Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site brl-tgr.ARPA
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!qantel!lll-crg!seismo!brl-tgr!tgr!SCHMIDT@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA
From: SCHMIDT@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA (Christopher Schmidt)
Newsgroups: net.railroad
Subject: Re: model rr questions
Message-ID: <101@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 26-Nov-85 19:44:13 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.101
Posted: Tue Nov 26 19:44:13 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 29-Nov-85 07:44:42 EST
Sender: news@brl-tgr.ARPA
Lines: 26


	I think the Maerklin equipment has four special virtues for a
father and young son building a model railway.
	(1) The trains tend to stay on the track.  The wheel
flanges are quite deep (unprototypical) which helps cope with bent,
non-level, and poorly joined track and the rolling stock tends to be
much heavier than other makes.  Turnouts cause no derailment.
	(2) The 3 rail design saves the kid from having to worry about
the electrical implications of a track which loops back on itself.  It's
the only HO make akin to Lionel in this regard, I think.
	(3) The built-in roadbed (on the metal track) makes
changing the layout easy; i.e.  you don't have to lay new roadbed all
the time.  It's ugly though.  You can buy plastic track that requires your
laying the roadbed if you prefer a less shiny appearance.
	(4) The higher-voltage AC powered rails make for fewer occurances
of trains stopping dead on dirty track.  It can happen, though, if the
track gets rusty.  Don't sand the track; it rusts very fast that way.
	The biggest drawback is the high price, I think.  Reversing is
also an ugly affair with dirty track/low voltage/marginal loco.
	You can buy compatible rolling stock from Fleischmann, Lima,
and (the cheapest if you can find it) Electrotren.  These brands are
hard to come by in the US, though.
--Christopher
P.S.  Despite the above, I'm going to go American next time so I can use
non-rusting rails outdoors.  Anybody have experience with HO outdoors?
-------