Some questions about Fastrack

For electrical, I use clips attached to the connections on the underside of the Fastrack for the feeder wires and suitcase connectors to hook the feeders to the bus wires. Spade connectors hook the wires to the transformers. I use 14AWG wire in black and red.

Have approximately a 6 ft x 10 ft on the carpet Fastrack on the floor with 36 inch curves. No bus wires; I use 18-22 gauge stranded wire as feeder wires via two terminal blocks to one 180 watt and two 80 watt transformers. I use LC electronics, as too old to squeeze into spaces available on floor to do throttle on transformer. Was easier age 11....Noise level appropriately dampened...

All trains and accessories work fine without a larger gauge wire....

I use fastrack, just sitting on carpet underpad, which sits on my plywood train table. The wires go through holes in the plywood, then can be moved to where needed and pushed through an exacto knife slot in the carpet underpad to the location I want under the track. I use spade connectors as mentioned above, with 16Ga wire. The carpet underpad softens the noise considerably. You could add underpad under your carpet, or you could do what I did, which is paint the underpad with a brown earth colour, then add ground foam to simulate grass and dirt. If you apply the ground foam just after you paint the underpad, it will stick. You then brush off the excess ground foam with a soft paint brush (and re-use it). The exacto knife slots are not noticeable, so you can move the track and connecting wires later. I have change and modified my layout many times, while keeping the same carpet underpad throughout all my revisions.

Below is the fastrack on the painted carpet underpad. Note that I mix the ground coloured paint 50-50 with water, which increases the drying time, so the ground foam can stick properly to the wet paint, then dry. I used a paint roller to speed things up.

You can then add buildings and other items to the layout. The wires for lighted buildings simply poke through the underpad under the building. I use 22Ga phone wire for my lighted buildings and accessories. You could paint roads or other things on the underpad, although I do not do this. I create roads by applying paint and ballast to clear sheets of plastic, cut to the desired shape, then just "lay" them on the layout. This way, I can move and change things easily.

14 GA buss and 14 GA feeders soldered directly to the tabs underneath the faststrack roughly 10' apart.

I've never had any voltage drop issues that others have posted from time to time . My layout is 15 years old.

Anything you can put between fastrack and plywood will make a noticeable noise reduction.

I used 1/2 pink foam insulation and it cut the noise substantially, adding scenery deadens it even further.

Pink foam insulation is not a noise deadoner ,but im pleased woth the result.

I would think you would get even better results with a proven sub roadbed like homasote.

I believe they also sell a sound deadening board at the local hardware store. I don't recall the name.

It depends on how quiet you want it to be . Metal wheels on metal rail will always make some noise , just like the prototype.

HI can anyone provide a link to the proper sized spade connectors for fastrack? thanks

If you are concerned with the Ross track being noisy, you will really be concerned with Fastrack noise level. Noise level is one of the two biggest concerns with Fastrack; the other being intermittent connections from track piece to track piece.

I used pink foam and Woodland Scenic risers between the plywood and the track. The foam muffled the sound and after I glued and ballasted the track down, the sounds has all but disappeared. For electrical I used 16 awg wire for the bus and feeders with connectors for the Fastrack. Here are some of the progress photos of my 5x9 layout:

As I mentioned in a previous post, I use a variation of the pink foam on my Fastrack layout. My version works great for me. It comes in a 50' roll and costs like $10 per roll. It's easy to cut with scissors or a knife, and installation is as easy as placing the foam under the roadbed of the Fastrack and securing the track down with screws. The noise is not bad, and I can enjoy the sounds of my Legacy locomotives (or my conventional steam locomotive).

If you run at scale speeds, you don't have to worry about the noise.  I used to belong to a club and we met at other members houses.  The loudest layouts were those with the old three rail track.  I have a 14 X 27 all Fastrack layout and don't have a noise problem.  I run slower trains because I don't want to drop a Big Boy on the floor.

I used 14 gauge wire in two different colors for each loop.  Red and Black for one and Orange and Brown for the other.  I put a drop about every third track and used a crimp on quick disconnect connector on the tabs underneath the track and used a CMB4-10 terminal with internal jumper from www.alliedelec.com.  I connected one hole to the transformer or another block and the other 19 to the track.  I used a total of six on my layout.   May be a little overkill, but I have No problems with voltage drops. 

I also found a local company that made foam insulation panels and had them cut tapered panels 24" X 48" tapered panels 0 to 2", 2" to 4", and 4" to 6" and 6" X 12" X 48" panels for my elevated sections.

I also purchased two quick blow circuit pus button circuit breakers and mounted them in a plastic junction box to protect the circuits between the transformer and the electronics.

A good source for 0.110 Quick Connect crimp connectors for Fastrack is All Electronics in California.  They are available for different wire sizes and come in both Male and Female configurations.  Here is a Link.