After reading the recent threads about fastrack vs. tubular, I have question pertaining to a certain situation that wasn’t really addressed in these threads.
My 10 year old nephew has taken a great interest in my layout. I gave him a copy of the latest Lionel and K-Lionel catalogs, and I guess he has been bitten by the bug badly! He told me he preferred steam, so last week I purchased an old 2037 train set with 7 cars. I have a spare 1033 transformer, so I’m almost ready to go with his Christmas present.
Here’s where things get tricky. He wants to be able to change his track plan often. Mom doesn’t want a permanent layout in the house. His train set will have to run on the carpet in his room. My experience with tubular (which I use), is that it doesn’t like to be taken apart and re-assembled all that often, especially by a kid on carpet. Fastrack seems like it would be better suited for this purpose. He can purchase more sections in a store near him, whereas with tubular he would have to get it while visiting me, which is quite a drive for them.
Personally, I don’t care much for fastrack. I’m not a plastic roadbed sort of guy, and I almost cringe at the thought of a postwar 2037 running on it, not to mention the price. That’s my opinion, not his, and it will be his train set. I’m leaning towards fastrack on this one. I didn’t see this issue addressed on the other threads. If it was, I’m sorry to beat a dead horse, but would like a few opinions on this situation, since I’m a little biased, and don’t want my bias to interfere with his fun.
This is what FastTrack was meant for. It can be assembled and disassembed without any real problems. I used to keep an oval hanging on the wall (the interlocking sections are that good) and just set it down on the carpet. You can take things one step further by using quick connect plugs for your power feeds and leave the lugged connectors on the track and and the transformer.
Chucks point regarding hanging an oval on the wall is a good one, and even for a die-hard tubular guy like myself - it seems the right choice for this circumstance. The cost is gonna be a lot more, but it is much easier to set up and run on the fly so to speak.
Besides, at that age, kids eat worms and drink from mud puddles. I wouldn’t be too worried about the “FasTrack give you cooties” thing for a few more years.
I have a good size permanent layout in Fastrack. With a little weathering, it looks pretty good. As for your nephew’s needs, I think it will serve him well. Less chance of the old cuts to the hand from trying to put track together/take apart. It will also be less likely that he will get carpet in the gears of the 2037 on Fastrack. If you keep it on the simple side, you can develop a reasonable size layout with a couple of manual switches, he can have some sidings for more interest.
I own one oval of fastrack and about 100 pounds of tubular.
I’d recommend sticking with the roadbed included system, as it keeps dirt, grease, and oil off the carpet better than tubular. It’s also more modern, which may keep a 10 year old’s attention better than 100 year old technology.
Regardless of track type, I would encourage a carpet beneath it of a set size. This helps a novice realize that a layout has to have boundries, and a kid to realize that if I can’t have everything I want, I need to prioritize.
Not knowing what your nephew’s shop stocks and going by what’s readily available here, I’d be more likely to recommend MTH’s RealTrax than Fasttracks. It seems a lot of people here buy MTH sets and don’t want the track. They then resell the track for next to nothing. I’ve never tried pricing the two track systems against each other as far as switches or any other non starter set pieces, so it may be a wash.
All that said, a 2037 looks nicest to me on O27 tubular hauling far undersized cars (6014s, 6112, and SP cabeese), but I’m not the guy playing with this train.
I’ve used both. You can not hang a loop of Real Trax on the wall unless you get the under the track locon pieces. The solid rail is quieter BUT the electrical connectors are really poor and the track often seperates from the electrcial connectors between the pieces. The track is often harder to put together and take apart than tubular.
Fastrac would be great for what you want with one or two exceptions, the 2037 may have derailmenty problems when used with Fastrac switches, I highly recommend that you try the 2037 locomotive on a layout with Fastrac switches before giving it to your nephew. Some post war locomotives have deep wheel flanges on the steam locomotives, also if using post war electric operated knuckle couplers the contact shoe may hang up at the switch.
I have a lot of post war locos, including a 2037, and none of them have ever had the slightest problem with Fastrack or FasTrack switches. My Marx doesn’t have a problem either. None of my modern locos ever had a problem with it either.
Have you ever tried a 224E or 226E loco or pre war 2640 passenger cars with the Fastrac switches? These may have deeper wheel flanges than most other Lionel trains.
When giving a train to a young child the last thing that you want to happen is for a derailment to happen! That is why I say to try it first, might not have a problem but there is always that possibility.
The wife and I went out this morning and looked at some fastrack. The “sticker shock” really caught her attention! I guess I didn’t really realize what it cost either. As most of you have suggested, I still think I will go ahead and bite the bullet on it. In hindsight, I wish I had some extra K-line snap track laying around, as I think it would also probably work. I may also check out the new Atlas track pricing when it hits the street. I have until Christmas to make this work, so will try and take my time. Also enjoying playing with HIS 2037 train set in the meantime on my layout!
I know my Dad did the same thing with mine and my 3 brothers trains come that time of year. I guess maybe Santa wanted to give it a good ops check before the big day!
Fastrack is the right choice for what you are doing. It is much easier for kids to assemble and well suited for floor running. You won’t be sorry either. On tubular track, your 2037’s spur gears and axles will suck up carpet fibers in no time bringing it to a screeching halt. Fastrack is ferous metal and works with magnetraction.
take this from someone who recently got their own layout off the bedroom floor[:-^] fastrack is better for the floor! i got my 1st set with regular O27 track, within a matter of weeks of putting it togather and taking it apart it started tro break! i highly recoment fastrack for that situation. i had it on the floor for almost 2 years! it never broke!
Is ordreing from the web really that much cheaper when you have to include shipping costs?
I deal with some auction sites and get really good deals on used Lionel & Williams trains. Sometimes the prices are 40% lower than when thew were new, also don’t get caught by the shipping BUG! Shipping BUG is the delay from the time of ordering to the time of receiving an item. I ordered some track from Lionel and have been waiting for almost six months to receive it.
The problem with ordering on-line, is the following: The usual suspects all offer the track for about $1.00 less per piece. Great! For an oval of track consisting of 8 curved pieces and 4straights, the price is $12.00 less. Add on the usual $8.00 shipping, and it really isn’t worth it. Saved $4.00, but have to wait for it to get here. On the other hand, don’t have to pay sales tax, and have it in hand. No matter how you look at it, the track is costing more than a nice postwar 2037 train set costs!!
If you have a Hobby Lobby near you, and if they have Fastrack in stock, and if they happen to be running a 40% off web coupon, you can use that to save quite a bit on Fastrack, provided what they have matches what you need.