Need help with Lionel Tubular track

[Anonymous]

I'm an "N" scaler. My Mother-in-law bought my nephews a Lionel set. It has the older tubular track. They told me they gave up on trying to get it together. I though what a wussy. Then this weekend I went for a visit. I tried to put it together. After 1 hour and very sore hands I gave up.. I tried pliers, a Vise you name it. Unless they got a defective stock of track, I don't know how generations of kids ever built anything with this. I'm a relatively fit and mechanically inclined 43 year old. I could not get it together. Either they wouldn't go together at all, or the pins would push 90% into only one side, or the center rail would get pushed out of line with the others. I told him I'd buy him some fastTrack. But I already bought him a box of tube track at a yrd sale, A large box to go with his new set. What Am I missing here ? Thanks, Dave

[ben10ben]

New tubular track can be very, very difficult to fit together. First of all, to "break it in", I would suggest putting only one pin and one rail together at a time. After doing all three rails like this, they should fit together fairly easily, although tightly. The second common suggestion is to use a rocking motion that will flare out the end of the rails slightly and make them go together more easily.

Good luck. Although I have a loop of Fastrack, and have bought Atlas and Gargraves to try them out, I still prefer tubular track over everything else. I may be slightly biased, due to having several boxes of it, but I still really like its cost and flexibility(easy to cut to correct lengths).

[Big_Boy_4005]

After reading of your difficulties Dave, I had a thought.

Are all of the ties on the different sections the same height? Is it possible that you have a mixture of O and 027 sections? The O gauge track uses larger diameter pins, and are almost impossible to get into the smaller 027 rail.

If that is not the case, there is a trick that you can use to loosen things up a little. Take a straight bladed screwdriver, and stick it into the bottom of the rail as a pry bar. The trick is to not over do it, or it will leave you with a sloppy fit and poor electrical contact. A pair of pliers and be used to tighten the connections.

I do not recommend the Fastrack.

[ben10ben]

Elliot,
If you don't mind me asking, what do you not like about Fastrack? I bought a loop of it about a month after it first appeared in sets, as part of an Ebay set break-up, and have been very impressed with it. Mine has been in use on and off for a year and a half now.

[Big_Boy_4005]

Well Ben, I don't like the overall design of the product line. It has a number of problems that could cause frustration. For starter sets it is acceptable. The problems start to show up just as a person starts to get into layouts of greater complexity, and adding certain action cars and accessories to their collection.

The way the track is made, it has a tendancy to be much noiser than any other type or brand of track. Even the addition of padding does not fully compensate for this.

The pins are not interchangable, making insulating much more difficult. I realize that they make outside rail insulated sections, but if you want to design a layout that needs power blocks, it takes a lot more work.

Cars that require trackside activators such as giraff cars, brakeman, tie-jector, etc, can't be used without modifying the track. I'm not sure if the milk stand or the cattle pen work work with the roadbed.

The roadbed makes the track so rigid that many traditional, previously published, layouts, cannot be made as cut sections are required. Also, the 036 minimum curve limits what can be built on a standard 4 x 8 sheet of plywood. Furthermore, the roadbed provides a false sense of security against carpet fibers, for floor operations.

Finally, I don't care for the pricing. A 10" straight costs $3.50, but the cost to produce that piece of track has to be well under a dollar.

Final assessment, a very mediocre product with a high profit margine. My understanding is that Lionel wanted to stop producing tubular track in favor of Fastrack. With the lawsuits, and the management shake up, it will be interesting to see where all this goes.