MTH Engine issues on Lionel Fast Track

hi, atlas track also have a black coating on the center rail, which I believe causes no issues. the best track from what I have been told by pro's are Atlas and gar graves of the two is the most expensive, and then  Atlas. I would check with Marty Fitzhenry on the ogrforum , he will tell you what the best is!

Alan

Atlas track is good, but I have heard some others say to use Ross Custom switches(with Ross all rails are steel) as Gargraves has some plastic rails on their switches and causes power loss at places. Also some MTH steam engines don't do well with Gargraves switches. From experience I am going to step up to Ross Custom switches because of electrical problems with Gargraves switches.

Lee Fritz

Fasttrack joints can  develop high resistance which will cause voltage drops between sections. I have been using FT  since it came out and run in to this. Taking the track apart and putting back together fixes this issue. If permanent, soldering the joints or jumpers are a solution . this will cause signal issues with DCS.

So soldering is a option ? I was under the impression the Linoel stuff, rail was steel? soldering would surly be an easy fix if it could be done.. Hollow track could pose to be an issue as well for jumpers but I'm no sure. Anyone tried it.

Thanks

Trainman Nick

sometimes with fastrack the center pin is loose there is a fix for it by slightly bending the center tab it will make a better connection. I have MTH stuff also and fastrack and the only place I have issues with the MTH stuff is in my 90 degree crossovers.

Since i take apart my Fastrack every year after the holiday, I have made my life easier be connecting feeder wires about ever 6-8 feet. depending on the size of the loop, I ether connect all wires with a wire nut and then 2 wires to the power source or I run them to an MTH Terminal board under the layout, and then run the 2 wires from the terminal board to the power source.

This allows me to run either conventional, tmcc, or dcs with no issuess

Joe

Trainman Nick,

   The men have given you some good advise, lets take this on step further, 1st is this gentlemen running DCS or Conventional.  Lots of variables with MTH running DCS.  I use FasTrack and set up properly I have little if any problems, so unless the track is old and extremely dirty, I doubt the track itself is the actual problem.

Give us some more details as to this mans layout, and I might be able to help you more.

His trains may run on the store layout because it is set up properly, his home layout may not be.

PCRR/Dave

I operate DCS and I use fastrack.  I have soldered the center rail of every joint.  I have not had any issues.

Thanks Guys, I passed on the info and he's going to try to solder some track this week and get back to us.

Thanks

Trainman Nick

One issue with Fastrack and some MTH steamers I've seen is the switchable 2-rail/3-rail ones with scale wheels.  They run great on Atlas track, but the pilot derails on Fastrack, and I presume they would on tubular track as well.

Gentlemen,

    My Multi-level DCS/Legacy layout runs on 90% FasTrack, engineered & built correctly I have no problems, if this gentlemen has problems running on FasTrack & Switches he is not set up correctly.  I have never had to solder any of my FasTrack, what so ever, and running MTH P2 Tin Plate like the 263E P2, the Engine pick ups are a lot closer than most all other MTH Engines.  If any MTH P2 engines would have problems, with running on FasTrack, it should be my Repro Tin Plate, and they run perfectly, no soldering of FasTrack required.   However I do not own any P3 wireless draw bar Steam engines, this I do believe could cause problems when running original Lionel or MTH Repro Tin Plate on most any Track.

PCRR/Dave