FIRST TIME USING ATLAS TRACK!!!!!!!!!!!!

Classic Toy Trains Forum
1

For 45 years in 3 railing,Ive been fiddlin around with all sorts of track. Lionel Ogauge, Super O,Gargraves,MTH Realtrack and Scaletrack.
I purchased my first pieces of Atlas O track yesterday,this stuff is GREAT!!
Fits togehter easily.connections are secure,easy to remove rail joiners,and replace them, look great and best of all itsQUIET,QUIET,QUIET.First time in my life I am pleased with O gauge track.It wiil be well worth the price to upgrade my layout to ATLAS.
ATLAS FOR A GREAT PRODUCT!![:)]

4567Martin

2

Martin,

That’s great to hear. Just curious what you thought of Scaletrack compared w/Atlas. The two evident cons are that there’s less variety and the ties are too far apart, but except for Super O, IMO Scaletrax’s center rail is the thinist out there

dav

3

Martin, glad to see you finally have seen the light[:D]. When I got back into O 5 years ago, I did so by building my sisters’ layout(on my vacation[:)]!!). She’s a Lionel PW operator, so I had to use all the O27 track she got off Ebay[V]. What a mess!! I threw out about half as unusable.
So, when I got home, I started looking at O gauge stuff, and found out from my local train guy that he would soon be an Atlas O dealer. He had an oval of the track set up on his demo table- one look and I was hooked[:)]. I’ve never regretted choosing the Atlas Track. It’s not perfect–(IMO, the rails are too high), but it’s the best out there.

4

I have a complete layout of atlas and it is great. SOme observations. One the flex track is tough to bend, however if you soder the rails to a secure end, then bend the radius, it works great. Second is that thier switches are very nice, however teh plastic tabs at the ends of the switches to lock the otehr section of track to the switch leave a large gap in the rails. I tend to cut these off and just use the rail conectors to connect the two pieces. Aside form that, enjoy.
Bill

5

The only thing that dictates track for me more than ease of use and all that is availability. Can’t find it. Local train stores don’t stock it. When I need track, it’s nice to go to the store and just be able to buy Lionel. No hassle, no wait. What could be easier?

6

Am very impressed with Atlas track and switches. The only cons found.

  1. Shorting out of Lionel PA’s on frog of dual radius switch-Lionel said to put tape on blind drivers-has to be a better fix. (leaves burned area on wheel)
  2. Early Atlas switches have an inferior switch mechanism which can hang up-corrected on later models.
  3. Had one switch which came with rail not completely in plastic clamp-No problem with Atlas replacing switch!
7

I considered switching track 2 years ago and again last year. The issue that I have, and I would suspect many others, is that I have a Christmas only layout. I KNOW that tubular track holds up well to the yearly mantling and dismantling process.

I’ve heard/read about issues with the connectors on some of the more modern track systems with not holding up to the stress that a seasonal layout places on the connectors.

Most of you forum guys probably have permanent layouts and don’t care about the wear-and-tear aspect. But it is a BIG concern for us seasonal layout guys.

  • walt