Hi Dave,

Welcome to the forum.

I look forward to seeing progress with your layout plans.

Ian.

Hi Dave,

I already have some solid third rail track, and intend to incorparate some of it into my M track layout, in my analog sections of the layout.

This I feel will look really good, when running some of my 1950's Loco's.

Ian.

Hello Dave and welcome aboard!

Great project and excellent idea: retirement is the time to make dreams come true.
There is no special consideration using solid center rail track, except that you are dealing with old equipment and sometimes a little oxidation is unavoidable.
For cleaning, refrain from using any sand paper or abrasive.
I use lighter fluid (but carefully!!) on a rag to wipe the tracks before mounting them.
After that, the regular running of trains is all you'll need to keep it operational.: it removes the crud quite rapidly
In terms of wiring,I would suggest you feed your track every 3 to 5 sections (both power and ground!)by soldering a wire to the connecting tongue.
It may seem a little overkill, but please take this as the best piece of advice I can give to avoid/reduce frustrating debugging after all the track has been anchored down!
Another word of caution: the old catenary masts can be very fragile, as they too suffer from the dreaded zinkpest.
I suppose you are aware that until about 1951, the switches had single coil motors, (acting a bit as a flip-flop)and require 24 Volt supply.
They are recognizable by the fact that they only have two wires: one yellow for the lighted lantern and one black with a green plug for the supply.
Same apply for signals and uncoupling tracks of the same vintage.
Newer switches and signals have double coil motors and are recognizable to the three wire: one yellow and two blue.
These will allow you to build up a simple automated block system, which I always thought was the coolest thing on earth when I was a kid in the 1950's (I am still a kid, but now in the 2010's.... )
And if you discover problems with old rolling stock, you have come to the right place, I don't think any of your questions will stay un-answered for very long!
Once again welcome

Hello Dave,
Welcome and good luck with your project. I too have started a large layout with all my "old" material. Nothing digital all analogue.

The biggest problem I have encountered and drove me to extreme frustration was the old M turnouts, of which I used a great number (I have two hidden stations with a total of 13 staging tracks). The problem I encountered was that although the actuating mechanisms (relays) functioned perfectly, the frog legs kept getting stuck. I tried everything imaginable (cleaning, lubrication, re-tensioning of the actuating springs, etc.) but nothing would solve the problem. It became very serious because my automated track switching was very unreliable (see my postings "M Turnout Problems" and "Building my New Layout".)

Finally, the only solution was to buy new C turnouts and replace the old M. I had to "re-engineer" (read modify) the C connections to fit the M track, but everything works just fine now!

Please feel free to message me if you need more information.

Regards,
Yannis

Hi Dave/Mike
Welcome Dave - I started a small 1.9 x 1.2 m set up a while ago - I am close to retirement, not quite there yet! - all analogue, with some of my original M track and locos from 1959. I also prefer the stud period from the 50's to 80's Mike. I have about 17 remote turnouts and 11 uncoupler tracks, and there's still lots of wiring to couple up to my six 7072 control boxes! But it is great fun, seeing the layout slowly take shape - I also, like Yannis, battled getting all the old M turnouts to work efficiently, without dead spots, and getting them to work EVERYTIME, but have succeeded thus far! Something else I found necessary was lots of extra feeder tracks to ensure constant voltage. I have two reverse loops, one of them on a raised section, with a number of parking bays, to move from the inner to outer circuits.
After the wiring is complete, I then need to start on some station building and scenery...roll on retirement.....M track Joe

Hi Dave,

A worm welcome to the forum from me too.

I wish you and your family Merry Christmas and an Happy New Year.

Renato