Hello everyone. I’m pretty new into lionel trains. My father just dropped off his set from when he was a kid and gave it to my son. I got so into it myself, now I’m interested in getting more track.
The question I have is I’m not exactly sure what track I need to purchase. It is a tubular track with three rails. I’m pretty sure the track is either O gauge or O-27 gause, but to be honest, I’m not sure what the difference is. Can someone assist?
Thank you in advance.
Take a piece of the old to the hobby shop and match it. O is taller and has wider turns [well not anymore as you can get wide turn O27]. O27 is lower.
OK, thanks. I’ll look into that.
I noticed on another thread people referring to O-27 guage as having smaller pins. Can I measure the pins I have to see which gauge track I have? Thanks!
Another easy give away is the color of the metal ‘ties’. O27 tubular has brown ones, at least all of mine does and that includes track from both Lionel and K-Line. All of my ‘O’ tubular track has black metal ‘ties’.
Chris,
Welcome to the forum!
To determine which track you have, you can use a ruler and simply measure the height of the rails and cross ties.
For 0-27 (for 27" dia circles) - the ties are about 1/8’ thick and the rails (not including the tie) are about 1/4" tall.
For O Gauge (O-31 for 31" dia circles) - the ties are about 1/4" thick and the rails (not including the tie) are about 3/8" tall.
Some Lionel trains require 0-31 curves vs 0-27 curves.
Tell us what you can about the train set (ie numbers on the engine and cars, how old it might be) and we will try to assist you.
Regards,
Roy
FYI, my old O27 track from 1952 had black ties. Now they are brown [O27] and black [O]. So if he has old track, they could be O27 black.
Some of the older Lionel O27 track has black ties. See how old Chief is.
I have some O27 track with black ties also. My Great Great Great Grandfather gave it to me.[:D][:D][:p][^]
All O gauge track ties have a curled lip on the ties and O27 ties are like a box.
tom
Probably the easiest thing to do is to take a section of track to a hobby shop and match it there. That’s the simplest and most reliable way to tell.
Outside of that, what others have said about tie height and tie shape is correct.
I just measured the rails and ties. The rails are 1/4 inch tall and the ties are an 1/8 tall. These must be O-27 rails. Thanks everyone for your help. This forum is awesome.
Chris,
Enjoy the trains and let us know how it is going.
Happy New Year!
Roy
Normal straight sections of O (also called O31) are 10 inches long. O27 sections are about 8 7/8 inches.
Hey, does 027 make fastrack? I have O but I was just wandering…
Colin,
Fastrak is 0-36 like Super-0.
I am not sure if that answers your question, you might want to restate it.
Regards,
Roy