Track Question

I have 250' of Fastrack w/11 switches & have never had a problem.

 

Ken M

Ned,

Both systems are good.  In my opinion however, Fast Track just looks fake as in plastic road bed, also is noisy and cost to much.  Is at it's best on a carpet or floor layout. Gargraves and Ross are very popular and fairly cheap as far as the track goes.  It looks great especially when you use your own ballast on a permanent layout.  Also if you need to bend the track for a special situation Gargraves Flex can work well.  Great looking with wood ties.  In my opinion.

 

Paul

Fastrak is great for simple layouts. Loops, dogbones, even some double mainlines. Bet once you start getting into complex arrangements trying to fit into specific areas, it becomes a nightmare. Large layouts can be built using the geometry of the system, but its hard to adapt the geometry to a large layout.  To those who didnt catch that, there are many large Fastrak plans published, but it is hard to convert a non Fastrak plan.

Ross and Gargraves can be cut to fit just about any configuration your mind can come up with.

Our club has our original tubular module layout ready to be replaced in a year with a plan using Ross track. Using Scarm, I'm able to come close to what we will have. Then the track placement will be tweaked by using cut pieces of curves and straights to get the spacing and placement we need.

We do have a large Fastrak layout now which will remain.

Progress on this project will be posted on a haphazard basis.

Thanks guys! I was worried about the FASTRACK looking "too fake" and not fitting into what I had in mind.

I'll try to design the layout with both and see what I can come up with.

I want at least 2 main lines with o-72 curves to accommodate my scale GG1/scale williams coaches, the expanded Hogwarts Express that I run and the MTH Alco PA-B-A set that is on order.

The club can accommodate all of those - but is like sonethibg at home too.

Thats what we did, sold all the Fastrak and used the money towards the Gargraves & Ross switches.
If you can squeeze 080.... do it, the bigger the better when it comes to the curves. Its better to give up a little bit of straight track for bigger curves when you're running scale locomotives and cars

The other consideration is what amount of time and effort do you want to put into the track laying.

 

Any track will be quiet when put on cork roadbed. So, put the noise factor aside and consider what is required for the finished and wired track with Gargraves versus FasTrack.

 

I would say at least 60 hours difference for a 100' track and the additional expense of ballast,screws, joiners, cutting tools and wiring connections makes FasTrack look pretty good.

 

The finished look of the time and effort for Gargraves is superior to many track brands, but that much time and expense should look that good. And geez, it's round top hollow rail, not solid flat top like Atlas. If you use sectional, it's more expensive to begin with before all of the rest.

 

 

I did the same thing - sold off all my Fastrack and used the money toward Gargraves and Ross switches. Couldn't be happier with my decision. Fastrack is a nice system, and as mentioned above, great for on carpet. But if building a permanent layout, I think you'll be very happy going with Gargraves/Ross.