I read a review from someone who bought Lionel fastrack switches and had to rewire all of them. Has anyone experienced with these have had the same problem? Has Lionel fixed this problem?
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I believe and hopefully someone can weigh in more, I believe some of the fastrack switches the colors in the wiring diagram don't match the actual wiring of the switch. It should still function I think this comes more into play if you extend the wires and follow the diagram as opposed to which wire landed where. I have quite a few o72 fastrack switches, both turn outs and the Ys and haven't had any problems.
If I remember correctly, I have 22 Fastrack command switches on my layout and I only had one that was bad out of the box (and the vendor replaced it without problems). Never had to rewire any of them. I run them all via track power.
Thanks, guys. Maybe this happen a long time ago. Let’s hope Lionel corrected the problem.
Depends on the vintage of the switches. I bought a bunch of them in 2012ish. They were all bad minus one or two. They were fine if the jumper was left in place and powered via track power. If the jumper was removed and directly wired, they were full of shorts. Lots of threads and fixes on the forum via the search function.
Once your Fastrack switch has been mounted into a permanent layout, removing it for repairs or modification will be difficult (i.e., you would have to loosen several sections of adjacent track.) So I advise you to check operation thoroughly on the workbench prior to installation. You might also consider removing the plastic base, and soldering all of the folded metal tabs for more positive electrical conductivity. I believe that I've seen posts on the Forum illustrating this.
Unless you're setting up temporary layout(s) on the floor, my personal preference would be Ross switches. Or Atlas (since Ross still doesn't make their excellent switches in O36 
) My $.02.
