Just curious, is Lionel Super O the same thing as Fastrac? My Greenberg manual talks about Super O and the pictures look like the pictures of Fastrac. I’ve never actually seen either one, I use 027.
Charlie
No.
Super-O track has individual ties, with a thin copper? center rail. Fastrack has a molded base that includes ties, and ballast.
Fastrack:
Kurt
No, they’re not at all the same thing.
Super O was a from the late 1950s and early 1960s. It has T-shaped outer rails with a thin copper blade center rail. The ties are brown plastic, and there are several per track section. The track is held together by locking tabs on the ties at the ends of sections. Electrical connections come from pins in the outer rails, and springy outer clips on the center rails.
Fastrack is a current production item. It uses 3 inverted U shaped rails attached to a molded gravel/tie base. Originally, Fastrack had a black center rail, but it was changed to silver after the very first small production run. The roadbed locks together to hold the track, and big, non removable pins provide track connections.
Super O was only available in the O36 diameter(12 sections to a circle), with switches for that diameter, and of course straight sections. Fastrack is a much more complete system, with O36(8 sections/circle), O48, O60, and O72. There are switches available for all diameters, as well as a wye switch.
Here’s a photo showing a variety of different track types available in 3-rail. From left to right
Fastrack(silver center rail), Fastrack(black center rail), Atlas O, Gargraves, Super O, Narrow tie spaced O gauge, Standard O gauge, O27
Nice O-Gage sampler Ben-.
I’d be interested in more info on the ‘narrow tie spaced’. I have a piece or two of that and have never understood where it fit into the Lionel history.
Also, I would ask both of you: do you run trains on the Super O? The conventional wisdom says the center rail wears grooves in the pickup rollers. Also, it does not accept pre war stuff because of the taller wheel flanges. I have some somewhere, including the nice looking switches, but don’t ccurrently use it, in part because of the prewar issue.
runtime
It actually fits better into the K-Line history… it was made by them before production was moved offshore.
K-Line “O” ties are marked “USA” instead of “LIONEL”, and the bottom flanges below the webbing are folded under instead of up. It actually comes off looking better than the Lionel track even in it’s odd 36" length.
Rob
Here’s a little bit of what I know of the narrow tie spaced O gauge:
When Lionel first introduced O72 tubular track, it was sort of treated like a separate track system. Lionel introduced separate “O72” straights, which were 14 1/2" long, and had a tie spacing to match that of the O72 curves.
Today, the O72 switches which Lionel makes retain the old 14 1/2" long straighway, but Lionel no longer makes a 14 1/2" straight section to match it. K-line kept them for years in their tubular line-up, along with long straight sections which equal 3 O72 straights.
As a side note, one thing that I do really miss about K-line is the variety of tubular track they had available. Not only did they have all the same stuff Lionel made for their normal line-up at a lower price, as well as curves up through O120.
No, I don’t use Super O. I bought a small box lot from a local shop out of curiousity, and tried it out. Although it’s nice looking track, I finally decided that it was a bit too limited, and too hard to get straights for, for my liking. I ended up selling 30-some-odd curves, and few straights, and some other odds and ends to a fellow in Germany for close to $90(thanks to the wonder known as Ebay).
It’s my opinion that the supposed roller wear is a non-issue.
The issue of center roller wear has been proved false many times. if it does happen its been proved normally the cause is from dirt in the roller preventing it from turnning proper.
A bit about super track was brought up on the Bachman site about a week or so ago wondering why williams by bachmann didn’t make it as most of there engines are basicly from old lionel molds.
I have heard said, roller wear with Super O. I have friends that operate with Super O and they do not see any excessive wear from the center rail. MTH makes Scaletrax with a narrow center rail, and I have not heard anything about excessive wear either.
Kurt
Compare the contact area of a roller on Super O vs. tubular, and you will see this as a non-issue.
Rob
Thank you all for putting the Super O roller wear issue to rest for me! Regrettably I still have the pre-war flange issue. My dad had picked up some super O when it first came out, including one or two switches - some day I’ll dig my way into that closet and see what I have.
Ben, thanks for clearing up the 072 track narrow spaced tie issue - didn’t know K-line made some - I have a full loop of the Lionel curved plus L and R switches, but only one or two straignts. I like the look of the narrower tie spacing, maybe I’ll find some more in the future. How do the current Lionel 072 switches compare to the original? [My switches have been unused for many years - I’m just planning to reinstall them].
Best to all,
runtime