Atlas #8 turnouts (c80) back in stock st MBK

[bbussey]

It appears they have a substantial quantity on hand.

[Mark5]

These are Code 80 - new tooling?

[Ike the BN Freak]

These are Code 80 - new tooling?

Yes, new tooling

[bbussey]

Ah, sorry, didn't realize these were c80 and not c55.

[C855B]

Somewhat surprised to see tooling money spent on Code 80, further perpetuating a technology from the 1960s. I guess the market there must be pretty entrenched.

I do have a couple of friends locally who ask me for my pizza-cutter rejects, and I'm now at the point where I tell them "No, they go in the trash. I don't want to enable bad habits."   

[Point353]

I do have a couple of friends locally who ask me for my pizza-cutter rejects, and I'm now at the point where I tell them "No, they go in the trash. I don't want to enable bad habits." 

If you regularly run on an NTRAK layout, then you'd likely prefer wheels with high-profile flanges.
Or, maybe you'd enjoy being assigned to rerailing duty?

[C855B]

If you regularly run on an NTRAK layout, then you'd likely prefer wheels with high-profile flanges.
Or, maybe you'd enjoy being assigned to rerailing duty?

Hmm. Our club's N-Trak layout isn't that bad. When I used to run on it* with nearly all FVM wheelsets, rarely a problem. I will be snarky about it, however - if reliable operation is unattainable without a tinplate-grade wheel profile, then the problem isn't the wheels.

* - I don't run on our layout any more, or rarely, primarily due to "the other operators" problems. I'll bring stuff when I know certain members won't be there.

Courting controversy here... I think N-Trak is a fading standard, anyway. For one thing, I'm noticing more clubs deviating from mixed-module compatibility, reinventing their own wheel addressing various deficiencies with the N-Trak standards. Then - our club is a good example - a lot of modules are getting old in the tooth. We have a 25-y-o yard module set that badly needs to be stripped and reworked, or replaced. I rewired it for PowerPoles last year and corrected a couple of alignment issues; largely it still operates fine but how many more micro-fixes will it take before throwing-up my hands with "Enough, already!" (Already there, according to my wife.)

And I of course have to mention the "holy grail" that was the ultimate test of universal N-Trak compatibility that, frankly, failed miserably, the "world's largest" combined layout at the Louisville NSC convention 10 years (???) ago. I had a hunch then that was the beginning of the end. Even a local experience, a large show combining our club's modules with another club we had never interchanged with before was inoperable for most of the show.

Anyway, modelers are moving towards FreeMoN while train-runners and the semi-armchair bunch are joining the rush to T-Trak. Those are both much more reliable standards, the former by virtue of care and attention to detail, the latter because of a mechanically-superior track system in Unitrack. If my experience and that of situations I know of continue to play out as they have been, we'll run N-Trak with what we have until it crumbles into heaps and that'll pretty much be that.

[Point353]

Hmm. Our club's N-Trak layout isn't that bad. When I used to run on it* with nearly all FVM wheelsets, rarely a problem. I will be snarky about it, however - if reliable operation is unattainable without a tinplate-grade wheel profile, then the problem isn't the wheels.

The primary mission of NTRAK was never to achieve the highest level of fidelity to the prototype.
The concept was to be able to create large layouts for public display on which attention-getting long trains could be run.
Over the course of several decades, I've never heard anyone from the "general public" comment about the height of the rails or the depth of the wheel flanges.
If you find the "standards" to be unacceptably disagreeable, then there are other modular options available.

Likewise, it depends upon how inclusive or exclusive your club either wants to or can afford to be.
Are there enough members with a sufficient number of modules so that you can say "no" to those who can't lay smooth-running track to save their lives or whose modules are past their expiration date?
Even though the NTRAK module standards are rather specific, there will always be those who try to reinterpret them which can cause issues with operation and/or interchangeability.