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greetings and salutations. I have in my stash of O equipment a box of wooden roadbed with ties already a part of the assembly. There was a time when I would find these at practically give away bargain prices at train shows in the metropolitan area. I originally thought this would assist me  in making an elevated line of some sort. Then I looked it over and realized that these ties were mean for a rather large scale rail possibly. I recall seeing some larger scale rail, was it code 172 ( is that a thing) ? I placed piece of code 148 rail which when set upon the ties looked siding  small to me.  I am of the belief that this road bed had mainline operations with big steam along that side hugging power Third rail.
Was this heavy wooden roadbed made by something like scalecraft? Or close?
needing some illumination on this heavy old stuff.   Photos and or videos of said equipment appreciated.
All my best for a good new year of O scale endeavors.  

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Finding that Tru-Scale wood road bed with the ties milled into it is quite hard.  I always find loads of HO.  I keep trying to find a full loop of their tighest radius O gauge with enough straight for a 16 foot straight on each side of the loop to run my "doorstop" models at train shows.  The HO club I belonged to locally for many years was built with about 90% Tru-Scale track with only the yards being flex track. If someone has Tru-Scale O scale track with rail that needs a new home, I am looking for it to upgrade my layout and use for public running at shows.  Thanks   Mike

Last edited by artfull dodger

Code 172 was the de facto "standard" O scale rail size in the 1940s and 50s.  There were numerous ads for it in the model railroad magazine of that era.  Frank Ellison's famous Delta Lines was built with code 172 steel running rails and code 100 brass outside third rail (which was widely available as it was the primary rail for HO at the time).   

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