I came across this photo in one of my Facebook groups recently and I have to admit I’m completely stumped. Who made double center rail? Is it Standard, Wide, One gauge? Has anyone else seen ties with this kind of cutout on it? A big “H” or a capital “I” depending on how you look at it. I checked the ivestrains.org gallery and this doesn’t match what IVES produced.
The dual center rail piece could be for operating cars or are uncouplers. That also definitely looks like standard gauge.
The curved piece on the top of the pile on the right is definitely Standard/Wide Gauge. There’s a 4 rail curve just to the left of that piece which has a narrower gauge than the straight section on the left side of the photo and has a tighter radius of curvature than the Standard Gauge does. I’m thinking this is part of a track system with at least 2 different track gauges.
O Gauge Forum-
The Flyer 4 rail track does not have symmetry with respect to rail location. The 4th rail for the Flyer track is offset to one side and, as has been noted, was for controlling the whistle.
The track in the picture appears to have symmetry with respect to the location of the two center rails. The photograph also suggest that both of the center rails are insulated which would suggest both are “live”. If that is really the case then that would rule out the idea of two different train gauges unless one of the combinations was for 2 rail like the postwar Flyer. As for who made it, what the gauge is, and why the need for dual center rails - I have no idea. ![]()
That’s what I always understood about Flyer activation rails: that they were closer to the center of the space between the center and outside rail. That along with the odd tie marking told me this was not American Flyer. The dual center rails suggest a vertical bar pickup riding between the rails instead of either a sliding shoe or roller pickup riding on top. But I’ve never heard of a manufacturer using this type of system.
