No the older stuff didn’t come apart. All 100 plus feet of my layout went together easily and did not come apart. We didn’t wear gloves to put it together. The old track has stayed together for six plus years. Since you didn’t do it six plus years ago, you don’t have a base line to judge. My entire layout is RealTrax and I know exactly the tricks to put everything from the 3.5" piece to the 072 switch together. (Have you learned the tape trick to insolate a rail?)
As to a child, I was thinking about 8 years old. The age Lionel puts on the side of their boxes.
The fact is that the NEW MTH RealTrax is much more difficult to put together than it was in years past based upon not only the postings on this forum but other forums.
Hmmmmm…that’s funny. Some guy by the name of Buckeye Riveter said in an earlier post “This new stuff not only goes together hard, it comes apart hard.”
From what I’ve seen so far I agree 100%. This track does NOT come apart on it’s own. Can’t say that for the old Lionel O or O27 gauge stuff.
My offer still applies. If you hate the MTH RealTrax so much I’ll take all that nasty stuff off you hands. I plan on an 8X16 foor layout using that track after Christmas. I’m sure I can use all of it.
Buckeye: I went to the Trainz website and got a closeup look at the box that the RealTrax comes in. Sure enough…8 years or older. Perhaps they are talking about those wonder-kids that are on steroids??? [(-D]