Realtrax

[Greg T.]

Have any of you painted and/or weathered Realtrax?

Thanks,

Greg

[Anonymous]

Greg, I painted the plastic part of the track flat black at the road crossings, paint adhered very well.....tom

[ChiefEagles]

Greg, are you having problems snapping Realtrax together?  Man, I am.  Had a section today that would not close except on one side.  I carefully looked and the plastic tab that goes under the rail was too thick or the rail was not high enough.  Really had a time with some 072 curves.  Got into a new box at Todd's and they go together a lot better.  I think MTH has some bad contractors building track.  Not sticking to specs and tolerances. 

[Greg T.]

Chief,

I've had problems on some of the smaller straight pieces not fitting well.  I like Realtrax, but I think it's best when used more permenantly and not for layouts that are being set up and taken apart on a consistant bases.

Greg

 

[Jumijo]

You guys need to switch to FasTrack. Now there's a real nice track system!!

Jim 

[Greg T.]

Jim, I'm perfectly content with Realtrax.  FasTrack is very nice, but I don't intend to switch.

Call me Kooky!

Greg

[phillyreading]

Greg T.

If you like Realtrax stay with it as you will need to re-do your whole layout to switch to Fastrac as the minimum curve diameter is about five inches larger on Fastrac.

Sorry to burst your buble Jim aka jaabat.   Spock!

Lee F.

[Jumijo]

Enjoy your Realtrax, Kooky!

Philly, go lie down. Bubble burster! 

Jim 

[Greg T.]

It's very simple for me philly... I bought a MTH set and decided to stick with the Realtrax.  I know everyone has valid opinions about why they choose this track system or that track system, so long as your happy with what you chose... who cares.  What I enjoy is seeing the diversity of people's choices, and how it effects look of the layout being built.  Consider the change that Reggie made recently going from the Beloved Fastrac to Gargraves.  Really changed the look, even though he's only at the plywood stage.  Both look great, but in different ways.  Anyway... have fun.

Good day everyone.

Greg

[wallyworld]

One possible solution that I use all the time is to take the two sections of track you intend to snap together and hold them at a slight upward angle as you connect them.

[ChiefEagles]

Chief,

I've had problems on some of the smaller straight pieces not fitting well.  I like Realtrax, but I think it's best when used more permenantly and not for layouts that are being set up and taken apart on a consistant bases.

Greg

 

Agree.  I plan on turning over big sections and soldering the together at the copper "pins".  Looks better than Fasttrac.  So far, I love the switches.   I've tried all grades of angles and steps.  I just think some are built to close specs and others are not.

[A&Y Ry]

My layouts are older than Realtrax and have Gargraves. But a 7' long round-the-Christmas-Tree oval I use is Realtrax. Greg you are right about not taking it apart and rejoining often----it becomes a problem. I soldered a hot and common buss to each section all the way round the oval and just hang it on the wall in the garage til Christmas[or until Grand Daughters want to run Thomas].

I have soldered #14 gauge stranded copper to the hot and common copper strips underneath on a friend's RealTrax sections. I use a pair of mini-vise grips as a heat sink to avoid overheating the plastic. I buff the copper strip, put a touch of rosin flux on it, heat it and form a small solder puddle. I strip 1/4" of wire, fan out the 1/4" stranded copper wire end, tin it with solder, place it on the puddle, reheat and quickly meld wire end into the puddle. I have avoided heat distortion using the grips and this method.

[lionelsoni]

I use several sections of Realtrax on my otherwise O27 layout.  I removed the outside rails from the Realtrax roadbed and crimped them into O27 ties in place of the tubular rails, then soldered the rails together.  (It's for a non-ferrous test section at the end of a siding...;-)