Why NOT 16 Sections For an 084 Circle?

I agree!

At $6.89 MSRP, thats $220 for just a circle

And MORE expensive! 

Well, look at them: they'd be a bit long, right?  

 

And, when building my layout, I found I used a lot of odd numbers of sections on the 84" curve.

 

It would be nice if they made both 1/16th and 1/32nd sections but I really don't mind. I'm just glad they made any at all.

 

Wish they made 96" actually.

Even if it was a little longer, it would have been better for these reasons:

The 30" piece costs a much as a 10" piece and less connections to complete the circle.  Smaller pieces cost has much as the larger pieces so 16 tracks per circle would be fine with me.  Lionel can still do this in the future...who knows.  I didn't see the O31 curves coming.

This has been a real bug to me too, in fact, I just bought a loop. 32 more unnecessary

joins to possibly cause trouble as well as the cost. Come on Lionel, how hard could it be? If you look at the 30" straight sections, the road bed is made from 3 10" sections.

They could easily do it for 084 by joining 2 together.

I'm with you Lee, an 096 would be great. It allows Fastrack to be used on more "serious" layouts.

I know it is not the most realistic looking track, but it can be made to look fine. What I really like with the system is the reliability of the switches, including the non-derailing feature. Also, I have never had a derailment, trains really hang on well to this track.

Adding to what Lee Willis & Dave Allen said, Lionel should also make full and half section pieces for 0-84 & 0-96 curves.  I used the the track system from MTH but I didn't like it, too many problems with trying to get the pieces to fit together.  Lionel needs to remember, putting together a carpet layout is quick and easy using the Fastrack and what better way to get more children into the hobby.  Not everyone can have a nice tabletop layout for any number of different reasons.  A Carpet layout is the only choice that I have.  Whether you have a tabletop layout or a carpet layout Lionel should realize that people will buy larger curves, look at how much nicer these big diesels and steam locomotives would look on larger curves.  Just my two cents worth.

good reason to buy atlas........they have 16pcs /circle and diameters up to 108.........jim

6-12061 Do a product search and you will find they make whole sections. Absense from the cat. does not mean they do not make it. Besides that how do you make a half track if you do not make a whole?

I may find myself mixing track.  I'm still trying to figure out how to re-do my layout so I have a minimum of O72 but I have seen the overhang on my floor loop and I am strongly considering going bigger.  Yet, I still like my FasTrack and have a sizable investment in it already so if I do go with 96 or 108 curves I will probably transition and then transition back.

Why leave the 1/16 sections out of the catalog?  

What are the criteria to be considered a "serious" layout?

No particular criteria Harry, I'm suggesting a large high rail layout.

Jim, I have friends with Atlas track, the switches, particularly the curved switches have been a big problem, causing much derailing. I would not use them from what I have seen, unless different switches are used.

On our club layout, we used Atlas to add to our existing layout, it looks nice, but we hand built the switches and it performs fine.

Perhaps a "serious" layout means no one is having any fun.

 

Seriously, ;-) , I took Dave's comment to mean layouts where the owner was making a considerable commitment in budget and size and attempting to bring detail and some realism to the layout.  I realize that if you are going for absolutely realism you would not use Fastrack - it was a compromise I have no regrets about: allowed me to get up and running quuicly and the switches, particularly their reversing feature, are the most dependable I've seen. 

 

Larger diameters permit a bit more realism and "fit" on a big layout.  I realize this is not Lionel's priority, but I would love to have 108" Fastrack: I have one loop end that is 110 inches from side to side.   I have to make do with a couple of pieces of 84" curve, then a short straight, a couple of more curved pieces, another straight, etc.

Interesting. After all these comments, no one has figured out that the smaller sized pieces are because of packaging and shipping costs. The larger the curved piece, the more empty space in the box. Pretty soon you would be shipping containers of half empty boxes.

I use Fastrack, but as of late I am seeing a lot of problems with the track itself. I am talking brand new track here. I have had track shipped to me, that had to be returned for lack of substantial plating on top of the rails as well as for black spots on the top of the rails. I was also in a hobby shop lately and while picking out track I noticed almost every other piece had serious black corrision on the top of the rails and a few sections when looking at the track from the end view ,the rails were bent. The store operators went to the back room for another box and it was the same thing in a new box, the store operators were surprised also. If possible look over your track carefully before purchasing, it might save you a lot of aggravation in the future. Hopefully this is just a matter of a bad run that will be solved shortly. Regards

quote:

Why leave the 1/16 sections out of the catalog?

That was a red herring. The part number given above was for the 11.5deg section (i.e. 32 per full circle). Lionel doesn't call it a half section because it is the fullest O84 that they make. Btw, a 22.5deg O84 piece would have a center rail path length of 33 inches. The roadbed chord (the "length") would be several inches more.

I still fail to understand WHY they do not make a FULL (1/16) 84" curve section? 

 

MTH and USA Track both make such sections.

it is easier to charge the same for half as much track as it is to charge twice as much for the same size track!!!

Dave, I have Atlas 036, 045, 054, and 072 switches on my layout and haven't had any derailing problems with them. My layout is fairly small so about 20 - 25 car trains are the longest I can run. I did rewire the jumper wires on the switches due to problems they had with bad connections.

 

Are you sure about that length?  When I did the math for a 22.5-degree (1/16^th) segment of an 84 inch diameter circle I came up with a center rail length of exactly half that much (16.5 inches).  This is the length of 1/16^th of the circumference calculated using Pi times 84”.  Perhaps you calculated a 1/8^th segment (45-degrees). 

 

The outside edge of the road bed would be slightly longer, about 17.2” measured around its periphery and the inside edge would be about 15.8”.

 

Perhaps someone out there has two 11.25-degree FasTrack O84 1/32^nd curves to join together and measure for verification.

 

Bill

Despite claims that it would be too costly to ship full-length 84" diameter curve sections, BOTH MTH and USA Track do so, and still apparently make a reasonable profit. 

 

Lionel just does not "get it"! 

John:

 

Thanks for your response verifying my calculations.  I couldn’t read your diagram on-line but after downloading it and printing it out, it was very readable.  Different approach, same result!  Although perhaps we still need someone to join together two 11.25-degree FasTrack O84 1/32^nd curves and measure them just to validate our calculations.

 

I can understand that a 33” long curved section would be difficult to package for shipping and for dealers to stock on shelves but if our calculations are correct, a full size O84 curved section would have center-rail length of “only” 16.5 inches.  With the very wide radius and just 22½ degrees of curvature, it would not be much wider than a straight section of equal length.  Therefore it should not be that hard to ship or stock.  The corresponding “full-size” 1/16th O72 curved section that Lionel does make is only about 2 inches shorter.  

 

So back to the original question posted by “Tinplate Art”: Why NOT 16 Sections for an 084 Circle?  It still doesn’t make sense why Lionel doesn’t make them other than they can charge more money for 32 of the “half-size” sections than they can for 16 of the “full-size” sections.

 

Bill

Unfortunately, many things in life make no sense; I suppose this is one of them. 

The original poster referred to this track as half. I product searched for a whole and 6-12061 came up as a whole no reference as to how many make a circle. There whole is 32 to a circle. Hence, my comments.

 

I still believe the amount of track in a box with empty space was meant as a joke. The wider the radius the closer the curves come to being straight.

 

The whole thing is strange and no wonder the first poster referred to them as 1/2 sections.

 

In tubular track 16 pieces makes a 16 sided figure. The same as 8 sides makes a octagon. This is because the pins need a small section of straight track at the start and end of the track. Therefore, 2 half sections is not the same as 1 whole. This would have to be true for Fastrac because if it was curved at the end it would not mate to a straight.