MTH realtrack

Our first O Scale 3-Rail "layout" was all around the living room, with MTH Realtrack. That was in the early 1990s. That said, the MTH Realtrack was solid nickel silver rails, and we never even had any problems dragging the vacuum cleaner over the tracks. Year after year, we never had any problems with it. 

Now, with an upstairs permanent layout, we obviously no longer have any "track in the living room". I understand that today's MTH Realtrack, is no longer solid nickel silver. 

Hi

I also purchased some second hand MTH track also had the same problem. I bent the copper tabs back VERY CAREFULLY back to the original position and it worked. I did see (where I do not remember) someone solder jumper wires between the sections and it worked. 

Kris

I don't know of any connector pins. There are curved metal contacts. They can be reshaped if they are bent.

if it is used, someone could have clipped one off for rail isolation.

Place the rail ends together at about a 70 degree angle to one another and then lower both far ends simultaneously to connect. The last few pieces are a bit difficult. Get the best angle that you can. yes, they are not the easiest track to connect.

MTH makes a lot of good stuff, IMO Realtrax is not one of those products.

At one time !I had a layout with 250 pcs of Realtrak solid rail and 24 switches.  I did have a few connection problem but solved them by soldering jumper wires between some pieces.  Other wise the Layout works quite well.

The weak spot on RealTrax is the bond between the bronze "clips" and the rails. Some of the welds are bad and sometimes the black coating is so thick that welding quality is poor. Check each piece with an ohmmeter before installing. Jim Barret described a fix for the bad weld joints some time ago. Other than that I've run mine for 14 years now with minimal issues.   Joe