Real Trac and Scale Track

Too bad. I think MTH has missed the boat big time.

 

I really dislike Real Trac and wish I have known more about it before I purchased a ton of it for my layout before building it. I did a lot of swearing as I was installing it, and now I swear not to buy anymore.

 

I have been able to successfully use Gargraves with the Real Trac, just have to do a little shimming and filing. It works well.

 

Ray

       
       

TELL ME ABOUT IT , i hate realtrax i have tons of it as well i want to switch over to atlas but i herd atlas facility is having problems and they are going to catch up production then i will try to get rid of all my realtrax i wish i have known before i got realtrax

In my opinion, if you want track that is ready to go, with simulated ballast, the only and best way to go is with LIONEL.

 

Yes, LIONEL is more expensive than MTH, but for the last 4 months I have had the opportunity to work exclusively with LIONEL track and switches. These go together much easier, better electrical continuity, the switches have a smoother operation and there are more options than with MTH.

 

Every engine I ran, from an 0-6-0 to a big boy and small and larger diesels all performed flawlessly. I can not say that about MTH track. Not all the engines were Lionel. I have run Atlas, Williams, MTH, Lionel and KLine.

 

So as my old boss once told me, "You get what you pay for".

 

As for Atlas, Gargrave, Ross, and others, one either has to leave the track as is, or ballast the track to make it look more realistic. I've seen photos of track without ballast and I did not find them objectionable. In fact, I often overlooked the ballast and didn't notice it was missing until I took a second or third look.

 

I have never worked with Atlas, Gargrave, Ross or any of the others, so I can not comment on them.

 

Understand that I am referring to close to scale track track. Lionel's tubular track is not included in my opinion or comments. However, if I were a tinplate modeler, then there is no question that Lionel tubular track would be used exclusively on my layout.

 

Ray

 

 

You can fabricate your own transition without much know how.

 

Here is how my son went from Scaletrax to Atlas.  I'd bet you could do the same with Realtrax.

 

Ron