Lionel Fastrack 0-84 opinions needed

Fwiw, Ross sells O-84

What will you place the track on top of? Floor, tile, carpet or is this a permanent layout.

Fastrack holds together exceptionally well, even when walked on by small children, pets...  I would not expect any joint issues. Fastrack is LOUD on hardwood, tile, etc.  It is great on carpet.

As for the cost, there is at least one site online that sells each piece for $3.00 and the shipping is very reasonable - I believe about $12 for the 32 sections. As they are not a forum sponsor I believe it is against the rules to put the name or link to the site.  Feel free to email me.  You used to be able to click on my name above and get my email. I'm not sure on this new forum...

jini5 posted:

I want to buy a Lionel 0-84 fastrack circle. I will have to buy 32 pieces and they seem expensive.

Menards has O-72 and O-96 "O" track at 16 per circle for 3.99/section. Would one(or both) of those work for you?

I got a really good deal on 084 and 072 track on ebay back in the summer. if you can find someone selling by the case you can get a better deal than buying by the piece. good luck

Lionel could have made 084 Fastrack curves in 22.5 degree sections, but they would have been long and costly- so they broke them up into 11.25 degree sections to hide the true cost. IMO it's worth it to consider other choices as options, since you don't yet own any Fastrack. As mentioned before, if you plan to run on hard floors will be noisy.

Geno

Fastrack has two general issues.

-it is noisy. No matter where and how you mount it, the top of the road bed vibrates and makes noise;  more noise that any other brand of track

-the joints have intermittent connections. There is a video wherein Mike tells how to pre-load/pre-bend the center rail pins. But on our club layout, over Homasote, we had to solder the connections.

A better bet is, in my opinion, almost any other brand of track.

I have fastrack on my layout and have not had any issues.  It is loud, but trains are supposed to be loud.

I have a large collection of fastrack and have never had a connection issue.

Many times powering a large floor layout with only a single drop.

It's great for floor running  - especially carpeting. Try that with Ross or Menards tubular.

If you haven't purchased any track yet, you may want to take a look at the number of switches, turnouts, and crossings that Ross makes......for what it's worth.

Strictly my opinion, but I think Ross/Gargraves and Atlas offer the best product line, appearance, and reliability.

Then again, everyone's goals, ambitions, budgets, and skill sets are different.  One man's coffee is another man's tea, so to speak.

I have nearly 400 feet of Fastrack.  Curves are all either O-72 or O-84.  I have had 2 pieces where I had to slightly bend the center pin to make good contact.  I do power connections about every 10 feet which can be as few as 4 pieces of track or as many as 10.  I have had no issues with voltage drops.

Mr Union Pacific posted:

I have fastrack on my layout and have not had any issues.  It is loud, but trains are supposed to be loud.

Mr  union I TOTALY agree.Oce I get a Big Boy,an Allegheny and a Challenger running and chuffing and whistling…. yea it's loud.I can't hear myself think.I have never heard a train go whispering by in real life,have you?People try to indoctrinate Fastrak loudness into your heads.Open up your minds people!..I had some continuity problems but it went away when I installed multiple feeds.Nick

Amen Nick!  I always run mine max volume .  Its great at this time of year because here in Florida I can open the window in my train room and the neighbors can here me operating my trains.