Lionel Fastrack Turntable

I want world peace, and the odds are about the same for either of these desires!

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

I want world peace, and the odds are about the same for either of these desires!

Sad, but true.

Although I do not use Fastrack, I think this is a good idea, and sometimes you do get what you ask for, good luck, stay optimistic, but at the same time, don’t hold your breath. Happy Railroading Everyone

Many of the requirements can be met with existing products.  I have the Atlas TT, and It looks like I could match up Fastrack with it, I control mine using the SC2 for command control.  Obviously, it matched up perfectly with Gargraves/Ross as that's what I'm using with it.  It also matches up with tubular track on roadbed.  It goes without saying that it matches well with Atlas track!   You could be worm food before Lionel gets around to making your TT, time to consider other options.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Many of the requirements can be met with existing products.  I have the Atlas TT, and It looks like I could match up Fastrack with it, I control mine using the SC2 for command control.  Obviously, it matched up perfectly with Gargraves/Ross as that's what I'm using with it.  It also matches up with tubular track on roadbed.  It goes without saying that it matches well with Atlas track!   You could be worm food before Lionel gets around to making your TT, time to consider other options.

We've had an Atlas turntable on the Glancy Trains modular display from the Detroit Historical Museum for quite a few years now.  The rest of the layout is all Fastrack.  As I recall, there is cork roadbed under the fastrack sections around the table to shim them up to height and the ends of the fastrack sections mating up to the table need the edges of the roadbed trimmed so that they can fit into the indexed "slots" around the table.

Seems like the most common way to do this is to trim the roadbed on Fastrack transition pieces (which have a flush side after pulling the pins). There are a few examples in this thread and it's also what I plan to do when my Atlas 24" turntable #6999 gets delivered

I ran the roadbed right up to the Atlas TT edge, and then just continued the Gargraves track onto the TT "lip".  I had to shim the track slightly to exactly match the railtops of the Atlas track on the bridge section.  I was able to get a smooth transition off all the positions, I have sixteen in use with various length whisker tracks, some are pretty short where I didn't have more room.  I figured a short track to park a speeder or maybe a Wienermobile on would be better than wasting the position.

Any manufacture of model train turntables would sell way more TTs if they would accommodate as many of the popular brands and gauges of track possible and make a much larger return on investment.

Charlie

Well, the cheap Atlas TT works with tubular track, Fastrack, Gargraves track, and Ross track at least, and probably easily adaptable to other brands.  That seems to be most of the "popular" track types.  The Atlas TT also does 2-rail or 3-rail out of the box.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Well, the cheap Atlas TT works with tubular track, Fastrack, Gargraves track, and Ross track at least, and probably easily adaptable to other brands.  That seems to be most of the "popular" track types.  The Atlas TT also does 2-rail or 3-rail out of the box.

I agree the Atlas 24" TT ticks pretty much all the boxes. It's too bad there's not a bigger version (30", 33", etc) for the folks who have larger articulated locos. Even if it was $450 or $500 MSRP, it would be a great budget alternative to the 30" Ross, 33" Millhouse, etc which both cost well over $1k.

I'd love to see a larger version of the Atlas TT.  I couldn't fit it in my layout, but I'll be a lot of folks could.  It wouldn't really have to cost significantly more, it would be exactly the same technology.