[:^)] I am trying to get back into the hobby, and in the past have used code 100 track, But I recently saw code 83 track and was wondering would my older athearn and such equipment run ok on code 83 track
It should , I have used both codes of track with older equipment and have not had any issues .
As long as the wheels don’t have big (pizza cutter) flanges like my old 70’s era equipment does you should be fine. The big flanges hit the tops of the tie spikes and bump through through crossings and turnouts on code 83 track.
Larry,
When you say “older” I’m assuming 1970s-80s vintage? If so, you should have no problems with your older HO Athearn locomotives and rolling stock.
Potential headaches would be some of the older European rolling stock (AHM, IHC, Rivorassi, etc) that were equipped with the “pizza cutter” styled wheel flanges (NEM standard [?] ). Bachmann’s old Metroliners, which are actually decent looking units with potential also had tall wheel flanges.
The “pizza cutter” wheels will clear code 83 straight and curved trackage, the problem arises when the wheels go through turnouts (switches) where the flanges can hit the bottom of the frogs or the raised plastic tie heads that are in front of and behind the frogs. Depending on the track manufacturer (Atlas, Peco, Shinohara, Micro Engineering) you can see either a hard jolt or a derailment when the offending wheels roll through.
I’ve got old rolling stock from my boyhood layout in the Eisenhower administration. I chose code 100 for Phase 1 of my layout partly because of that. For Phase 2, I went with code 83. The old rolling stock has no problems.
My father-in-law gave me some Rivarossi engines from the same era. They have wheels that won’t even run on code 100, so they sit in boxes beneath the layout.
If you like the code 83, go for at. At worst, you may have to change a few wheelsets.
It is NOT a “stupid question”!!!
The others have covered it as far as equipent malfunctions, based on the age and manufacturers of the equipment.
You will have more flexibility with code 83 than code 100, especialy if you use sectional track. I did code 100 for my current layout, but will go the lower code for a future one. Of course , I got back into the hobby 6 years ago and sought out HO this time instead of O/O27 and N scale. SO all my stuff will run or should run on the lower code.
also, I would like to point out that if you have vintage stuff from 70’s/80s, you might want to invest in new stock anyway. Older trainset elcheapo quality or rubber band drives are bound to give you more grief than you would like!
Enjoy your hobby!
[8-|]
Your older Athearn will work on C80 as will most brands.
As far as the older freight cars like AHM,Tyco,Bachmann etc with the overlarge flanges a upgrade to body mounting the couplers and changing out the wheels will fix these cars.
If you will be temporary using the X2F(horn hook) coupler a simple wheel change out will work.