E-Z Street Simple Oval Track Connecting Questions

I use the transition sections when going from curves to straight.  I don't really feel they are needed going from straight to curve.....but I also run only one direction....

Thanks for sharing your experience AMCDave! Perhaps I should start with a simple circle of D21 first, and get a feel for the track.  I'm looking to add a short trolley route to my small layout.

It's hard to tell from the available information online if these "straight to curve" transition pieces are always required.  From the pictures I can find it almost looks like the connecting tabs coming off the curve pieces are also curved.

Robert

Yes, if you are constructing, for example, a simple oval of E-Z Streets (or the former SuperStreets), you do need the 2.5" Straight-to-Curve transition pieces wherever a straight section will join to a curve section.  The tapered flangeway guides the wheel flanges smoothly into and out of the curves.

Thanks for confirming that Allan!  I've been reading some of the streetcar/trolley threads lately and have decided to try and wedge a small loop into the center of my layout to start.  I think I'll pick up just a simple circle of the D21 EZ Street to start out (for a trolley or streetcar loop) and just to get a feel for it.

Robert

I use the transition pieces.  Always have and always will, especially if I was going to drive a trolley through those turns.

Yes, I use the Straight-to-Curve transition pieces and you need a 10 inch straight as it is the only piece with the power connection.  The 60 x 30 mentioned in the image title refers to the size of the table I use to experiment with Super Streets.

Another thing that I have found out with Super Streets is that when you use a small straight(five inch straight, use two curve to curve sections) to curve it is best to use the 2.5 inch curve to curve straight as it has wide spacing all the way through the track piece. The 10 inch sections can be wired with Lionel Fastrack connector wires.

You need to supply a lot more electric power feeds for Super Streets because of the short track sections.

I do not know what the new E Z Streets has for power hook-up as I don't have any of the new track.

Lee Fritz

Thanks for the tips Lee!  I decided to go with Bill Robb's basic oval, and ordered some straight and transition pieces as well.  This will give me a little more expansive loop that I hope will fit within my O31 oval.  Thanks for all the advice and suggestions!

Robert

PS The order from altarail was processed and shipped today, so they do have the D21 curves in stock

Not very well, I imagine (although I have not used it this way).  These track sections are quite "delicate" as compared with any normal O gauge track sections, and I certainly would not recommend using them on a carpeted or other soft/flexible surface.

While a lot of traintrack seems almost to have been designed with carpet layouts in mind - standard O-27 and Fastrack come to mind - 'Streets track and 'Streets itself apparently wasn't.  I will work - I've done a simple oval onthe floor of my rec room with my grandkids.  However, you will have two problems:

Corner track creep: train track has edges that dig into the carpet a bit, 'Streets does not and has lots of surface area to make it rideup high on the pile.  As a result the track is not "planted" well and as cars come around a corner their momentum pushes the corner track (and for a brief time the rest of the loop attached to them) slightly to the side.  You will see the track moving slightly and eventually one or other junction between track sections will open.

Lint in the motors: normal train track has a space between the rails where lint and dust can fall, and motor gears are a good 1 inch above that space.  On 'Streets there is solid road where that gap is, and the gearbox is about 1/4 above that road surface.  On a carpet layout you will get lint and the odd piece of carpet fiber in the gearbox and axle bearings, etc.  On some vehicles you can tease it out with tweezers from underneath.  On others, you have to remove the body first. 

Many thanks Allan and Lee for taking the time to address that question, 'running on carpet'.

My indoor/outdoor fake turf carpet is fairly dense compared to some others, but it does allow my Realtrax to pitch a yaw a bit.

So I'm guessing it won't be suitable for EZ Streets based on what you have said.

I'm not quite ready to commit to the real estate loss on this small layout quite yet, but perhaps when I am I could carve relief out of the turf for a loop of streets

Out of curiosity are there any track to track locking tabs available for E-Z Streets?

That probably would still not help with the float, but they might be helpful for a temporary plywood side table if I wanted to avoid screwing the track down.

Thanks again,

Robert

No, there are not.

Thank you Allan!

I have not tried running 'Streets on dense, short-pile indoor-outdoor carpet, but I would not think it would be nearly as bad asrunning on indoor, thick pile carpeting.  I would not want to dissuade you from trying and having fun on you layout.  so why not try?:

• First, the worst that would happen is that the 'Streets roads would - 1) "walk" - move sideways in places as I explained earlier, mostly on  curves, gradually as you run cars, and 2) come apart at one or two corner seams between track - again gradually.  You can always both push it together again and move it back in place.  When I run an oval on carpet it usually takes 10 to 15 minutes before this happens.  Not the end of the world.
• I don't think lint and dirt in the motors will be a big problem on carpet that is not on the floor and walked on.  If in doubt, use a shop vac or hand cav to clean up first.
• Minimal attachment.  'Streets track comes with screw holes (the manhole covers cover them - they pry up with a sharp knife tip.  Position the track, then screw down only a couple of pieces (those prone to move or a couple of key corners) to position it all: drill a small pilot hole into the benchtop through the screw-hole and screw it down.  Don't turn the screw in too far, just enough so the road is smooth.  Perhaps don't even re-install the manhole cover it its temporary.  

Thanks for the tips Lee!  I agree, won't hurt anything to at least give it a try, and the thought of fixing it in place with a couple screws at the critical points is a worth a shot as well.

All of my track arrived today from altarail...very fast turnaround, and exactly what I ordered at what seems to be a reasonable price  I picked up the E-Z Street power connection leads while I was at it...guessing there's two pair to accommodate a second power drop on the oval as Lee Fritz and others suggest.  That center rail is relatively thin which makes it almost not visible from angles other than overhead, and I can see what y'all mean about the lighter more delicate nature of the track.

Can't wait to give this a shot with my new WBB Chicago Surface Lines Peter Witt.  The color and detail on these streetcars looks really nice.  Gotta give a plug to Mario's Trains ($125 for these models is the best price I've seen...they sell them on the bay...plus some of the cheapest shipping to be found).

Thanks,

Robert

Please post pictures if you can and report how the WBB Peter Witt runs on it.  I agree they are great looking, and I have thought of getting one to run through my downtown but want to make sure they run nice and smooth at city speeds.

While there are no track locking clips specially made for Super Streets or E Z Streets. It makes wonder if I could use the old 1966 to 1969 style Aurora Model Motoring H.O. race car clips for this purpose? These are the underneath the track clips, not the U shaped above track side clips.

I may know where to get some of these if they work.

Lee Fritz

Lee Willis, I'll be sure to post a video of it running.  I'm interested to see what the gearing is like...I did find one video on youtube while researching the purchase, but I'm not sure it's a good representation of capability, as it seems the poster might have it sped up a bit to push through the D16 curves...hard to get a good impression of it.

They do apparently navigate the D16, but it looks like it's hitting a bit of wall doing so...perhaps that prototypical as they say.  I'll take one of it running on the D21 oval.

Lee Fritz, do you have any pics of those underside "u" tabs?  All I could find on the bay was what look to be the side mount aurora motoring lock tabs.

Thanks,

Robert

I'm fairly certain they will/could be made to run through D-16 curves: they have swiveling trucks and when you get that, sometimes they will or can be made to run on any streets curve.  The worst that could happen with this trolley, I expect, is that you would have to work on them to open up the angle of swivel a bit to fit the tight curve. I would not be surprised though, if that was not necessary. 

Not just trolleys either, yesterday on another thread I posted a pictyure of an RMT BANG - it has swiveling trucks with axles close together so it fits, to - running on D-21 curves down my mainstreet: all that is neessary is to cut a bit ofplastic away from the body to let the trucks swivel more. 

In any case, in for a penny, in for a dollar I've ordered a De Witt trolley.  I willprobably have to remove the pickup assembly off the top for it to clear the tunnel portals on the turnarounds for my downtown main street - but it ought to look really good there.

Well after squeezing in an impromptu vacation and changing jobs, I finally had a chance to set-up my simple oval for a test of E-Z Streets.  This is my first experience with this track, and I see what Allan and others mean by the "delicate" nature of this track.

The one issue I ran into was that I seem to be getting some type of 'voltage leakage' while running on the E-Z Street oval...not sure what else to call it.

It prevents the reverse unit from cycling properly, assuming this is from power not being completely removed from the track (thus the 'voltage leakage')...I can actually hear some light 'clicking' or some such from the streetcar when the controller throttle is turned all the way off [running this with an older z750 controller & brick].

This does not occur when I power it with the same controller and brick on a loop of my Realtrax.  Here are a couple poor quality videos that may or may not give some idea of how smoothly the streetcar runs, especially on the D21 curves (gotta figure out what's wrong with the video setting on my camera).  At the end of the EZ Stree vid you can see my trying to unsuccessfully cycle the reverse unit.

Cheers,

Robert

I have a relatively small loop of EZ (Super) Streets.  I dropped feeders at 12, o'clock 3, o'clock 6 o'clock and 9 o'clock.  It is screwed down as well.  The picture below is not great, but you can get an idea.

Thank you Lee and TMack!  I was wondering if it could be an issue of using only one lead, but it never seemed to lose power at any point on the track, but I could still nto get the reverse unit to cycle to the other direction.

Instead it seemed like there was residual voltage still going to the track even when the controller was turned all the way down.  At that point I could still hear some buzzing or clicking inside the streetcar like it was trying to cycle or some such.

When I unplugged the barrel jack from the controller, the streetcar would move a fraction and then when I plugged it back in, the unit would cycle and increasing the throttle would send it off in the opposite direction.

Weird thing is this was not a problem on my larger Realtrax loop with the same controller and brick that also only has one drop.  That's why I was wondering if it was some type of residual voltage 'seeping' by even with the controller dialed to off.  My Realtrax loop need a good cleaning, so maybe its not enough stray voltage to keep it from cycling on that larger loop...sound plausible?

I thought I read somewhere on the forum that the WBB reverse units need a complete shut down to cycle properly...no residual power.  Otherwise I guess it could also be an issue with the type of sine wave as Dale H mentioned, but I'll have to see if I can borrow one of my brother's PW transformers to test that out.

Thanks again!

Robert