I really wanted to like RealTrax. Around 2007 I built a version of the well-known Lionel 1957 Super-O catalog layout with RealTrax. I never had any problem with the track, but the switches were trouble. The turnout path was so far out of gauge that post-war wheel sets ran through them with the flange on the ties. Modern wheel sets with wheels fixed to the axles were OK, but derailments were frequent with PW rolling stock with free-spinning wheels. I did have a number of the famous "red wire" failures, but that didn't bother me because it is easy to work around. At some point I picked up a Lionel R-T-R set with Fastrack and I bought a few more pieces and a switch to try it out. After that I sold the RealTrax and went with Fastrack.
I would have stayed with RealTrax if the switches had been more accurately built, but I had mostly PW rolling stock and that didn't work too well at all.
My RealTrax installation was strictly textbook; nothing soldered to the rails and powered through lockons. There were a couple places on the layout where I needed an extra lockon to provide a connection to the other outside rail where it was isolated by switches, but I that is the nature of the product.
