fastrack and realtrax issue

Truth is (sorry guys) in 25-50 years most of us won't care. But, I suppose the answer is no, they won't.

Yup, I am sure you are right, about our situations. And I think you are probably correct about how long the current new stuff will not last.

The problem with MTH RealTrax is that the more you use it for what it was designed for, i.e. assembly and disassembly many times over, they will not hold up.

The metal connectors will experience metal fatigue and bend/break as well as the plastic tabs will break if you do not 100% assemble disassemble them correctly.

Lionel Fastrack is much better, but even they suffer from connectors that come loose in a short time.

Squeezing the rails to grip them tight again has a 50/50 chance of fixing or ruining the track.

Both are better suited to be set up once and never touched again....

So I would say NEITHER...tubular is better over time.

Tin Man,

    The old tubular track will always be able to be restored using a decent process, I do believe some one might be able to come up with a process safe enough to restore the RealTrax and the FasTrack, if they really wanted to.  Here is the problem however the process may be more expensive than purchasing a new piece of either kind of track.  I do not think there will be enough nostalgia in the modern era to warrant developing the restoration process for either FT or RT track and knowing Lionel and MTH they will probably develop even new better track in the future.

PCRR/Dave

I was afraid that was the answers that I would get. As far as the development of something new, I doubt it. Just not enough activity in our hobby to justify those kinds of investments. Look how long it took to make the change to Fastrack.

Tin Man,

   I agree but sooner or later it will happen again.  Maybe even by an independent company like Ross.  Look at Atlas with their Industrial Rail in the past several years, you never know what is going to happen.  I do believe the new stuff will be wireless Command Control engineering for switches & accessories, Lionel is headed down that engineering path already, technology can definitely open some new doors for track controlled accessories. 

PCRR/Dave

Tinman3rail,

A bit off subject, but the link to your website in your signature doesn't work.  The embedded URL you have is wwwtinman3rail.com when it should be www.tinman3rail.com.  You may want to fix that. 

I have been around O gauge trains for many years and have tried a few track systems but I stay with conventional tubular or Gargraves track. You can cut tubular track to fit without going through major surgery.

Fastrack looks nice but has too many limitations for me to consider it for any kind of large layout. The small one to two fitter pieces of straight track are just as much as a ten inch section of Fastrack, and electrical connection is about the same as tubular.

I did a small 3 by 9 ft layout of Fastrack and was really dis-appointed in it.

So I traded it off for an MTH steam engine at a train show.

Lee Fritz

The other thing is tube track is all metal, so it doesn't warp over time, while the plastic will.  I've got some almost 10 year old FasTrack that I have used for carpet layout, putting down and taking up, and many of the older sections are now warped, the ends bending up so that they don't stay together very well.  And as trains go down the track you can see the train 'wave.'

Wow, I am impressed. When I went back to the hobby, I did a little self analysis. I recognized that in this hobby anyway, I am a builder. Once I get the layout done, I watch the trains go round and round a few times and then think to myself, ok, now what. And yup, time to build a new one! From all that I have heard today, the old style tubular track is definitely the way to go for me. What put me into the business, was a lack of good quality reconditioned track.  

Wow, great info, John, will see if I can fix the URL thing. I mentioned before that I am a builder. My observations are there are at least 4 kinds of folks in our hobby. There is the guy who really enjoys the making of the associated scenery, then the collector, who really likes that portion, the third is those who just like to play with their trains, and lastly the builder, or the guy who is continuously redoing their layouts. Now you have added a 5th, the carpet layer guy. It sounds like for someone who wants to build a layout basically one time and leave it that way, the Fastrack or Realtrax  are the way to go. But for those of us that are either tinkerers, or dismantle and store their layouts the older style is more appropriate. And yes, there are the smaller companies like atlas etc. that are not looking to set the whole world on fire, very much may come up with a more better (another technical term) then what is now available. As for me, I am a little weird, I like revamping old track and fixing switches.

Wow! I never thought about Fastrack warping over time. I guess one more reason to stay with tubular track.

Lee Fritz

Lee,

   I have lots of 1st generation FasTrack with the black center rail, none has warped when taken care of and stored properly, like anything else proper care is needed. Now some of my buddies in Slidell, La have who have stored the track in their Garage attacks, have both warped the track and the track has become rusty from the damp extremely hot conditions.  Like anything else proper handling and storage of FT is require.

PCRR/Dave

Like most things today.....the plastic base track is more 'throw away' when it breaks. The over engineered 100 year old track was made to last...and has.

I have no issue with Fastrack or other plastic track......my grandkids love it!!!

But the question was will it be around in usable condition in 100 years.......

I don't think it would be too terribly difficult to convert even the tubular tracks to work with the programmable system. After all, to make the switches change all that is required is a ground pulse. Sounds like an interesting summer project. I would bet that someone has already figured that one out, but then again, we have come up with tricks, tools and techniques for old style track, that at least I have never seen before. My favorite one is using a 2.5 mm plug (readily available at any radio shack store) instead of the bootstrap and you gain a power tap in the process! Seemed pretty obvious to me but I guess not to anyone else.

Tinman, what is this plug you mentioned above for the 0-31 and 0-72 switches?

Check out the px I posted. If you like, email me your address, and I will send you a free sample to play with. We have them listed on eBay, but do not have them on our Web site as of yet. contact@tinman3rail.com. Anyone else who would like to try a sample, let me know, and I will send you one also.

Tin Man,

   Tell ya what you engineer it out for the 711 type switches, and I will definitely purchase a few from you, as long as they can be activated by my new Legacy remote control, would love to have both my new FT command control switches and Command control 711 type switches working on the same layout.  The other problem with this is that the old 711 type switches take so much voltage to run, I do not think they will operate correctly on a low voltage set up, as my FT Command Control switch do.

However if you can make them work as my Command Control switches do, I would love to use them again.

PCRR/Dave

You know, if I were you, why not check on the forum to see if someone has not already come up with a scheme for that. As said it is a simple system to operate the switch mechanism. There are a lot of really smart people out there in our hobby, I would almost bet someone has come up with some kind of kit for it. I've got more than enough to keep me busy for some time.

The Fastrak plastic tends to get really brittle and the plastic tabs weaken and break off or are unusable over time for keeping the track together, and as above noted the track seems to warp. The metal contacts get loose and do not keep reliable contact.

I tried using it for frequent set ups for train shows but it was not reliable as noted above.

Once the tabs are loose or break there is no way other then screwing it down to keep it together and by far this is the noisiest track on the market.

I use the K-Line Supersnap track now produced by RMT it is very reliable, if the tabs or contacts break you can just insert track pins it works just fine. If the pins come loose you just pinch the rails to make it tighter.

I do like how reliable the old 0-27 Lionel track is really old stuff works well when cleaned.

Thanks everybody...It appears that while a little disappointed, the older style 3 rail seems to be the best choice,if you intend to dismantle, and store your tracks frequently. If you are the type of hobbyist that leaves his layout basically intact, the newer style tracks will work fine. Looks like the idea of providing reconditioned track will be in need for a long time.

TinMan,

Your thread brought back memories of how many times I had to recondition many sections of my grandfather's prewar Std Gauge track. I have boxes of track dating back to the early 1920's. With proper storage tube track does last a lifetime and beyond.

God Bless,

"Pappy"

Lately I have been working on a lot of O22 switches. Someone told me that the switches I was working on were made between 1939 and 1942. It is so much fun taking these and making them work like new again. Hard to believe they are all over 80 years old. One set was in their original box and were priced $5.95 for the pair. Glad to have helped bring back some of those magic moments!

tinman;You may be surprised to learn someone on that "auction site" does media blast Super"O" track to recondition it and it does look like new once done. The plastic Lionel used for the base of this track holds up very well over time (and cleaning); probably much more so than the newer plastics are going to do over time.

TinMan3Rail,

FYI, the link to your website in your signature is still not fixed.

You need a period between the www and the tinman3rail.com

You have: wwwtinman3rail.com

You need: www.tinman3rail.com

As far as Fastrack, I've already encountered some of it in pretty rough shape, so I'd consider seeing if your reconditioning process will work without killing it.  Being still in pretty heavy demand, you should be able to get a decent buck for reconditioned Fastrack.

Thanks guys for the heads up on the link....I fixed it..!!

Alan

Hey Gunrunner, a pleasure to hear from you again. Thru months of trial and error (and ruining lots of track) the procedures for reconditioning the tubular tracks that we finally came up with would be far too aggressive for the newer Fastrack style tracks. Its one thing having to come up with a system that will not remove paint from the ties, or damage the insulators, and quite another that would clean the metal without damaging the plastics. If it were me, I guess I would have to keep in my mind the only thing that really counts is the tops of the Fastrack rails. I would not even be too concerned about the conductivity of the pins. After all what's the worse that could happen? you would need to run wires under the tracks as you assemble them, and tap into each piece of track. I think the only thing that is left is to handle your Fastrack in a similar way that the HO guys handle theirs. It is interesting to note from one comment we received that Lionel had probably the best compromise ever, with their super O. Don't know why it never really took hold.

Thanks Ad man, when it comes to that kind of stuff, I am totally lost!

Thanks D and H, re super O fix. I am not surprised. I tried the soda blasting deal in my experimenting, and it does not work well on the tinplate tubular, that is in rough shape. Also it is a use it once and throw it away media, because it turns into powder once it hits something hard. At a buck a pound, was not a viable option for me. If I personally had a super O layout and wanted to expand on it? You bet it is an excellent solution. We actually use that procedure on switches, once we remove the mechanisms, and it works well for that. I think the Fastrack would be way to fragile for that procedure, but truthfully have not tried it. Next time I go on a buying adventure, I will pick up some rough Fastrack or Realtrax and do a little experimenting.
But it will have to be a summer project. I have more than I can handle right now.

I have been using Fastrack for about 10 years now with minimal problems. My reasoning for putting it down was looks and I didn't have to worry about ballast. I went with Realtrax "standard gauge" because it looked better next to the Fastrack. I have very simple loops that have been screwed down and just stay in place so it workes fine for my purposes.  

That at all being said you can't beat the old tried and true tubular track.  If I had to rebuild and do it all again I would probably go back to tubular track as I'm more of a toy train operator and not terribly worried about a completely high rail look.  

Hi Chris, I am really surprised (and grateful) at the number of people that feel after all is said and done, sticking with or in some cases going back to the old track is the way to go. I rather expected to hear the opposite. To you  I say again:

People don't grow old because they play with trains, they grow old when they stop playing with trains!