I am thinking of switching to O27 track.
I have a MTH PRR Freight set with MTH REALTRAX. This track is expensive!

I am setting up a layout on a 36"X80" door: goal is fun with kids not realism.

Questions:
1. Do I absolutely need a road bed or can I go all natural for now?
2. Does it matter what brand I buy? Lionel? Somebody else?
3. Does anybody have a suggestion on where to buy this stuff on-line at a good price?
4. How do you attach this stuff to the table, in my case door?

Any help would be great.

Jim

O27 track has very tight curves. You might want to think of O gauge track instead. If all you want is cheap fun, go with O gauge, screw it right to the base by using drywall screws, or anything else that will fit in the holes of the ties. No roadbed is neccesary, there will be noise issues with track directly screwed to wood, but who cares...cheap thrills. And buy from whatever manufacture of the track you want. I get my tubular track made by K-Line. Its and exact match for Lionel's.

027 tubular track is fine and it is best suited for a 36" wide table. Longer engines and rolling stock won't work with 027 switches. 031 track and 022 switches which have a slightly larger radius and taller rail profile than 027 are better but 031 track is more expensive. You can find old Marx 034 track at train shows. It has an 027 profile but larger radius. It will put trains near the edge of a 36" wide table.

To deaden sound, I stick strips adhesive foam weather strip under the ties (lengthwise of the ties). I secure the track with round head wood screws (#2 for 027 and #4 for 031) but I do not let the heads touch the tie. Otherwise they transmit sound into the table. You need to be careful when screwing into a hollow core door if that's what you're using. The screw holes easily strip. Always drill pilot holes and coat the screws with bar soap. This will prevent them from shredding the wood fibers.

O-27 track is also available standard in 42" curves as well as 27".

K-Line 0-27 style switches ,if you can find them now, are made with 27 and 42 inch turnouts,have a low switch machine{dont get the older style with the big hump}, and can use track or separate power. I use foam under mine and hold the track down with cable ties to cut down noise.

if you have a local hobby shop, you can probably pick up all the tubular track you want out of a used bin. The bulk of my tubular track is 50+ years old, it it does everything the new track does - it's just not as shiney.

Like wise, you could probably buy all the tubular track you need on ebay for a song.

You can get 72 curves in 0-27 as well.

If expense is your concern, I would steer clear of realtrax or fast track, as it seems like it costs a ton.

I'd be careful replacing MTH track with O-27, depending on what you're running. I've got my share of MTH sets, and have found that many of their O-31 products will NOT work well on O-27.

No worries, though, since O-31 tubular is not much more expensive. You do lose some room compared to O-27, but you're already using O-31.

You can tell the difference by the brown ties on O-27 (sturdier black on O-31) and the higher profile (height) on the O-31 track. O-31 track uses much thicker pins, also, so mating O-27 and O-31 is not easy.

K-Line O-27 switches are nice, but would need to be shimmed up to mate well with O-31 track, of course. There are plenty of Lionel "O22" switches available on Ebay for about $25 (or less) that fit perfectly with the O-31 track.

HTH

NH Chris

I have a 36x80 hollow door layout using O27 track. What I use as a sound dampener is rubber roadbed www.roadbed.net It obviously adds to the expense but worth it IMO. I prefer the lower profile of O27 track and the limitations don't bother me. I also have a Fastrack floor layout that I use for the larger stuff, such as passenger cars.

If you decide to go with O27, you might want to consider using Marx switches. I've found them to be more reliable than the Lionel ones. Manual switches are fine for that size of layout. You can usually find them on eBay cheap. I've also read favorable comments about the K-Line switches.

K-Line also made O switches that are O gauge height and size that matches Lionel O. They were availabile in differnt radii.

Thank you all for the advice,
The real expense is the switches in the layout.

Jim's Trains has manual O27 switches for $7 a pop.

That is pretty cheap and worth an experiment or two. I can build a reasonable layout for less than the cost of a remote switch in any other format.

Later on the O27 becomes the short line and I move up to regular O31 etc. on a bigger layout with a dedicated train table.

http://www.jimstrainshop.com/xcart/customer/home.php


Thanks again, you all are the best!