Let me start off by saying - This is by far and away the best track system I have ever used.
The look and feel of the track is high quality. The rails are solid I-beam formed to resemble real track. The ties are brown plastic with simulated wood grain (this was the worst part of the system, the wood grain looks more realistic for G gauge than O as the grain is too far apart). The track sections are joined by two compression type joints under the outer rails, AND with track clips - not pins - that resemble tie plates. The track clips appear to be attached to the rails, but they are not and can be easily removed with thumb and forefinger and a slight tug (no pliers required).
Close up of track section end:
Close up of tie plate detail:
My test track consisted of 1 complete O-45 circle and 8 straight sections in the following configuration:
I also purchase 2 power clips which consist of 2 track clips (one silver with red wire attached, and the other black with black wire attached). I only used one set of wires.
Sound - not having a wood base for testing, I set the track directly on my train room carpet. There was limited to no sound from the track itself, just a soft rolling of the wheels along the rails - and no clackity-clack of the wheels traversing the track joints! [:(] The two test trains were Williams A-B and A-A Baldwin Sharks (all powered units) with 7 Lionel Madison passenger cars, and a Lionel Mikado with the same passenger cars. The Williams engines took on a whole new life as you could
Brent, do you have any switches? I’ve worked with a new Atlas switch lately for the first time on a friend’s layout and it literally fell apart in my hands.
Not yet Doug… I have to take the rest of the FasTrack to the LHS to exchange… that doesn’t sound promising… I’m going to need 4 for the Christmas Layout and somewhere in the 20 - 30 range for the main layout… [:(][%-)]
Doug may be referring to the fact that the switch machines do disconnect from the switches rather easily in normal handling. When that happens they are a bit of a pain to reconnect. I thought I read somewhere that Atlas addressed this in their recent production, but maybe not. I don’t find it a big deal though, and I learned quickly after having one or two switches come apart on me. Now, when I pick one up, I support the switch machine so that it stays in line with the track.
I have Atlas switches on my permanent layout and they don’t come apart in normal use, but because of the above I wouldn’t use them on a temporary layout, especially one on carpet.
I got back into O gauge just before Atlas came out with their track system, and boy was I glad they did!. I had helped a friend build a layout with Lionel tubular and I really did not like it, which is funny because that’s what I used when I was young, and idon’t remember being so frustrated with it[:)]. So when I decieded to build my own layout, I started with Atlas and i’m still using it.
The early production switches had some problems with continuity, and the switch machines just clipped into the side of the switch. The currrent production units are MUCH improved-- the continuity issue has been addressed, and the switch machines screw into the ties. The only issuesI have with the track are the height—code 148 is just too high–, and i wish that they had made the center rail with code 125 rail, so as to hide thecenter rail a bit better. As to the tie details, most of the time I don’t notice it. All in all, it’s a pretty good track system.
The Atlas track doesn’t do well for temp/floor layouts because the track clips aren’t meant for physical lockdown, just electrical. If you are going to use the track on carpet, get some cable ties at the local home emporium and cinch the sections together. You may also want to look into some type of foam insulation to place under the track to keep from picking up carpet fuzz/boogers. If these get into the drive train you will be very sorry.
The quietest layout I’ve ever experienced was using Atlas track on a medium pile Berber. We did cinch the sections together. It was funny to watch the giant oval try to rotate as the mass of the diecast engine would start twisting it as it went into the turns.
Re permanent instalation, check out the Woodland Scenics foam road bed. It is much quieter than cork and a bit easier to install. Re switches, you may want to look at the Ross Custom Switch products. They make adapter pins and the switches are much quieter/smoother/better made than Atlas. They also have a wider selection of switch types. Not quite the same look, but they work extremely well.
I have invested quite a few dollars and a lot of time installing Atlas track. Today I just placed an order for FasTrack. I am taking down the Atlas layout, redesigning it and rebuilding with FasTrack.
A couple of thoughts / reasons why I did this:
Atlas is a really nice track system - looks good, performs (for what it was intended) well - quite realistic looking
Atlas is a great company - their customer service is top notch
The newer (as of the last 2 - 3 years) track is Nickel Silver - NO Magnetraction. I was able to purchase some of the older steel rail so I do have Magnetraction in some areas.
Cleaning the top of the blackened center rail drastically improved conductivity.
Their switches can be have little gremlins depending upon what you are running. There is nothing that cannot be fixed with a Dremel grinder but I would rather run trains than tweak track. Here are a few switch problems I have encountered (I had primarily O-45 and O-54 switches with some O-36):
Sliding shoe cars can snag in two places. One is when you are running toward the points (I guess into the switch?). There is a small V at the end of the center rail. Atlas does supply a small plastic ramp which fixes that snag and seemed to work for me. On some switches I have also had the outer rail segment that crosses into the gauge for the diverging route catch the shoe as well. I had to round the outside of the rail head.
I myself solder 14 AWG as Luther does, but to tubular track, generally to the backside of the rail where it is less likely to be seen. Using such heavy wire is important for fire safety if your transformers can put out as much as 15 amperes, as my type Zs can. However, for those who want to avoid such massive wires for the sake of a more realistic appearance, it is perfectly okay to use somewhat smaller wire for the last few visible inches, say 3 or 4 inches of 18 AWG instead of 14. The heavier conductor nearby can be relied on to absorb any excess heat from the smaller wire.
I imagine that it would also be practical to solder to the bottom of the rail and hide the solder joint with ballast. In that case, heavy wire would not be a problem. One could solder on a short pigtail at the workbench, then poke that through a hole drilled for it and connect it to the feeder underneath the table, perhaps with a wire nut. Has anyone done this?
Bob : that’s exactly what I do . I ran the stripped wire of insulation from the 12-2 with ground wire all the way around the layout & just drop feeders down to it & solder them. This is what Lionel said to do when I first got TMCC in the 90s.
I did just this with the Atlas connectors (I assume you were refering to tublar?). I used some coarse sandpaper on the bottom of the rail joiner, striped the end off and bent the exposed wire at 90 degrees. I soldered the wire the bottom of the rail joiner, the wire ran straight down through a hole in the roadbed. By the time ballast was applied the wire was completely hidden.
Luther - Fastrak is great for toy operators…but I just wanted to make sure you will be comforatable with the noise level before changing over! As long as you are o.k. with it that is fine. I just did not want you to order in a bunch and then find it is too loud.
I read through some of the other posts on the forum about FasTrack noise and The FasTrack Book even brings up the noise and options for quieting the level some. Before I fasten everything down I will try some of the different options - carpet padding, rubber mats, homasote, foam - to see which is best for my set up.
Luther,
Thanks for the heads up on Magnatraction… I only have 1 engine thus equiped and am not sure if I will be getting any more, so that is something to keep in mind. My main layout will have 1 line that is completely level, so I could always just run the postwar stuff on that line…
I guess the best thing to do is use the Atlas Track on the Christmas layout to see how it goes, if I like it I can use it on the main layout, if not I can always leave it on the Christmas layout since those engines all have traction tires and no Magnatraction. The switches are going to be the deciding factor - I have a feeling…
One item I did not mention about the switches. They use some small jumper wires on the underside to route power / commons to all the places it needs to go within the track work on the switch. These look to be maybe 18 or 20 gauge wire - they fit within the ties so they are small. On a permanent layout I would suggest adding power / common feeds to all three points of the switch. I had a derailment on one switch (my fault - not the switch [:)]) which tripped the 10A circuit breaker but still destroyed one of these wires.
If MagneTraction is an issue, you can “fake it” by putting some ferro magnetic sheet metal under the track or place some fridge magnet sheets under the track where you want/need the effect.
I’ve only found Magnetraction to be “helpfull” when running high speed on sharp turns. Loco’s ability to lean tends to be negated by the magnetic force. I’ve never noticed any appreciable pulling power or non slippage.
You can also inprove regular Gargraves with straps of ferro magnetic material places every so often. If you are isolating one of th eouter rails for signaling purposes just put a piece of tape over the strap. The mag field doesn’t care.
I have noticed a direct difference. The same freight consist would slip on starting (level) with the Nickel Silver Atlas track and started no problem with steel Atlas track (engine was NYC CC F3 AA pair). I had a similar experience with an ACL ABA F3 trio with 4 aluminum passenger cars. I also had a GP7 slip on a 3% grade on Nickel Silver track; the same engine would pull a longer consist up the same grade without slipping on the steel track.
When you noticed no difference - was it on steel track or was it with the arrangement of ferro magnetic sheet metal you mentioned in your post? Perhaps the sheet metal would not have as much as an effect - due to the distance between the wheel and the metal surface - than actual steel track?
I usually run on some variation of tubular, Gargraves, FastTrack, or old fashioned Lionel O/O-27. We ran some tests on Gragraves with and without straps. The adheasion was higher on the track with the straps. I think a lot of the difference in performance of the classic tube style track has more to do with the rail profile than the steel content. Tube track may actually have greater surface contact with the wheel sets than the more prototypical solid rail, particularly classic O. I noticed the new FastTrack shipped with the HE set has a much sharper bend than my older stuff. The older stuff looks more like a classic U. The new stuff looks like a box with one side removed.
