This track certainly looks like it would be fun for train shows or the kids on a home Christmas layout. Very nice lighting effect.
It had me thinking about creating something like this for my public Christmas Train village layouts for future years. For a much cheaper and quieter option (Fastrack is noisy and expensive) my local LED light shop had bags of LED lights 24VDC 30 feet 100 LED's in mixed and various solid colors for $2 bag. To do something like Lionel did I would use a track that already has both outer rails isolated from each other; (like the K-Line Track, or Atlas track I currently use for quick set ups at train shows.) For each section of track that I want to light when a train is on it; I put plastic pins on both ends of one of the outer rails, attach a strip of these lights a few bulbs between the ties, the ties sitting on tin foil, the lights run through a full wave bridge rectifier (to change AC to DC) to a wire connection one wire to center rail and other to the insulated outside rail. This way as the train rolls over it the wheels would form the connection from the powered outside rail to the other insulated outside rail thus lighting that section of track. If the track is slightly elevated you would only need a few bulbs per track section as the light would reflect along the tinfoil under the track. I am sure that the lights would flicker a bit depending on how clean the rails and wheels were, (they get a bit dirty after many hours of use at my Christmas train displays) This would work well for Command engines running at 20+ volts, but if you were running an engine that is transformer controlled you would have to test your regular maximum operating voltage you might find that the 12 volt lights would work better.
I have a few loops of permanently attached track that I have attached to 4x8 foot foam boards for train shows. Perhaps I will have to create this using the above method for some lighted Christmas train boards.
