross, and they have simulated spike plates, I'm pretty sure that I will have issues.

 

Right now I'm strongly leaning toward Gargraves.  Another plus is I can get stainless rails.  I don't have any magnatraction engines and like the fact that it shouldn't rust.  I've seen LOTS of rusted track, even in places that you wouldn't expect it.

 

Again, thanks to all.

 

Gene

Well, turns out that when I packed my trains for my upcoming move, I didn't label the boxes. Sooo, it may be a while before I get them unpacked again.

 

However, RMT now produces K-Line SuperSnap track. This is the track system I now use to run my pre war train on. Might be something to look into to.