Problems with MTH track

Impossible to guess every possible scenario, but most likely, the spring contacts between sections are not making contact, or have corroded, preventing power from passing from section to section. Enough loose connections and you get dead spots.

OK that gives us some things to look at. I could see corrosion entering the picture. Thanks.

Spring contacts could be miss-shaped so they ae not contacting the adjoining section.  The other issue is broken spot welds between the contacts and rails.  Very early Realtrax had crimped connections around the rails (which corroded), later had one spot weld, most recent has two spot welds.  You can check continuity between the contacts and rail.  If bad, drill a 3/32" hole through the spot weld into the rail and fill with solder.

Thanks for those comments and tips!

Expanding with Realtrax, could be like investing in buggy whips. As listed above, many  problems, along with tabs that break, problems with the addition of turn outs. I originally liked it and bought many sets and extras. Now, I am too deep to change.

If your buddy knows how, and can cut, drill and solder, it is workable for some things. It is a system that is best assembled upside down. That way, one can see if the tabs actually touch, or bypass each other. Once assembled, and continuity is established, to me, it looks like nice track.

You will find that some users will tell you to switch to fasttrack. I have no experience with that, but know a few who say it is very hard to assemble. Perhaps they just have weak hands.

Like everything else in life, all systems have good and bad. Your friend can live with Realtrax, if he is willing to invest the time to fix the few inevitable problems that most track systems have.

All I can tell him is, good luck and persevere. And....enjoy the trains. Greg

Looks like we have lots of options, and I may take the track back yo my house to work on it.

I have broken so many pieces of Realtrax, fortunately I do not have a ton of it or "in too deep" as @cngw states. I have the most difficult time connecting and disconnecting them and therefore break off the small plastic tabs which hold them together.

I AM "in too deep" with the Fastracks which I prefer over MTH. If I were to start over, I would use something more realistic looking. However, Fastrack allows me to plan as I go, making changes as needed. To ensure continuity, I have plenty of feeder wires AND am in the process of soldering jumper wires from piece to piece, especially the small sections which I have read will cause the most problems. It is easy to solder the jumper wires with FT and I am sure that you can find a YouTube video showing the same for Realtrax. Good luck.

Mikki

Thanks!

Before looking at the trackage itself as the source of the problem, does your friend have a sufficient number of power drops (feeders) going to the layout to prevent dead spots ?

This is just a small Rail King set and so no feeders, just the one. There are dead spots, no drop in power needing extra feeds.