We have been discussing MTH Real Track Switches on this forum for over six year. Here is what I posted many years ago as the Chief and I were starting to find out about an MTH problem.
Buckeye Riveter Fox14120The switches i liked were MTH Real Track switches. Like i said a minor thing only all these years i've had the two No 042 switches and always liked the red\green lanturn's. Checked the price on Real Track and it costs a little less any quirks to working with Real Track over Fast Track? I know Real Track uses Lock On but don't know what the bottom of a piece of Real Track looks like wondering of i could still soder the wires under the track instead of all the Lock On's? Before you fall in love with RealTrax Switches read this: Buckeye Riveter Chief....I hope you are paying attention because you need to see how I solved my problem with the MTH O-72 Realtrax Switches. Oh!! What's that? You say the Chief is off goofing off fishing at the lake? Anyway, here goes. A little history about the MTH Realtrax Switch Problem: The Chief and I installed a bunch of MTH Realtrax Switches on our layout. I have 12 MTH Switches and the Chief has a few more. When I started my layout, Fastrack by Lionel had not been born. About half way through the building of the second phase of my layout, I started to notice that the newer track did not fit as well as the old. The Chief was seeing the same thing as he connected his Realtrax. (Incidentally, someone in the last month provided a history about the manufacturing changes of Realtrax....THANK YOU!) The Chief and I really became upset when the new O-72 Realtrax Switches started not to work. The Chief had switches that the switch motors were DOA. I opened a box of a supposedly new switch and discovered it had been reconditioned. Then I started seeing derailments at two brand new O-72 switches. Two out of my six O-72s would derail certain types of locomotives including BEEPS, Post-war, and Williams. After watching a small new Lionel Steamer ride over the frog and derail, I said something has to be wrong with that switch and not the engine. Here is the MTH O-72 switch that was derailing random locomotives. Look at the gap between the back of the wheel flange and the guard rail. The car is an MTH tank car. Needless to say when I measured the gap between the guard rail and the main rail on an O-72 switch, it was the same as on the O-42 switches by MTH. Logic says that on a straight section of track, the gap between the guard rail and the main rail would be the smallest. On sharper turns, the gap should be the widest. To check to see if the gap width between the guard rail and the main rail was too large and causing the opposite wheel to ride over the frog, I put three (3) layers of 7 mil electrical tape on the guard rail, as shown below: The tape effectively, reduced the space between the guard rail and the main rail. After several hours of running various types of locomotives and rolling stock through the switch at different speeds, not one derailment occurred. I sent the locmotives through the switch in reverse, too, with loads and without loads. BINGO!! After a trip to the LHS, where I purchased .020 x .188 styrene strips, I added one to the face of the guard rail as shown below. After several hours of hard running, not one locomotive on the Baltimore, Ohio and Wabash Railroad has had any problems negotiating this switch. Now you know, Chiefie!!! I would not recommend MTH RealTrax. If you do a search of this forum, you will find discussions and comments for the last six years about the problems the Chief and many others have had with RealTrax.
Fox14120The switches i liked were MTH Real Track switches. Like i said a minor thing only all these years i've had the two No 042 switches and always liked the red\green lanturn's. Checked the price on Real Track and it costs a little less any quirks to working with Real Track over Fast Track? I know Real Track uses Lock On but don't know what the bottom of a piece of Real Track looks like wondering of i could still soder the wires under the track instead of all the Lock On's?
Before you fall in love with RealTrax Switches read this:
Buckeye Riveter Chief....I hope you are paying attention because you need to see how I solved my problem with the MTH O-72 Realtrax Switches. Oh!! What's that? You say the Chief is off goofing off fishing at the lake? Anyway, here goes. A little history about the MTH Realtrax Switch Problem: The Chief and I installed a bunch of MTH Realtrax Switches on our layout. I have 12 MTH Switches and the Chief has a few more. When I started my layout, Fastrack by Lionel had not been born. About half way through the building of the second phase of my layout, I started to notice that the newer track did not fit as well as the old. The Chief was seeing the same thing as he connected his Realtrax. (Incidentally, someone in the last month provided a history about the manufacturing changes of Realtrax....THANK YOU!) The Chief and I really became upset when the new O-72 Realtrax Switches started not to work. The Chief had switches that the switch motors were DOA. I opened a box of a supposedly new switch and discovered it had been reconditioned. Then I started seeing derailments at two brand new O-72 switches. Two out of my six O-72s would derail certain types of locomotives including BEEPS, Post-war, and Williams. After watching a small new Lionel Steamer ride over the frog and derail, I said something has to be wrong with that switch and not the engine. Here is the MTH O-72 switch that was derailing random locomotives. Look at the gap between the back of the wheel flange and the guard rail. The car is an MTH tank car. Needless to say when I measured the gap between the guard rail and the main rail on an O-72 switch, it was the same as on the O-42 switches by MTH. Logic says that on a straight section of track, the gap between the guard rail and the main rail would be the smallest. On sharper turns, the gap should be the widest. To check to see if the gap width between the guard rail and the main rail was too large and causing the opposite wheel to ride over the frog, I put three (3) layers of 7 mil electrical tape on the guard rail, as shown below: The tape effectively, reduced the space between the guard rail and the main rail. After several hours of running various types of locomotives and rolling stock through the switch at different speeds, not one derailment occurred. I sent the locmotives through the switch in reverse, too, with loads and without loads. BINGO!! After a trip to the LHS, where I purchased .020 x .188 styrene strips, I added one to the face of the guard rail as shown below. After several hours of hard running, not one locomotive on the Baltimore, Ohio and Wabash Railroad has had any problems negotiating this switch. Now you know, Chiefie!!!
Chief....I hope you are paying attention because you need to see how I solved my problem with the MTH O-72 Realtrax Switches. Oh!! What's that? You say the Chief is off goofing off fishing at the lake? Anyway, here goes.
A little history about the MTH Realtrax Switch Problem:
The Chief and I installed a bunch of MTH Realtrax Switches on our layout. I have 12 MTH Switches and the Chief has a few more. When I started my layout, Fastrack by Lionel had not been born. About half way through the building of the second phase of my layout, I started to notice that the newer track did not fit as well as the old. The Chief was seeing the same thing as he connected his Realtrax. (Incidentally, someone in the last month provided a history about the manufacturing changes of Realtrax....THANK YOU!)
The Chief and I really became upset when the new O-72 Realtrax Switches started not to work. The Chief had switches that the switch motors were DOA. I opened a box of a supposedly new switch and discovered it had been reconditioned. Then I started seeing derailments at two brand new O-72 switches. Two out of my six O-72s would derail certain types of locomotives including BEEPS, Post-war, and Williams. After watching a small new Lionel Steamer ride over the frog and derail, I said something has to be wrong with that switch and not the engine.
Here is the MTH O-72 switch that was derailing random locomotives. Look at the gap between the back of the wheel flange and the guard rail. The car is an MTH tank car.
Needless to say when I measured the gap between the guard rail and the main rail on an O-72 switch, it was the same as on the O-42 switches by MTH. Logic says that on a straight section of track, the gap between the guard rail and the main rail would be the smallest. On sharper turns, the gap should be the widest.
To check to see if the gap width between the guard rail and the main rail was too large and causing the opposite wheel to ride over the frog, I put three (3) layers of 7 mil electrical tape on the guard rail, as shown below:
I would not recommend MTH RealTrax. If you do a search of this forum, you will find discussions and comments for the last six years about the problems the Chief and many others have had with RealTrax.
Celebrating 18 years on the CTT Forum.
Buckeye Riveter......... OTTS Charter Member, a Roseyville Raider and a member of the CTT Forum since 2004..
Jelloway Creek, OH - ELV 1,100 - Home of the Baltimore, Ohio & Wabash RR
TCA 09-64284
I bought used Realtrax switches on Ebay for a carpet RR five years ago. They arrived well used and needed cleaning. However, they worked fine, until I built my layout, and now generally are used each Christmas around the tree. Still working fine.
I agree with gunrunnerjohn. My Lionel layout is all Fastrack with their turnouts, and they are flawless. Some of the earlier manual O36 turnouts can be made electric fairly easily as well if you want to start out with a lower cost. Yes, I know it's noisy, but any brand of embedded roadbed track will be.
A word of caution, however, if you ever plan to run scale car carriers, passenger cars, or larger engines, design your layout with minimum O60 turnouts. When I started out, my LHS didn't suggest that, and I ended up having some limitations regarding what will run on my layout. Also, O60s give you the tightest yard configuration, FYI.
Dan
For simple reliability, I use Fastrack. If you want something more realistic, I like Atlas track and Ross switches.
also if you really want to use MTH track there is conversion pieces you can get from Gargraves I believe where you could use there switches and MTH track it might have to be you buy MTH conversion to O track and then the conversion pieces from Gargraves to O
Life's hard, even harder if your stupid John Wayne
http://rtssite.shutterfly.com/
Not sure now but back a few years ago a few in here had big trouble with MTH switches
hello, i am starting my first o gauge (8' by 14') layout and like mth realtrac very much. i would like to know if the realtrac switches are any good. can anyone give me some feed back on this? thank you very much.
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