A friend at work was asking me about electric trains. He had memories of the Lionel trains his Dad had set up for him. And had seen an advertisement for a Trix Big Boy 4-8-8-4, for about $700. He had assumed that it was the scale he was familiar with. But the Trix model is HO, not O scale.
My friend was not familiar with model railroads and had lots of questions. I explained to him the various scales, "O" "HO" "N" etc, but then came a question I could not answer.
Why are there three rail systems? The only thing I could come up with is the way it is possible to make a reverse loop easily with three rail, but it is more compicated with two rail.
And I think, Lionel "O" and "O27" are AC. But I don't know if this is the reason for three rails.
I grew up with Lionel O27, and never gave it another thought, having moved onto HO long ago.
BTW what is the power system for American Flyer trains?
And not to complicate things too much, does anyone know about Marklin three rail systems?
_Thank You_ group for your answers.
Best Regards,
Robert