
Holding this track in my hands now has been interesting, as I have not held a piece of it in years. It really does not “feel” pre-war. I can kind of imagine how someone would have felt back then to hold it in your hands for the first time, this is pretty amazing stuff. I did a quick survey with a couple of my favorite junior high students to guess how old this track was. They guessed that it dated to the 1960s-70s. Lionel had quite a product going with the pre-war OO line; no wonder collectors drive a market for our defunct but most interesting scale.
The one thing that really surprised me and I have never seen noted in print is that they are out of gauge! It is a little hard to estimate by eye but the gauge is at least 19.5mm and probably closer to 20mm. While it does look like Scale-Craft equipment would run fine on this track, this does perhaps explain the wide tread profile and large flanges seen on Lionel equipment.
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