I would like to make an unpowered Fastrack siding, but what do I need

Classic Toy Trains Forum
1

Hi all,

I would like to make an unpowered siding to store lit railcars and not have them sap power from my locomotive. Do I need to get an isolated block or just an isolated section of straight track and drop it in line after the switch?

THX!

2

I would think just a piece of isolation track should do the trick.

3

The easiest thing to do is take the section of track immediately following the switch, turn it over, loosen the tabs on the outer rails furtherest from the switch, gently pry the rails up, remove the jumper between the outer rails, push the outer rails back into place, and spread the tabs to hold the rails to the road bed. Then loosen the center rail and remove that pin.

The roadbed will keep everything in alignment… I’ve done this to switches, curves, straights, etc… works great and you don’t have to spend extra $$$ on those insulated or isolated block tracks. The problem with cutting the rails is if you change the layout configuration and need that section of track you have to go buy a new one as the rail is damaged.

4

If you don’t want any power whatsoever being taken from your main transformer … a small power supply/transformer would do the trick also . You can pick up small ones on ebay and even power your lighting with it in case you just want to light up the layout for folks to see like I do . I have a seperate - small one for just that and don’t have to have my main large one on . You can get a small unit very cheap on ebay and keep that expensive one off and cool .

5

What Lionroar suggests works good. Bending the tabs back firmly is important and I’ve found the nose of heavy linesman pliers pushes them back snugly. There was a couple cases the center rails barely touched each other leaving an electrical path. Now I grind the ends back a few thousandths and it prevents that. With the 5" block sections, you are sometimes forced to bastardize your track plan to get the things to fit. It would make life easier if they made block sections in the 1 3/8 or 1 3/4 variety if they haven’t already. The cost of the 5" block sections isn’t real bad. If they fit your plan nicely, they can be less trouble than modifying stock track sections. It’s up to you.

6

Thank you for the suggestions!