My local store told me that tubular track was going to be discontinued, does anyone know anything about that?
Thanks
Maybe your local store doesn’t wish to stock it anymore, but you will be able to buy tubular track by the mile for years to come.
Mike, I would recommend not being concerned about that - there’s plenty of tubular track ‘out there’ - - -
Jerry Calabrese said last year that Lionel will keep making it as long as people are buying it. People are still buying it and it’s in the 2007 catalog, so I wouldn’t worry about this rumor. Even if it were discontinued, there’s so much of it out there that it’ll be possible to find some if you need it.
Just a few boxes of what I have hoarded in my Hunt Brothers imitation of cornering the market on tubular:
…knew that was coming.[tup]
Hey frank i notice you have the knobs on your 1033 Transformer reveresed 
just got done putting mine back to factory cond. and http://pictures.olsenstoy.com//cd/transfmr\ps1032e.pdf told me the original way they knobs were, were wrong, i guess theres alot of people with this misconception then? lol. That centering spring is a pain to remake if one of the tips breaks tho,
Even if Lionel stops making tubular track, there are probably 48 million tons of it in the secondary market, and Williams will still be making it nice and fresh.
Just how easy is it to order the Williams track, and how long does it take for delivery?
Right now if Lionel stops making tubular track I will use GarGraves track for replacement track. Otherwise it will cost me too much to change over to a new track system that has differant sized curves than what I currently have.
Lee F.
If anything I would bet your LHS wishes lionel would stop as he makes more off the fast track and MTH realtrack
The confusion in the knobs comes in to play with Lionel using them in different positions on other transformers.
The black RW-24 handle was used for the throttle on the RW, then they switched to the orange 1011-24 handle for throttle & black RW-24 for the whistle on the 1032/1033 types.
The orange 1011-24 was then used for the whistle/horn on the KW.
Rob
I doubt it. Lionel is still taking orders from dealers with no indication of stopping.
Lee,
Pick up the phone and call Williams. I got my last order of Tubular track in 3 days.
Chuck
So basically Almost identical transformer but different knob placements?
Mike, as Bob Keller noted, there will always be tubular track out there.
Lionel is obviously pushing their FasTrack line, which has certainly turned out to be more popular and well received than I ever thought it would be. Dealers I talk with tell me 027 track is still selling even if not in the quantites it did before all the other track choices. From a business standpoint, Lionel might decide it would be a cost saving move by dropping production of track that doesn’t move as quickly as it once did.
As Bob noted, Williams is making tubular track. And nearly every time Lionel make a dumb decision like this, someone else comes along to fill the void and ends up giving Lionel more of a run for their money than they realized. Remember K-Line MDK got their start by making 027 track of all things. K-Line was certainly never a threat to Lionel, but K-Line certainly took away sales and profits from Lionel.
Many of the newer established train companies got their start by providing products that Lionel was not. And while Lionel still may have the majority of the market, these other companies have certainly taken a chunk out of Lionel’s sales. Often it takes the competition to wake the lion up and get them to do what they already should have done. The MTH story is a well known example. But Industrial Rail UMD and Ready Made Toys are recent good examples.
If someone had proposed the 027 BEEP loco to Lionel years ago, they probably would have said their was no market for it. Then along comes RMT to make Lionel take notice and acknowledge that the traditional 027 market is the LARGEST sector of the 3-rail market, though the much smaller scale end makes far more noise and complains much more. It has taken the presense of Jerry Calabrese to get Lionel to focus more on the majority of the market and less on the minority. And Calabrese is not even a train guy as were Kughn, Brady and Maddox.
So if it turns out to be true that Lionel is going to drop tubular track, it will end up
Chuck,
Thank you for the reply! I like Williams trains and may buy some new tubular track when I need it.
Have plenty of extra ties from 3R Plastics & Moondog Express to fill the spaces between the rails to make the track look more realistic. To keep the ties in place I glue them in with Squadron green putty as I have green mats over the plywood.
If Lionel stops making tubular track it may be just like Brianel027 mentions, another company will fill the void. Could it be possible that Lionel sold the patent rights for tubular track to Williams?
Lee F.
Patents expire after about 20 years.
These are three vastly different transformers, actually.
The 110 watt RW is a one train, with a black throttle handle(RW-24) & red(S-25) direction button & black(S-24) whistle button.
The orange 1011-24 handle for throttle & black RW-24 for the whistle was used on the 75/90 watt 1032/1033 one-train types.
The two-train 190 watt KW used the orange 1011-24 for the whistle/horn for both A & B outputs.
Not confusing enough?
The “1033 cousin” 75 watt 1034 used a red direction button and a black throttle handle.
Rob
Lee,
I doubt if Lionel would give up the rights to tubular track. There are too many people that use it. The Williams tubular has 5 ties. Lionel has 3 ties. I do have some older Lionel track that has 5 ties.
Chuck
You fellows with the tubular track could be in a real bind if we have to go to war & the Govt. has a scrap drive like in the 2nd. world war. There goes all your tubular track, with 48 million tons out there, for the War effert !! [(-D][(-D]