Tom et al -- I am a scale modeler, and I have seen the AF Mike up close and personal, and it is indeed a beauty.
Having rail that is at least .125" high is only one consideration. You must also move your guardrails and frog wing rails. They must be spaced far enough away from your running rails to clear the overly-thick Lionel flanges. (Yes, they are overly thick as well as overly deep.) Once you do this, your scale wheelsets will not operate reliably through your turnouts unless you use closed-frog turnouts because the wider guard rail spacing will allow scale wheel flanges to snag on the frog points. So you have a clear choice: If you want to run both scale and hirail wheelsets, you need to use a track system like the one SHS makes. If you want realistic track, you can't run the Lionel Mike. There are a lot of people for whom trackage appearance isn't all that important. If you are one of them, "fix" your track and buy the Lionel Mike. Dick Karnes ====================== Thomas Baker wrote: >It appears that Lionel will not make a scale version of its USRA Mikado. This >is unfortunate because it would add a few sales to Lionel's bottom line, >perhaps quite a few. A question about mounting scale couplers on the Lionel >Mike raised a question in my mind. > >I know that code 126 track--available somewhere, I believe--is oversized for >scale operation. I have some code 100 on my layout, some code 126 with Miller >tiestrips, and some code 148 from American Models. My turnouts are all code >100. No way could the Lionel Mike make it through the turnouts or operate on >code 100 track. Is it possible that by switching to code 126 or larger >everywhere I could use the Lionel Mike on a scale layout. > >I still have not seen the Lionel Mike, but it looks good in photos. Perhaps >it ONLY LOOKS good in photos, I don't know. If one went to code 126 turnouts >or larger could the Lionel Mike make it through? If the Mike COULD make it >through, what would happen to cars and locomotives with scale wheels? > > To REPLY to the list, use REPLY ALL; to reply to the sender, use REPLY. For those of you on DIGEST mode, all REPLY messages go to the list (remember to edit the SUBJECT of your message). Change message settings, use our CALENDAR or LINKS, view shared files or photos, view the list archives, GO TO http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
