This junk Lionel Fastrack never ceases to have issues. Now my trains are severely slowing down and lurching at a certain spot on the track. The relatively small loop has three pick up points for electricity and all track is clean and connected well. It didn't start doing this until a few days ago. Help would be appreciated, I'm very fed up with this!
Thanks
Replies sorted oldest to newest
How big is your layout? And what are you using for power? Lionel wants a power drop every 3 to 5 tracks.
jim
carsntrains posted:How big is your layout? And what are you using for power? Lionel wants a power drop every 3 to 5 tracks.
jim
"Lionel"? Who at Lionel stated that?
I have a 10'x16' fastrack layout with 14 ga feeders every 10 linear feet of track. No voltage drops anywhere.
I've had a permanent fastrack layout for 14 years, part of it even got wet at one time (don't ask)
I haven't had any problems.
ES44AC some more info would be helpful. Wire size, transformer, is this a carpet layout?
Heres a helpful video from Mike Reagan on how to remedy fastrack continuity issues:
Have you tested the voltage before, after and right at that "certain spot" on the track ?
Have you tried disconnecting a few pieces at that spot and then flipping them around and re-connecting to see if that solves the problem ?
I am shocked to hear about your frustrations with FasTrack because my experience has been so incredibly different. I hooked up 150+ feet of FasTrack and 11 switches on my layout. I used one terminal track to connect to the transfomer. "Just to test it" I thought. Six months later and I've still never changed it. I have one connection for power and now DCS for the entire layout. I'm probably just lucky but it still strikes me as odd that you'd have so many problems.
The best thing you can do with FastTrack, or almost any track for that matter is solder each track section together. With fast-track you can do it from the bottom quite easily. Solder the center rails with a jumper wire from section to section (piece to piece) and one outer rail from section to section. You don't have to worry about loose pins, high high resistance joints at the pins, etc...
ES44AC posted:This junk Lionel Fastrack never ceases to have issues. Now my trains are severely slowing down and lurching at a certain spot on the track. The relatively small loop has three pick up points for electricity and all track is clean and connected well. It didn't start doing this until a few days ago. Help would be appreciated, I'm very fed up with this!
Thanks
Calm down. Answer the questions posted and someone will certainly help you get back on track.
I had a section of track in one of my loops that I had couple of engines do the same. Checking each section with a meter never showed me anything. Everything checked out. I cleaned tracks, wheels and pickups with never but a short period were everything ran good, then it started all over again. One operating morning engine slowed as it hit the section in a curve, but I also had my 44 Tonner headed toward the engine but was going into siding to allow engine to pass. As my 44 ran into a section the other engine suddenly picked up set speed. I recreated this next day after this which made me wonder. Every time my 44 hit a section all my engines that had slowed down, came back to set speed. Taking a clip and clipping center rail with track center of another section all engines ran at set speed. Took problem section out, cleaning and lightly sanding connectors on both section. Seems there was some buildup of crud and grease. That was 2 years ago. No problems since.
Don't know if its your problem, but it was first time I ever seen this on mine.
josef posted:I had a section of track in one of my loops that I had couple of engines do the same. Checking each section with a meter never showed me anything. Everything checked out. I cleaned tracks, wheels and pickups with never but a short period were everything ran good, then it started all over again. One operating morning engine slowed as it hit the section in a curve, but I also had my 44 Tonner headed toward the engine but was going into siding to allow engine to pass. As my 44 ran into a section the other engine suddenly picked up set speed. I recreated this next day after this which made me wonder. Every time my 44 hit a section all my engines that had slowed down, came back to set speed. Taking a clip and clipping center rail with track center of another section all engines ran at set speed. Took problem section out, cleaning and lightly sanding connectors on both section. Seems there was some buildup of crud and grease. That was 2 years ago. No problems since.
Don't know if its your problem, but it was first time I ever seen this on mine.
That most likely was a high resistance joint. Soldering the track sections together takes care of that for good.
I had the same problem. Like KD, I took some flight nose pliers and gave it a light squeeze at the connections. Worked great.
dkdkrd posted:I can safely say there is nothing so maddening, frustrating.....and downright disappointing...than to do so on a layout where EVERY track section was soldered to its adjacent one. All trash...no value...metal scrap, at best. What a waste. And now, do the same with FasTrack??....which cost more than twice as much to begin with in comparison to tubular??
KD
Being soldered to the tabs on the bottom, all one would have to do to dismantle would be to apply some heat to one side of the wire. Sounds like your soldering skills might not be that good so in that case you could use the lugs on the bottom of every piece of Fastrack with the .110 terminal connectors attached to a length of wire to make dismantling easier for you.
I have no complaints about my FT. I have 4 power districts w/4 180W bricks with #14 power drops every 5 ft or so.When using 30" straight sections I am in the habit of installing a feed on each one. IMPORTANT: Solder all connections properly to track including feeds, uncoupling, and operating sections. And don't be afraid to install a power feed on the FT turnouts.If you take the time to do it right the product will last a lifetime.
OP-Try going along with a volt meter and find out where you are loosing it. Are you sure you are not under powered? Nick
Just to reiterate some of the previous posts. 
Make sure that ALL track pins are snug inside the fastrack. Slightly bend the center track pins (this is the power rail) so they make good contact against each other (per Mike Reagan video). Lastly, I place a little dab of Silver Conductive Grease on each of the track pins on BOTH sections being joined together. Here's a link: https://www.mgchemicals.com/pr...nductive-grease-8463 The Silver Conductive Grease may be overkill but I sleep better at night knowing it's there. 
Hope this helps.
Chief Bob (Retired) 
I am a Christmas carpet operator. I have an O-72 outer loop and O-60 inner loop. Each loop is about 50 feet long. The inner loop runs just fine and has no insulating sections but the outer loop has voltage drops consistent with the location of two operating features, the crossing gate and crossing signal/highway setup with flashing lights and sound. I usually run jumpers to this spot but this year I was lazy and beat up from a back surgery so I lived with it. Also, if you use these features it helps to stagger the insulation cuts so they are on one outside rail for one accessory, and the other outside rail for the other. Fastrak is not junk but it can be finicky and switching around track sections, as someone else suggested, can help.
KOOLjock1 posted:
Yes, where are all these RUMORS coming from????
My Fastrack 5x8 layout, with only 2 feeds, has been operating fine for the past 14 years. When new, I did have one "bum" section. Replacing it solved whatever problem it had.
It is very hard to disassemble Fastrack by hand without angling first one side and then the other to get it apart. This will spread the rails, especially the outside ones, while also possibly bending the pins. After figuring this out the hard way, I now spread the sections straight out with a utility knife until unsnapped and then pull it apart. A voltmeter will not usually show you a poor connection unless there is a load on the circuit. I do have success with an ohmmeter at suspect joints. A good connection will read close to 0. High ohms equals a bad connection.
Very good point. Another issue is that the Fastrak Rail Joiners are made of a pot metal that is highly fracture prone. This is likely exacerbated by lateral wiggling during disserembly. The utility knife sounds like a very good idea to unlock the sections.
I just had this very issue with my Christmas layout. I simple disconnected one joint in the track, then used my OHM meter and checked each joint individually. I did find joints with very high to open resistance. I was looking for anything under 0.5 ohms. If the outer rails showed a high resistance, then I'd squeezed the bottom end of the rail to tighten up the joint with a jewelers needle nose pliers. I did this on both outer rails. As for the center rail, I simply put a very slight bend in the center pin as Mike Regan suggests with the pliers. Then I'd recheck my joint again with the meter. Do not try and bend the outer rail pins, They'll break off! Once I had all of my joints under .5 ohms the train didn't slow down at the furthest spots from my 180 watt power brick.
Access to this requires an OGR Forum Supporting Membership
