We recently went to Scranton, PA and went to Steamtown again. This time, since they weren’t running the steamers, we finally went next door to the “Electric City Trolley Museum” {we have ridden the trolley before but never went through the museum}. While some trolleys have a cantenary, including the ones they run for rides on the “Laurel Line” through Scranton, There, in the museum, were pics of and examples of Electric third rail trolleys where the third rail was smack dab in the center of the two “driving tracks”! Next to the pics and displays of rail-cut-away-sections was a piece of Lionel 3 rail track…showing there IS indeed… a three rail train with teh third rail smack dab in the middle…or at least… for a Trolley!!!
Other types of third rail trolleys had the middle power rail off-center in the middle to the side by a “driving rail” {which we are most familiar with as many subways operate taht way}, and a third rail OUTSIDE the two “driving rails”.
SO, O guage trains may not be so “strange” after all!! {at least not if you run some trolleys!!}
I don’t consider O guage strange at all. It’s just different. I actually have a fascination with 3 rail but I also love realism. I model in outside 3rd rail and stud rail. There definitely is a prototype for everything and in England, the electric lines are actually 4th rail with both an inside and outside additional rail. If you really think about it, in the real world a 3 or even 4 rail system is used to simplify electrical issues. Our model trains are electric regardless of what they look like and 3 rail still makes things simpler there too. Yes it offends the overall image. Some techniques quite a bit and others only just but it exists for the same reason that it does in the real world. It is easy. Try wiring up a reverse loop in 2 rail without blocks or a polarity reversing circuit! That’s why they don’t do 2 rail electric lines in the real world. It isn’t as easy as we can do it on a small scale.
Yes that is why I mentioned it in my original post:
“Other types of third rail trolleys had the middle power rail off-center in the middle to the side by a “driving rail” {which we are most familiar with as many subways operate taht way},”
In New York City, back in the early 1900’s, they had a trolley line that was propelled by an underground cable like the San Francisco cablecars. It was eventually converted to electric operation and drew it’s power from the same underground cable trough that contained the cable and pulleys. This system lasted up into the 50’s when buses took over.
Did you know cable car systems were used in many cities. Only the San Francisco cable car has survived.
I saw a pile of old track that had been removed on the NY, NH & Hartford RR when they switched over to concrete ties. The lengths of rails were still spiked to the old wood ties and looked just like “snap track”.
It’s called “panel track” and it’s used to create a temporary track like a detour around something that can’t be quickly repaired. About ten years ago the city was building a new high speed road which would pass under a mainline and a nearby major street. The railroad piled up a lot of panel track at the site and built a detour around the construction until the ground was dug out for the new road and they could build a bridge over it.
Many years ago, IIRC in the 1970’s MR had a picture of a PRR bridge with a switch right in the middle. I think it was in Philadelphia???. Very strange track arrangement, always stuck in my mind. Anyone else remember this picture?
Ha! Yep I got that issue, late 70’s. IIRC they had to put the turnout on a bridge since the wasn’t enough room on the other side for it.
That’s a feature that I kind of miss in MR now adays. It was a monthly deal titled “That Aint Prototypical” and showed all sorts of unusual track arrangements and structures.
That’s like at the Colton, Ca. grain facility they have a very long holding track with a very big pile of dirt at the end to stop cars from rolling of the end of the track.