Saw a nice O 2-rail locomotive and track today at Maritime Hobbies and Crafts. Going to buy an Atlas O 2-rail track layout, probably start with Twin Cities Central. Anyone use this or any of the other Atlas complete O 2-rail layouts?
Try your qestion over in the Classic Toy Train forum, that’s where all things “O” are going on.
Mike.
Edit: Never mind the garbage in my signature, I’m trying to delete it with no avail.
Excellent thanks.
Well I’d wager scale O 2-rail is more appropriate to here, CTT is more tinplate and hi-rail. Scale O is kind of down there on the list of popular scales, but surely SOMEONE here uses it.
–Randy
I posted over there so I’ll see if anyone responds. One of our hobby shop employees has this scale and he only knows of one more person in the city. Guess that’s one of the things that captures my interest.
This is a bad time for 2 rail O scale US/Canadian prototypes. New locomotives are currently pratically non existant. The situation was better in the past but used 2 rail locos are hard to find. The situation with 2 rail freight cars is better and many 3 rail cars are fairly easy to convert.
Group promoting 2 rail O scale
Northwest Shortline http://www.nwsl.com/ is the only company (that I know of) in the US offering drive units for 2 rail O scale. There are some companies in England also.
The old timers often converted 3 rail locos to 2 rail by changing the wheels and wiring and that is probably an option for some locos.
If you are going to the trouble of 1/48 scale 2 rail you might want to consider consider proto48 http://www.proto48.org/ which uses corectly gauged track and finer standard wheels.
What’s the story on the tank car you use in your icon?
Bobby
My wife gave it to me.
Lots of encouragement over in toy trains but no O 2-railers (mostly O 3 and S). Since so few folks are O 2-rail and new locomotives are scarce as I am told in this thread, I may do this just because it would be fairly unique and a real challenge. Thanks for all the advice!
I guess it depends on what you mean by challenge.
O scale 2-rail runs on DC power so the wiring is no big deal, unless you plan on setting up blocks.
Two issues are cost and space.
Check out this link for a discussion of O scale 2-rail, pro and con.
What I wanted to know was, who made it and what scale.
Thanks, Bobby
LOL it’s an HO Atlas ACF Kaolin Tank Car #1715-1 Ontario Carbonate 71473. My wife knows I like tank cars so that’s usually what I get from her for gifts. Can never have too many tank cars.
That thread is definitely worth a read if you are thinking about 2 rail O scale.
Last year, I started building a portable layout that features 2 rail O gauge and ON30 gauge equipment. It’s in the garage now, waiting for completion when summer returns. I also started buying 2 rail stuff last year, so I can report back on that experience. Here are my observations:
- We can distinguish 3 categories: Old and new brass engines (steam), modern Atlas, and equipment from the 70s from Atlas, Rivarossi, AHM, Pola and Faller. Weaver is in a separate category. I read mixed reviews about their equipment. Never bought any.
-The brass steam stuff is very expensive. Never bought any. There are All Nation engines (10 wheelers) that can be found at about $250 on Ebay. They look nice, but not sure about their running abilities.
-The current Atlas offerings are super nice - too expensive for me, never bought any.
-The 70s stuff is affordable and available on Ebay. The Atlas plymouth switcher is a good runner (made by Roco, good stuff). You can find one for about $50, sometimes less. There are F units too.
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70’s Rivarossi: I have a 4-6-0 that runs fairly well. It is available in kit form, I bought one that was factory assembled. There is also a 0-6-0 model that looks nice, as well as two 4-4-0. You can get one for about $100 if you are patient, but be prepared to pay more. There are diesels also, but I never bought any.
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70’s Pola equipment is lower quality in m
@snjroy Was delighted to read your comments just now. I decided to buy all the O 2 tracks and will just wait for as long as it takes to find the right locomotives for my taste. Fortunately, our hobby shop has an O 2-rail expert and lots of contacts so I should be able to get everything through them. I’m also going to do some O 3 as an overhead train in one of my hobby rooms. Lots of space above the doors and windows so it will be easy to install.
MTH’s premier line is often available as 2 rail with scale wheels for steam and with conversion kits for diesels. They also offer conversion kits for Premier rolling stock. Their Premier line is full 1/48 scale. They have some 2 rail track in their catalog, but no turnouts so far.
Paul
Thanks Paul. Interesting that I get lots of advice here and nothing in the Classic Toy Trains forum. Glad I posted here.
That’s because O scale 2-rail is more similar to HO and N, just bigger.
The CTT forum is mainly about O gauge 3 rail and S gauge 2 rail, stuff like the 1940s and 1950s Lionel and American Flyer.
I was going to suggest On30 but someone beat me to it. That way you could use HO track but O scale scenery.
My O 3 locomotives will be the two Lionel Illinois Central Legacy U33C’s #5052 and #5054. My hobby shop will be placing their Lionel orders soon so I’ll get them to add these beauties.