A Third Question from an old-aged Newbie (accesory activator track alternative)

That is exactly how to do it. All my track activated gates and lights are done that way. If you don't want to remove the pins, you can just cut the rail to isolate it.

Yes Dremel a slit in the rails to isolate vs removing the connectors - much easier.  (You still have to remove the jumper on the insulated section(s) ).

Thanks for the responses...so do i modify three track sections:  track one has a dremal slit, followed by track two that has the jumper between outside rails removed, followed by track three with a dremal slit?

or do you only modify one piece of track (dremal a slit at each end of the rail, remove the jumper)

thanks

m

I would recommend the longer span, so a car like an 18 inch passenger would not span the slots if they are in only one track. If you make the slots, make sure you avoid cutting over the tabs that hold the track to the roadbed. No need to ask me how I know that.

Removing the pins is not the best solution. In addition to conducting electricity, the pins keep the rails in alignment. If you remove the pins, you need to keep the rails from touching each other, yet keeping them in alignment. You could use a couple of O gauge insulator pins, but that might create too much of a gap for the FasTrack to click together. So, in order to remove the pins, you should also cut one of the rails a little shorter to allow for the extra gap needed for insulated pins. And for the best installation, you should make a 3d print of a properly shaped insulated pin.

Using a Dremel to cut a slit in the rails is OK, but you need to be careful that each section of rail is held by two sets of tabs. You can do this with full sections of track, either straight or curved because they have four sets of tabs, so all you need to do is cut the slit between two sets of tabs  on the left and two sets of tabs on the right. FasTrack has little plastic pieces extending up into the hollow rails and they should keep the rails in alignment. You should glue some small insulator into the slit to be sure the rails cannot touch each other.

The best way, of course, is to use the accesory activator track system. Maybe you could use the two 5" pieces with curved sections between them by removing the jumper from each of those curved sections. The 10' insulated section can be used as a standard 10" section elsewhere.

I agree about shortening one rail a little if you remove a pin, but having one pin gone does not misalign the rail, the other two rails have pins and the snap together joint keeps it all good. The activator pack is just two pieces of track with a cut rail and the cross tabs removed. Doing it yourself is much cheaper and you have more options, such as using curves and shorter pieces of track.

@John H posted:

I agree about shortening one rail a little if you remove a pin, but having one pin gone does not misalign the rail, the other two rails have pins and the snap together joint keeps it all good. The activator pack is just two pieces of track with a cut rail and the cross tabs removed. Doing it yourself is much cheaper and you have more options, such as using curves and shorter pieces of track.

Yes, removing a pin does not misalign the rail. My concern is keeping the alignment in the future. Placing an insulator pin now could save problems in the future. In the center of the track, there are little plastic pieces extending up into the hollow rails and they should keep the rails in alignment, but at the end of the track section there is only the pin that aligns two seperate rail sections. So without the insulator pin you are hoping that the rails will remain aligned all by themselves. You would probably be right 70% or 80% of the time.

Thanks for the inputs everyone; i think i'll use the Lionel solution when possible but i have a couple of places where i'm going to have to mod a curved section.