My layout consists of over 100 LF of MTH RealTrax and growing. It has worked superbly for the last 6 years. The switches have not missed a beat.
Today I purchased 12 pieces of MTH RealTrax O-42 for a circle under one of the trees. As I counted the pieces out of the box at the LHS, I read on the box that children could put the track together.
After putting together those 12 pieces, IMO, a child better be able to bench press about 200 lbs. if he wants to but Realtrax together. Compared to the RealTrax of old, this stuff is really mean to put together. (Incidentally, the other night I put Lionel Fastrack together for my daughter’s PE, and it was much easier than the RealTrax. )
Don’t have any experience with realtrax but have read it was difficult to assemble. I also read some where to wear work gloves to assemble and unassemble fastrack. When fastrack is new, the sides of the roadbed will make your hands sore. After you assemble the same pieces 20 times it gets pretty loose but not enough to come apart when running your trains. I don’t know how ogauge track was years ago, but when I laid the track for my sons shelf layout, my hads were raw. There are still pieces I could not butt together all the way. No wonder they sell a tool to connect ogauge track together.
Told you so. I bought some last year. It goes together pretty good. New I bought last week is horrible. Its the clearance between the track ends and the plastic tab. Someone screwed up the tolerances. Once it goes together, its there.
I agree that the more recent RealTrax, for whatever reason, is far more difficult to assemble (not that the earlier stuff was all that easy either). Ya gotta have a tough little kid with strong upper-body muscular development if you expect him to put the layout together.
FasTrack is far easier to assemble, in my opinion. And, it seems to stay together better. I use those H-shaped plastic connectors with RealTrax (an absolute “must” in my opinion), but haven’t found the need for any additional measures to keep FasTrack securely together.
We hung a loop of FastTrack on the wall at work (take your train to work day lasted about a year) over a high mount door stop. Several of the staff/faculty had young kids that would come by and I’d just drop the loop on the floor and let them push some of the O-27 cars around or “play” with the action cars. If they were going to be around for a while, I’d pull out the transformer and switcher loco. Worked as a nice baby sitter for mom/dad while they got something done.
RealTrax is significantly heavier. The solid rails and the heavier plastic base also contribute to its being quieter, BUT: It also doesn’t positively lock unless you use the “U” connectors on the underside and I would NEVER try the trick of hanging a loop of RealTrax the way we did with FastTrack.
I bought some to have a non-ferrous test track at the end of a siding on my O27 layout. I pulled the outside rails (which are the same height as O27 rails) off, crimped them into tubular O27 track, and soldered the rails together. I don’t know why you all are having so many problems with Rail Trax; it hasn’t given me a bit of trouble…
I would agree that older RealTrax went together easier - the original track I placed on my layout never required gloves to assemble. I recently re-tracked one of my mainlines with newer production track and it took gloves and a lot of blue air to get the job finished.
Like you Allan, I previoulsy used the H-Shaped connectors with Real Trax, unless it was screwed down the layout. This new stuff not only goes together hard, it comes apart hard.
I recently finished putting my RealTrax oval on the 4X8 plywood sheet under the tree. After a few struggles to get the pieces to lock together, I learned the trick of it. The rest of the pieces went together quite easily. And it seems a LOT more secure than the original Lionel O-Gauge track with those crummy pins. Hard to put together is offset by not coming apart. I’m gonna have an 8X16 layout done with ALL RealTrax. I love the stuff. If you guys hate it so much, I’ll send you my address and you can ship it ALL to me. I mean you sure don’t want to struggle with assemblying and taking that nasty stuff apart [(-D]
Dep
P.S. I will reveal the trick for a nominal charge [:D]
I still say, after listening to all of these experiences, that Lionel 0 guage tubular track is the best you can get for the money. If you put it together right, it will stay together. As with any other track. The “trick” is to “ask the guy who owns one”. ( Old Buick commercial ).
Ahhh…but I don’t need pliers, vice grips, soldering irons or any of those other tools to put together MTH RealTrax. Just plain ol’ human fingers is all I use. And it STAYS together without ANY drop in voltage anywhere on the layout. With the added plus that it looks pretty neat to only see TWO rails instead of three. [:D]
You guys are discouraging me. I just bought a bunch of Realtrax, including 054 curves which they did not make when I did my orginal layout, to redo a portion of it in a couple of weeks, after the holidays. Now I am wondering if I got the old or new stuff. Bought it at LHS when the owner told me that I better grab what I needed as MTH had zero Realtrax in stock when he called recently. Maybe they are aware of a problem and are making a correction?
Don’t be discouraged, John! The RealTrax will do just fine.
If it’s the older stock, it should go together fairly easily, and I recommend using those little plastic H-shaped connectors to keep the sections locked together.
If it’s the newer stuff, just wear a pair of heavy gloves when you’re putting the sections together–something I’ve always had to do (and recommend doing) when assembling conventional tubular O gauge and Standard Gauge track.
Chuck, For the Christmas layout I have been experimenting with various arrangements of “O” tubular. To make it a little easier to assemble new track I put a little Bachmann conductive oil on the pins with a fingertip and they go together smooth and evenly with no swearing or bleeding hands. [tup]
John: Alan is exactly right! Please don’t be discouraged. I had 10", 30" and 042 curves to assemble for my 4X8 layout. The first couple I assembled I thought maybe there was some kind of problem with the way they were molded. Then I learned the trick/technique or whatever you want to call it.
I lay one piece of track on the board. Then the track I want to assemble I locate in the proper position against the first track on the board…BUT AT ABOUT A 30 DEGREE ANGLE. Then I push them together while moving the angled piece down slowly. Dissassembly is the same way. I just raise the piece up I want to remove and at about a 30 degree angle it seems to disengage itself automatically. I checked and saw no unusual distorting or bending of the contact pieces or the plastic connectors. Wish I lived closer to you…I’d gladly give you a hand [:)]
#1 “Do it without the board.” Okay…I’m off to the kitchen table [:)]
#2 “like we used to be able to do it some 4-6 years ago” Didn’t the track come apart rather easily and at the wrong times 4-6 years ago? Given the choice, I’ll take the new track that stays together.
#3 “I’m still waiting on a confirmation that a child can put RealTrax together as advertised on the MTH box.” None of my boxes said that. And you gotta define “child”. Is there an age given on the boxes you have? Child COULD mean anyone under the age of 18. [;)]
My offer still stands. If you want to unload your RealTrax, I’ll gladly take it off your hands. Heck, I think I got some of that noisy Lionel trax from a Pennsy expansion set that we can trade!! [:)]
