That was the word until this week, Lionel is back in the tubular track business and will be cataloging it again.
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Is there a source?
Al fastrack makes great track for shelves to display your trains on.
Yes, Charlie at 516-378-9594. He says the switches and track got the go ahead early this year, the switches will be in the new Track & Power catalog and are already in stock but not in the system yet for distribution at this time… but will be soon.
Another consideration for those of us with temporary layouts: the ties on the Menards track are farther away from the end, so they don’t accept track clips without wrangling the ties back closer to the next section of track.
A very expensive track to use for display indeed.
As I predicted, check HERE, Menards now has FasTrack back in stock, similar timing as last year… 3.75 per section(cheaper than eBay).
One other little update: one of my straight sections developed a short in it. Apparently one of the insulators for the center rail of one of the ties was just barely wrapped around one side of the rail, and under the right train or track forces would make contact. Took a while to narrow it down to that one piece. Don’t think I’ve ever had that happen with Lionel track. YMMV.
Actually I was thinking of ordering some of the long Menard’s track for displaying the trains that only operate in December.
Has any company (other than Menards) ever manufactured tinplate/classic/conventional O gauge curved track with a 36" diameter?
It seemed odd to me when Lionel used it for it’s Super “O” track, and later for its FasTrack. Does anyone know why that particular diameter was chosen for both of those track systems rather than 31"? I know it later proved useful with the father and son set that came with 18" radius HO track, but I doubt that set was envisioned when Super “O” was first designed.
You guessed it - it was to be able to build an O layout in the space of an HO layout with the largest radius possible in the new realistic three rail track system. The over-under set was most likely an afterthought.