I just got confirmation that my code 55 flex track is finally shipping after two months of waiting! Time to get on with the layout! Can’t wait for the weekend to start laying the track.
I’ve just used ME code 55 and code 40 track:
Wolfgang
That layout of you display Wolfgang - it’s HO isn’t it?
Code 55 is about 4.8", which is pretty thin rail in HO, but Code 40 is 3.5" - has that rail size even been used since the American Civil War? (Outside of internal industrial rail-systems like steel mills, auto-factories, coal mines and the like)
Actually, most Western railroad construction was originally laid with 65lb rail or lighter from 1870 through 1900. 35lb rail was often used on the short lines that linked bypassed towns to the major railroads of that era. 35lb rail was almost “standard” on logging lines through 1900.
As steel underframes were adopted, car and locomotive axle loadings grew, and the light rail had to be replaced, with mining and Class 1 lines leading the way. 100lb rail (code 70 in HO) was 1st released around 1900, and was pretty uncommon at that date. 85lb rail was the high end standard for heavily used track in 1900. By 1920, heavily used track now had 100lb or 125lb rail.
Even in the 1950s, some of the D&RGW narrow gauge still had the lighter 65lb rail and could not operate the heavier K series locomotives.
Model rail tends to be a little thicker than scale through the head. And our normal perspective is looking down on the track instead of looking at it from the side. So under these circumstances, using smaller scale rail than the prototype would actually looks closer to the real thing.
The November 1962 Model Railroader Clinic had an excellent article on rail sizes, including charts of mileage amounts of various size rail for different time periods.
I have chosen code 70 and code 55 for my 1900-era HO line even though this is oversize. I wanted to emphasize the contrast with the code 55 and code 40 for the HOn3. This is for the handlaid track - I started with Atlas code 83 HO and Shinohara/ME code 70 HOn3 to get the 1st phase up and running quickly.
my thoughts, your choices
Yes, it’s H0n3.
Wolfgang