As some of you may know, I will be using E-Z track for my layout (I know, GASP!!!) but I love the stuff. It’s easy to lay and I may not need to ballast it (at least not yet anyway) because the appearence is realistic enough for me. But I need to know, what kind of E-Z should I use? Steel with black roadbed? Brass with nickle silver roadbed? And, I just saw one with nickle silver rail and gray roadbed (thinking this’d be the best way to go). So what do you think? Any suggestions?
Brass with nickel-silver roadbed…?
I would recommend that you go for the nickel silver track, no matter what colour the roadbed is.
Also, I think, but I am not 100% sure, that different brands of “roadbed track” are not compatible with each other, due to the way they lock together. There are four I can think of: Atlas True Track, Bachmann EZ track, Kato Unitrack, and Life Like PowerLok.
Andrew
Go with the nickle silver and save your self the worst headach you will ever have.
As for compatibility, No one brand is compatible with another. Life-Like does make an adaptor piece that will connect with the Atlas and Bachmann brands but the connection is by the old fashioned railjoiners. THe road bed does not interconnect like the others.
If you are thinking that the whole roadbed laying thing is hard, then you should
try AMI instant roadbed. It’s soooo easy and in the end cheaper than using
the roadbed track. And more realistic. Dave
I think “4884bigboy” is just putting us on.
All of the stuff which I got (last year) with my 3 Hogwarts Express sets (the loco and coaches are good BR models – after a little paint), went to a grandfather who wanted a longer layout for his old HO Xmas tree train set.
So there’s a suggestion, if you can’t bear to throw it away !
I like the nickle-silver track with the gray roadbed thats what i have.
Cork roadbed with track laid on it looks as realistic as the EZ-track stuff, and you aren’t as tied in to EZ-Track’s limitations (like not being able to saw half an inch off the end of a piece of track, not being able to use any other company’s track products, higher cost) so you might consider it. Nobody will karate chop you for not ballasting your layout.
I think that’s what I’m going with.