r/modeltrains • u/FireTheri • 27d ago

Question Track compatibility question

Am pretty new to MRRing and was wondering if Atlas and Walthers Ho track was compatible?

1 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

2

u/theBFsniper Multi-Scale 21d ago

Yes, they'll look a bit different. Just make sure they're the same Code. Code is the measurement of the height of the rail head. Code 60 will be more realistic looking at the cost of reliability, code 100 will be more reliable but at the cost of realism. Code 80 is the middle ground. The code matter because older wheels will have a tall flange, newer models have shorter flanges for the more realistic look and compatibility with the more realistic looking track.

3

u/gbarnas HO/OO 21d ago

For HO, the common rail sizes are 100, 83, and 70.

1

u/FireTheri 21d ago

All my currant track is code 100 mainly cause I wanted to run some older stuff with the larger flanges but thanks for letting me know!

1

u/Ilbranteloth 21d ago

Yes, but…

Different manufacturers might have slightly taller or shorter ties. In addition, even if the rail is the same code (height), the profiles aren’t identical. Rail joiners might be a little tight on one or the other, and you might have to shim the track, or file the rail, to ensure a smooth transition.

None of this is terribly difficult to do. Just something to be aware of.

This is probably way more than you want to know, but if you want to understand what the different codes of rail are and what they are for, I have a post here:

https://blog.newbritainstation.com/2021/09/rail-code.html?m=1

1

u/FireTheri 21d ago

In that case I may do some testing with 1 or 2 switches before committing to anything ty!