More Convincing Fastrack

Nice job!  That is some of the finest looking fastrack I've seen.

Very nice.

Bill

Looking good Rick!

Extremely attractive.  I love all your neat details, too.

Giving me lots of inspiration Rick. I am designing my layout using Fastrack and glad I did. Great results!

Good work Rick

It does make a BIG improvement on the fastrack to me.

Larry

Nice work.  I'll bet that ate up a lot of ballast.  Fastrack is so high off the ground level.  I also like you use of shrubbery details.  It looks good around that Lionel engine barn....

Rick O,

   I like FasTrack especially with your building techniques, I even like it in its original state however.  To me the low voltage, wireless FT Command Control switches are just fantastic, your layout building techniques make them even better.  Got to admit these FT CC switches dragged me into the Legacy world, nothing but great results from all of it.

PCRR/Dave

 Originally Posted By Wood: "Nice work.  I'll bet that ate up a lot of ballast.  Fastrack is so high off the ground level.  "

 Thanks for the compliments everyone!

 If you look down in the lower right hand corner of my 1st photo, you can see the fastrack is on 1/2" pink insulation to quiet it. For this small service yard I took another layer of 1/2" insulation and glued it on top butting it in as close to the plastic roadbed as I could.

From there I used Woodland scenics Mold- a -Scene to fill/blend in the gap, this way the road bed is flat like a yard as opposed to elevated like a mainline.

I use Woodland scenics Coarse Grey Blend ballast, the combination of the two colors seems to match the plastic roadbed fairly well.

Heres a mainline pic, straight white glue brushed on heavy on the plastic roadbed then added ballast. Squirted 50/50 water glue mixture over the top 24 hrs later to fully secure.

Very nice job, Rick.

Rick

     The paint will bring it all together. I used Brennans for my track and applied it as you did. It uses a lot less ballast than other non roadbed track.

Ray Marion

Rick

That's looks really good.

Great work.

RICKO, you just made my day!

That really looks good! I need to do that.

Bob

Gentlemen,

   I do believe Rick & Ray have both put the fallacy that FasTrack is not a realistic track to build with, pretty much to shame.  Like anything else it's all in how you engineer your layout that makes it what you most want to see.  Even though I want my

layouts to be a child like wonderland, I have a great appreciation for how Rick & Ray use FasTrack & FT Switches in their realistic layouts, seriously cool stuff!

PCRR/Dave

Wow! This is amazing! I love Fastrack and the only thing that really bummed me about it was the level of realism that it left behind but this shows that you can really make it work well. I have 363 feet of Fastrack on my layout, I have yet to start on scenery but this going to be a must! It'll take forever, but it'll be worth it! Great job!

Very nice looking track all around.  Just shows that, as always, it is imagination and work that makes the difference.  

Josh

     Its not that bad. I have about half the track you have. Its easier and faster than others ie Atlas, gargraves. You only put ballast lightly on the outside roadbed, paint the rails and put some wash or powder between the rails. Good luck

Ray Marion

Thanks for the tips Ray! I can't wait to get started on my scenery! 

Very convincing, looks great Rick!

Some EXCELLENT work being displayed here, I hope that mine will soon be able to come close to achieving the same results

Great Job! Can't wait to get the benchwork up so I can laying the Fastrack and following your examples:

It was what I had in mind to take it from blah to wunderbar!

My sentiments, exactly.

Jim

Rick and Ray,

Your track looks great!  I intend to ballast mine someday too.

Thought I'd attempt to prolong RickO's thread a little with some more examples of "convincing?" Fastrack. These are my attempts at making Fastrack look as real as possible. I think, with some dust on the track and some weathering on the rails, it might just look as good as some of the other contributors.

I think you're there, it looks great!

Looks like I've got some work to do! Nice jobs , guys!

dennish,

   Man do I agree with Guns, you are definitely there!  Very serious stuff.

PCRR/Dave

Dennish

I'll second a plug for fastrack. And like Rick has already shown it can be made to look  better that just plain flat track. At least on a permanent layout.

Larry

Larry,

Can you provide a brief overview of your weathering technique on your track? It looks fantastic!!!!

Nice work on the layout everyone.

Larry Sr. I have a question for you what did you use in the second pictures for the platform? Balsa or something else to make the platform were the signal sit?

Wow all of you guys have done a great job...I think they all look great.  Thanks for sharing pics of your progress.

Dennis

I used the pens to try and give a little rust look. I also brushed a couple of coats of ink/alcohol wash on the fastrack. A 50/50 mixture.

The ballast is a mixture of woodland scenic and roof granules dark gray, light gray and slate mixed.

There was a article completed in OGR a while back that I got the idea from and pretty much copied it until I was happy with the color.

Kris

That's 3/8 Masonite painted gray the misted with flat back and fine sanded. I used it all over for sidewalks, roads, runways, and drive ways. Another thing I learned by members. Just passing it on.

Have fun with you're project.

Larry

That's great!!

does it make your fastrack faster???

zoom zoom.

Don't think so, but it is for trains not slot cars????????

Looking good Rick. Here is a photo I took to show the difference between painted rails in the foreground and unpainted rails in the rear. I think it shows that it is worth the effort to paint. Also I think that there is an interesting illusion if you leave the center rail unpainted. It actually reflects the image of the ties somewhat.

Very cool Gentlemen

 Cant wait to get goin on my layout

Al

Agree on leaving center rail shiny. I've noticed its less noticeable in pictures and on layouts if left bare.