In recent correspondence with Pierre Bourassa he included a few more photos, and the one below is especially interesting as it illustrates two approaches he has taken to laying track in American OO today.

The track to the rear is On3 flex track but modified slightly–what he has done is cut the ends of the ties off so they are OO length. The ties are still a bit heavy but match up pretty well actually with the tie size used by Lionel for example back in the 1930s. And of course it is exactly in gauge for American OO; NMRA track standards are the same.

For the track in the front he took a different approach. What he did was split HO flex track down the middle and relay it for 19mm. Some years back Pierre sent me samples of this including a turnout he had modified but not used on his layout. With ballast added heavily down the middle it is pretty effective and certainly does the job in terms of getting trains rolling. As Pierre noted on the back of the photo, “I like it!”

And if you have cars as nice as that Zuhr Canadian Pacific stream liner in the background, who would not want to run them? If you are lacking for track, give either approach a try and get some trains running.