I’m retired and I am in the early stages of restoring my early 1950’s Lionel train collection, which my dad had bought me and that we added onto to for several years. When I was raising my own young family many years later, we regrettably had to sell them when things were financially tight. Now my wife has embarked on an campaign to replace my treasured collection and she has already purchased some rolling stock, switches, accessories and ZW transformer from that time period.
My restored collection will be ALL Lionel brand, mostly from 1949 through 1957, with a few cars from later Lionel years. One exception, while my original layout was tubular O gauge I am not a total purist to that era or the headaches (tarnish, rust, connectivity, insulating track for block signals, etc.) O gauge tin plate can give. I would rather more realistic and better O gauge track.
My question: Will magna-traction locomotives, passenger and freight cars from the post war era run OK on Lionel’s Fastrack? I also have 3 pair of 022 remote switches and I would very much like to use them. Will they work if interfaced with the Fastrack Interface piece (would need 3 per switch)? My track will be set up on a permanent layout.
I also researched MTH Real Trax which doesn’t seem much different than Lionel Fastrack. Any benefit of one over the other?
Magnatraction will work on FasTrack, it uses the same tinplated steel as original tubular and the outside rails are tied together like the original tubular. The magnetraction effect will be about the same as for O-27. RealTrax is nickle silver and has no magnetic properties. The adapter sections for Fast Track to O will allow you to use the O-22 switches. You may want to consider using the newer FastTrack units though as the turnout radius for the older switches is tighter (O-31) than Fast Track’s tightest turn which is O-36.
Ive never used the Fastrack before, but it seems its been a hit with a lot of people having some good positive feedback. May I also recommend the Atlas O track. Its like the fastrack without the roadbed, but looks really realistic, and postwar runs great on it. My club layout recently switched from Tubular to Atlas,and the postwar runs better then it did on the tubular, good luck[:D].
As much as I too like Fastrack, I just use for a basic Christmas tree loop. It does have great connectivity beneftis but for me the plastic roadbed (just looks a tad cheesy for me) and the price keep it from being used on my current serious layout. It’s also pretty noisy compared to tubular.
Tubular is cheaper and to me it’s been around for a 100 years or so and is certainly tried and true.
Excellent pictures Houdy…very very nice. This is similar to what my laout looks like with Fastrack but mine is a tad smaller. When combines with nice looking landsacping Fastrack looks better than O or O27 could ever look. Anything looks cheesy around the Christmas tree.
Anyone who has been running O and 027 and upgrades to the new Fastrack will notice a difference.
Whatever, you do get rid of that tublar…it technology is so old already. Fastrack has got me excited in operation and building again…it’s that much better. I swore I would never build another layout with O or O27…it’s all sold!
Fastrack realistic? Hello! The rails are U-shaped, not rolled. Fast track looks much less realistic than 027 tubular, properly laid and ballasted with added ties (trivial). I like old technology–Gee Whiz! is of no importance to me, or I wouldn’t be into 3-rail.
And the 3-rail Standard Gauge around my tree looks anything but cheesy, thankyouverymuch.
A word of caution when using new track systems, will your older locomotives make it thru the switch without getting stuck? The wheels on Lione and other brands that are from the pre or post war time are deeper and will cause many headaches on newer track systems. Try to test run your equipment on a friend’s layout if possible before going to FastTrax. I still use the old 022 switches for my layout, best switch made if you ask me.
Lee in south FL
Thanks to everyone for your feedback. It made me step back and think about this a little more and do so more research.
I didn’t realize you could still purchase new tubular O gauge and this adds a new perspective to my plans, not to mention that tubular O is the least expensive. Shiny new tubular tin plate can be appealing. And of course there is no interface issues with my six 022 switches.
Still, I like the look of the built-in track roadway and as far as I can tell only Lionel Fastrack supports Magna-traction. Further research found Atlas steel track that works with Magna-traction and it looks nice but has no roadway, but lots of flexibility at less cost than Lionel Fastrack.
We are still in the work in progress stage and are in no hurry to complete the restoration. No track has been purchased yet. What I need to do now is visit some train stores and train shows and see and feel the different types of modern O gauge track up close.
I really appreciate everyone’s opinion - it gave me pause and new thoughts.
