Man, Dale is right on, PERFECT answers Bill! Here's my experience using them daily...
I ride only NR Triples an all my bikes as many of you know. I use 52/47/36 with a 14-17-20-24-28 freewheel (120mm, a real blessing), which chart out perfectly on a gear chart. I use my favorite derailleur of all times, the Rally (1st or 2nd generation with cast upper arm, stay away from the 3rd gen "Nuovo-sytle" in my opinion), using an actual Nuovo Record might cause you to abandon certain gears due to chain slop issues. Someone else recently posted that it did work OK, however.
Flat cage front derailleurs are required for pre-CPSC ('77 and earlier I think are pre-CPSC). I've got both cranks so for simplicity I use only Flat cage is case I'd have to swap around.
These triples work great, and I use that granny ring on every ride. San Jose, Montana, Colorado, Solvang, Guam, all had (have) hills that smoked me on a 42... I love the triple and would encourage anyone past 40 to look into them if the hills cause you to go elsewhere.
Regards,
Bruce Van Remortel
Guam for 5 more months... Nice as usual.