Track Gap Problem

Rob I know that some Fastrack switches come with tiny "make-up" sections that can optionally be omitted when making a crossover between parallel mainlines.  Did you buy your track brand-new?  Is it possible that you've included the makeup sections in some cases, and not in others?  Or perhaps accidentally omitted them?

How about posting a photo?  I can try to recreate your layout in other layout design software such as SCARM and RR-Track.  I think you can download a limited demo version of SCARM for free.  However, to get to the root of your post, I find it hard to believe that Lionel would make switches with a different geometry than the curves they are intended to replace.  As an occasional creator of Fastrack Christmas layouts myself, I'm following this thread!

everything is new. I didn’t take anything off of the switch and I didn’t include the single optional piece that comes with the switch. Here’s a picture of the switch and one of the gaps.

I am fighting similar problems with fastrack but your gaps seem pretty extreme.  Can you post your track plan.  The curved part of a o72 fastract switch with that 1 3/8 extension should match a 072 piece with a 1 3/8 so you may need to add a 1 3/8 on the opposite side of the track.  As an example, I have a siding off one of my 072 curves and I had to add a 1 3/8 one curve in on the other end of the track so the width of the curves match.

I am not sure if I am explaining that correctly but your track plan would help us understand.

@Rob Greer posted:

everything is new. I didn’t take anything off of the switch and I didn’t include the single optional piece that comes with the switch. Here’s a picture of the switch and one of the gaps.

It's hard to tell without seeing the remainder of your layout. Gaps like that will occur if your layout isn't "square" .

You may need to add or remove a small section of track.

That appears to be the start of the curve. Something is forcing the curve to be too wide.

Remove a section of track further down the line so you can close the gap. Then be sure the gaps are closed and flush on the rest of the track. Then look for trouble . The larger the loop, the more track joints there are. The more joints allows for more flex between each piece.

It looks like you have a floor layout. If possible ,get your eye down at track level and sight across the straight sections and make sure they are actually straight, or use a straight edge. Small zig zag undulations of straight pieces can throw off the geometry as well.

@Rob Greer posted:

everything is new. I didn’t take anything off of the switch and I didn’t include the single optional piece that comes with the switch. Here’s a picture of the switch and one of the gaps.

Now this is the kind of photo that helps everyone give some helpful advice Rob.

Nice.

I just created a basic circle with Fastrack in SCARM.  According to the geometry in their library, the curved leg of an O72 switch should be a perfect substitute for a curved section.  See the screen capture, attached. 

O72 FasTrack switches need two 1-3/8" sections and your photo shows both of them in place. Unless you are going to get out a hacksaw and make modifications to some expensive FasTrack, you need to add something to makeup that 1-3/8". Normally we would just add a 1-3/8" section on the opposite side of the layout, exactly 180° away. Of course you do not need to keep perfect symmetry, but you do need to account for those extra pieces of track.

O72 FasTrack switches come with three 1-3/8" sections. Two have no roadbed on one side and they come preinstalled on the switches. The third section has no roadbed on either side and it should come separately in the box. it is used when you need to fit the switch side by side with another switch or a 22-1/2° crossover.

I am not familiar with Anyrail, but in SCARM the user is responsible to add the two 1-3/8" sections themselves even though the sections are necessary and they come preinstalled on the switches.

Here is what you need in your software in order to reflect reality:

Now, you can leave off every one of those 1-3/8" sections in the software and it will appear that you can make a perfect circle. But that will not work in reality as you have discovered.

As John said and the photo shows, the problem is not with the track. Like SCARM, AnyRail doesn’t automatically add the small fitter pieces, so they have to be added separately. Figure 1 (only a half circle is displayed) shows the O72 switch in AnyRail without the fitter track. The switch by itself is a direct replacement for an O72 curved track. However, Figure 2 shows that when the fitter is added, the circle no longer connects. Figure 3 shows another fitter added opposite the switch so the circle will then connect. If there are 3 switches in the circle, 3 fitters May have to be added.

I could be wrong, but I think RRT is the only software that won’t let switches be added without the fitter pieces.

Thanks so much for the feedback guys!

I now see the issue but I'm not sure about the solution.

I didn't originally overlay an O72 curve over the switch, but now I see that when I lay it over the curve piece, it only matches the switch with the small additional pieces removed (duh).

So, is the best solution to add 1 3/8" fastrack pieces to the opposite side of the track in the circle for every switch in the layout?

Here's the layout we're working with in this case. So, for this scenario, would that mean adding six 1 3/8" fastrack pieces?

This may be a little extreme, but what if you trimmed the edges at the base of the fitter tracks to allow for a little more space to line up? From the photo(s) it looks like they’re trying to overlap. Just a guess…I have enough trouble with my s gauge Fastrack lining up sometimes and had to create my own fitter sections.

Rob, AFAIK if you don’t mind trimming the roadbed on the connecting curved tracks, you can do that instead of adding the 6 fitters. However, that decreases their resale value and there might be some tabs underneath the fitters for isolating power or something, I’m not that familiar with FasTrack specs.

I'd prefer to buy track pieces rather than trim the switches. I think that if I tried to trim it, I'd make a mess of it, and I like a super clean look.

Rob, after reading this thread it seems to me that you need to REMOVE the short makeup sections from your switches, every last one of them!!  Set them aside in case you need them in the future, or if you ever decide to sell your switches.

Once you've removed the make-up sections, the curved leg(s) of your switches should be a perfect substitute for an O72 curved section, and everything should fit together snugly with no gaps.

The only weird part might be the bottom-most connection between the circles in your plan.  You might have to play with the geometry on that one.  It helps to have a good assortment of STRAIGHT fitter pieces on hand for situations like this.  My $.02.

Ted, that won’t work because the roadbeds will overlap unless trimmed. The whole point of the fitter pieces is they have part of the roadbed already missing to fit the switch without interfering with each other..

@Rob Greer posted:

Thanks so much for the feedback guys!

I now see the issue but I'm not sure about the solution.

I didn't originally overlay an O72 curve over the switch, but now I see that when I lay it over the curve piece, it only matches the switch with the small additional pieces removed (duh).

So, is the best solution to add 1 3/8" fastrack pieces to the opposite side of the track in the circle for every switch in the layout?

Here's the layout we're working with in this case. So, for this scenario, would that mean adding six 1 3/8" fastrack pieces?

For this layout and with FasTrack O72 switches, your only good solution is to add a 1-3/8" section three times strategically placed in each circle. But you have a very unique design that suggests another solution would be to use a track system that does not include the roadbed such as Atlas or Gargraves.