I bought a few straight pieces of profi track to try it out, I like it and would like to buy more, but how do you power these things?
Joliet Dave
what’s profi track?
At the risk of stating the obvious, you connect one wire from the transformer to each rail.
For more info you might want to contract the dealer linked below. They are very helpful and reliable.
http://www.eurorailhobbies.com/erh/eurorailhobbies.asp?pageid=417
I bought a Fleishman train set when I was stationed in Germany in 1982 that had the Profi track in it. One of the straight sections has two wires coming out of it to hook to your transformer. I love the track. It looks more realistick than any other balasted track on the market. The turnouts are unreal. I dont even get a wheel click thru the frogs. And real rail for switch points!!! If you can aford it build away with it. I use mine at christmas for under the tree. Its almost indestructible. And very reliable.
Pete
I’ve used the Profitrack for a temporary layout. I believe the system includes terminal track, but what I did is both simpler and, I think, more reliable. I soldered thin wires to the bottom of a few of the rail joiners, then slipped the joiners back onto the rails.
I agree that Profitrack has the most realistic-looking ballast available (too bad the rail itself is COde 100 and a rather chunky Code 100 at that; the Kato Unitrack has less realistic ballast but better-looking rail). However, I’ve found that when laid on a temporary basis, the track does have a tendency to work apart. Not a big deal, but while my temporary layout is set up, I have to go around it about once a week and tighten the track up.
I used Profitrack to build a small N gauge layout (my first attempt), and I found it easy to use and very reliable. The only real downside is that the turnout motors, if you choose to fit them, clip onto the side of the turnouts, so you would need to disguise them if that bothers you.
One other thing I would say in Fleischmann’s favor, is that their top of the range DCC controller is very easy to use. I’ve tried Digitrax but managed, somehow, to screw up 2 decoders that I couldn’t get to work again! One great feature of the Fleischmann is that it has 2 control knobs built in, allowing 2 locos (or whatever) to be controlled at once, or alternatively, without having to keep keying in their addresses.
The only other issue is that they aren’t cheap, prices being in the Marklin bracket, but there again their stuff is still made in Germany, and not China.