do you prefer EZ mate elevated track or just regular track? to me i think the elevated track is ugly and cant really do much scenery wise with it…
My EZ track definitely went down faster. And it stays where I put it with out needing nails, glue etc. Mount it on Camper tape takes care of the noise and after its ballasted, you can’t tell its a plastic bed. Turnouts are expensive and so far I have not had any problems switching that other people seem to have. The one con about them is no Flex track, so very little customization. Inclines can be done but you have to be very careful and gradual 1/2%-1%. I am happy and satisfied with mine, but getting it up and running quickly was a requirement to keep my son interested. On my next one, I will probably go back to using Atlas code 83.
Flex track. I find the quick and dirty stuff both far too restrictive and too costly. Plus it’s just as hard or harder to make it look right.
Karl
R.Y.A.N:
The EZ track goes down fast. Regular flex-track is much more versatile.
With that said, there is a large 16-foot section of reverse curve on my Yuba River Sub that is built partially on a sheer cliff about six actual feet from my cement garage floor. Frankly, at the time I was laying the track I did not trust the flex-track to ‘hold’ the various degrees of the curve without gaps that might possibly derail a train and send it flying off into space. Instead, I laid the track with the EZ 36" radius curves, soldered them together, ran feeders every 3 feet, and that section has been there for the past 8 years, absolutely trouble free. So for my needs IN THAT SECTION, it’s worked very well. And the EZ track does take ballasting relatively well. The rest of my layout is flex-track. This was something that I did out of personal necessity.
One of our fellow contributors, Jeffrey-Wimberly has built his entire layout with EZ track and swears by it. He seems to have no problems at all with it, and he’s ballasted and painted the track to look extremely well.
So I’d say it’s a matter of personal choice.
Here’s a section of the EZ track on Yuba Pass, after ballasting an scenicking. It can be done.
Tom [:)]
Heck Tom, if your bury the stuff of course it will look good! [:D]
If you can make it quite with camper shell tape then it would not be that bad.
What I like about flex track is if you lay your other rails and you happen to need a 23.5 in radius turn, well you make one.
Cuda Ken
To me, that is the biggest problem with EZ track. That and the cost of turnouts. Actually running trains on it is enjoyable. The only derailments I had, ended up being a bad car and not the track. The connections are very secure and right now I only have a single set of power wires run to one sectional piece and the electrical current is fine through out. I have a 40 foot mainline with about 30 feet of switching attached. I do plan to add some feeder wires as I progress. I don’t see a way to make EZ track flexible but it would be nice if they made some kind of transitional track, without having to cut and make do with what we have. That way, we could combine them easier.