I AM BUILING THIS LAYOUT THAT REQUIRS 51/2" STRAIGHT 5 PC ARE REQUIRED HOW CAN I MAKE A 5" INTO A 51/2" THE FASTRACK STRAIGHT IS 5 " I NEED 51/2 " STRAIGHT
Cut 4.5 inches out of the middle of a 10-inch piece.
IS THERE ANY LENGTH OF STRAIGHT ON EACH SIDE OF THE 5-1/2 TRACK?
MARK
I believe 4 units of the 1 3/8" sections will yield a 5 1/2" section of track. Lionel part number is 6-12073.
1 3/8 = 11/8 * 4 = 44/8 = 5 1/2
closest you will get is three 1.75 which wil get you 5.25 or like said. Cut a 10" to 5.5".
If there is a 10" length of straight on a parallel path on the other side of the loop, replace it with a 4.5" combined with a 5" (for 9.5"). The 1/2" shorter straight run on the other side will narrow your gap on the side in question from your 5 1/2" to 5", which of course does exist.
Still uses an extra track section, but I would prefer that to cutting or using 3 of the really small pieces.
Have you considering revising your layout plan so that it only requires standard pieces? That is what I do. Cutting Fastrack does not seem like a good idea.
If anyone from Lionel reads this post, Kato N-Scale Unitrack has a very nice expansion piece P/N 20-050. An expansion piece for FasTrack would be ideal for situations such as these.
Earl
Incorrect. Lionel is releasing a 1 3/8" section with and without the roadbed. 4 1 3/8" sections will get you 5 1/2 inches.
Nothing wrong with using FasTrack either…
Now if we could only get Lionel to release FasTrack section in 1/8 inch increments from 1" to 40" that would be the ticket!!!
Cutting Fastrack is not hard to do. I modified several pieces in making my floor layout and they look and work fine.
Here’s a link we have from on top of the forum for cutting fastrak !
http://www.trains.com/TRC/CS/forums/1028152/ShowPost.aspx
Thanks, John
John, that’s for trimming the width. But there are topics somewhere on the forum about shortening the length. The main idea is to take it out of the middle, so that the connections are not disturbed on either end.