I’m trying to figure out how add an On30 streetcar to my O scale Christmas layout. I used to have a trolley running back and forth on the inside radius of the Fastrack, but I’ve chanced things around and don’t have much room anymore.
If only I could cross the Fastrack, I could do something cool. Otherwise it’s only going to be a very short back and forth movement.
I’m wondering if I could somehow modify a Fastrack 90˚ crossover to fit in a Bachmann EZ track. I just happen to some EZ track that I could sacrifice for the experiment, but it could probably be any HO track I suppose.
I haven’t seen how the Fasttrack crossings go together, where the PC ties are, etc. I do know you’ve ordinarily got to gap a crossing in multiple places, so presume that the Fasttracks crossing makes provision for this. What you could try is to put together the standard gauge crossing produced by Fasttracks, then cut it in half along the axis of the On30 track. Trim enough off each rail to get to On30, place it back into position, then spike it down.
That could be somewhat fiddly, as you’ll have to be careful to get everything square. I built my own HO/HOn3 crossing, my first ever piece of hand-laid trackwork, and it was probably no more trouble than using the Fasttracks jig as a starting point.
If you do start with a HO crossing, then you could cut it as described above, then spread the one track so that it’s O gauge. I would not use the fancy Bachmann track, but get a plain old crossing, because the “roadbed/ballast” will just be in the way of soldering, etc.
Thanks, I was thinking that the plastic roadbed might be an advantage because I would have something to glue to. But now that I’ve actually looked at it, I think your right about not using it.
Anyway the more I look at it I think it may be out of my skill level. I forgot about having to connect all the small rail pieces and I’m not really comfortable the gaps in the HO. Plus I just don’t know what would happen if I accidentally shorted AC to the DC track.
I’m now looking at the SuperStreets track and the O scale Trolley. My only problem is the space that Super Street takes up.
Oh yes you are correct and thanks for pointing that out. I guess I spelled it wrong sorry about that. I should have known to double check the spelling, because this happened once before when I was searching for Lionel Track and ended up with the hand laid stuff. LOL
Anyway I have completely abandoned the whole idea for this year anyway. I’m now thinking about moving the trolley up to the second level where I still have some room to play with.
