I was at the local hobby shop on Saturday. They recently re-opened. I said I needed some HO flextrack, and all they had was atlas code 100. So I bought a couple pieces.
I haven’t bought code 100 in probably 15 years, and noticed the simulated spikes/tie plates had changed. It looks better than it used to.
When did they make this change to code 100 track?
Some Atlas flex track code 83 products are stamped on the bottom as made in China, so maybe that’s the difference. Check the bottom of the track to see where is the country of origin.
It’s been a while. I have some Code 100 sectional track that is pushing 15 years old, which has the smaller spike detail as compared to some older brass Code 100 Atlas sectional track which DOE have the giant spike heads. I believe they switched over about the time they started offering nickel-silver rail, and the nickel-silver track got the nicer details first (if the brass track has even been changed).
–Randy
I purchased most of my HO code 100 track 3-4 years ago. My LHS has Atlas Flextrack with both the heavy spike detail and the much finer detail. These were in 2 different cases of track that were shipped to the store at the same time. I think that it depends on the machine that makes the track. I agree, the finer track is much better looking.