I know that one of the benefits Lionel proclaims about Fast Track is even power distribution. In other words you should not need more than one power track. However I also know that I am not the only operator with regular O Gauge Tubeular track mixed in to a Fast Track Layout. In my case I have an outerloop roughly 16’ x 8’, with one passing siding. The entire loop is Fast Track, except for one 022 switch and part of the passing siding is standard track as I have a bridge along the siding that Fast Track will not fit into. The 022 Switch is the lead to my Union Station, and my station tracks are all tubeular as well.
Any idea how many power sources (ie: Lock Ons) I should be using here ?? …and just for the record, if my entire layout was 100% Fast Track would one power track do the job ?
I run two loops of fast track a 0-72 12 x 16 loop with another 4 x 8 0-48 loop on both of these I soldered a power drop about every four feet and made a star pattern in a central location and one set of leads heading back to the transformer. I used white 16 gauge stranded lamp cord. Got it at an army navy store 400feet for 20 bucks. Very easy to solder to the fast track. Gets the power evenly dispersed. Hope this helps.
I have a small FasTrack layout and I’ve noticed that one lockon was doing a good job at distributing the power, it wasn’t doing a great job. So I connected one power drop every 8 feet or so and it seems to be much better. Every 4 feet would be optimal, but I’m too lazy to start rewiring!
I don’t think that Lionel clains that it conducts electricity any better than tubular track. i think they are referring to the fact that each section of track has the 18 ga. lugs to attach power to. That would distribute power as said above. You could do the same thing with tubular, just more work.
I don’t think the Fastrack track conducts electricity any better than tubular however I think (and believe that Lionel would argue) that the track-to-track connection architecture is designed for much more robust electrical continuity over the lifetime of the track, vs. tubular. I ran a large 14 X 7 twice around layout with two power tracks 180 degrees apart and could detect no variation in track voltage (through casual monitoring of engine performance/passenger car lighting) anywhere on the layout. I think brand new tubular with shiny pins and firm, tight connections at every joint would also perform this well, however I know by looking at my tubular that it only takes 10 or 20 set-up, take-down cycles of the track before the pins start getting ugly and the tubular starts opening up and tarnishing starts to set in. Can’t wait to see how my fastrack will look after 20 years…I’m betting much better, but we’ll see.
I have been using fastrack since it has come out and after setting it up and taking it apart al those years, it’s not any different to tubular. It speads out and the pins float in it so it is not a solid fit. I’ve set up track on my basement floor and come back 2 days later and have dead sections. The layout has been holding up well but I am going to up root the track and solder jumper wires to each section so I won’t have problems in the future. I run 4 taps on the inner and outer loops but I have one section on the inner loop that the trains slightly run faster on.
This confirms my thought that I’ll simply have power points spread out like I did with regular track.
One other observation to pass on, I used to power the main level of my layout with a “Z”, and a 167 controller (for reverse and whistle). In one of the books on Lionel it was noted that the Z delivers more juice to the tracks than any other Lionel transformer (of the PW era). I then picked up a refurbished ZW at my regular repair shop (for the sake of one less external controller). For the record the ZW works fine, but there is a noticable difference in the power compared to, and in favor of the Z.
