Fastrack 031 curve

You are correct, Eric.  Only eight sections of O36 FasTrack needed for a full circle.

Oops, my mistake.  I had confused FasTrack with Super O.

 

Bill

I wonder what happened to Marx's roadbed tooling?

The single biggest mistake I made on my layout is having quite a few 31 turns. It really limits you down the road as far as what can be run on those tight curves. If it is not a permanent layout that's not a problem. If your plans are long range and you have room I recommend a bigger turn radius. That's just my opinion. I was happy for quite awhile and then as time went on there was some really nice engines I wanted but could not run on my layout. Again, track layouts are a very personal choice so its your call, just something to consider. 

Noting that this thread has risen to the top, I checked the shipping schedule and it now says:

 

6-37103

Fastrack 031 Curve

Nov, 12

 

so, I guess we're still waiting a while.  Hope they ship a lot - I think there will be lots of demand.... is this a pre-orderable item?  I plan on getting about (3) 8 piece loops of it.

 

Ed

as another gentleman said.."There was a bad run of Realtrax, Get new or get the Solid rail old stuff, the stuff in the middle had more issues.

You have to know how to assemble RealTrax properly, it's not obvious, and not well publicised."

 

and when i first got into O gauge i must have bought nearly every bad piece that was made

 

a lot of money down the drain. i did like the track and the way it looked.too bad.

fastrack to the rescue!

 

terry........

I'm all for more selection, but I've never understood the 4x8 boundary. I have never seen someone with a 4x8 tabletop layout that didn't have room for 4.5x8, 5x8, or 5x9. Are there that many people who refuse to build benchwork? Even if you don't want to build or use two cut sheets of plywood you can get sheets of 5x8 up to 5x12 if you look.

I guess I wouldn't let that stop me from building the layout I really wanted. But I will never build another flat layout again so maybe I have a different perspective.

It's ALWAYS (one has to be careful in using that word) a good idea to go with the widest curves you can possibly make use of.  I sure wish I had the space for O42 or wider curves even though I prefer smaller motive power and rolling stock.

That is an excellent point and one that should be mentioned to all newcomers seeking advice. 18 months ago I started my layout and used two sheets 4x8 plywood in an "L" shape. It never even crossed my mind to use odd dimensions to get the most use out of allotted space. When I added the next section my 10 year old daughter asked why I didn't use 2 pieces wood istead on one. An AHA moment. That section became 5 1/2 by 10 1/2 feet.  Huge difference. Again, great post for something that is so easily overlooked. 

I would love to have a wider foot print but the furnace and the oil tanks have the space. I built my Mianne Benchwork into a 6x11 but after that I decided I preferred 4x20 with one end being 6x8. Something about a 16' straight run on the back wall of my small area and long freight yards

Looking to use the 31 as an inner loop and an elevated loop.  

I have a pre order with OGR advertiser

Ready to Roll Trains  http://www.readytorolltrains.com/

My LHS only 1500 miles from home!

Disappointed in the delayed date, was looking to get started on it after Labor Day. I guess I will, just a little farther past Labor Day! 

I checked for 6-37103 in the Lionel Shipping Schedule and didn't find it.

 

Does this mean the FasTrack O-31 Curves  have been delivered and are availalble?

 

  --Joe

They should be available very soon, as they are listed as being available to Lionel dealers.

For all those folks out there patiently waiting for this little gem, some good news! I have heard that the O-31 curved Fastrack has finally arrived and has been shipped from Seattle on 17 December 2012. Should be available at your local dealer soon, I cannot wait as my layout needs two of these critters to finish about 265 feet of track, cannot believe it. Will surely buy some "extra pieces" though. Just in time for Christmas!

...which is why on similar thread discussions the suggestion has been to use 'ping-pong table' plywood...5' x 9'.  Our local lumberyard of 75+ years stocks these because interior carpenters (professionals) consider it one of their 'secrets' to resolving large-panel problems when 4x8 just won't do.  The added bonus is that p-p plywood is FAR better quality...for obvious reasons.  The downside, of course, is the +cost.  On the other hand, for this topic's Fastrack situations, the added cost is way worth it!!

 

If your nearest lumberyard is more of the grab-n-go variety, they might be able to special order it.  Otherwise, I don't think you'll have too much trouble finding ping-pong ply.

 

FWIW, always...

 

KD

How to make a 6'x8' tabletop (I made a 5x8 one): buy 3 4x8 sheets of Luan board (about $12. each). Glue 2 together with a 2' overlap. Cut the 3rd sheet in half lengthwise, and glue each to the gaps in the tabletop. You end up with a strong, relatively light, 6x8 tabletop, that, with some 1"x2" bracing, can be supported with 4 plastic saw-horses.

Picked mine up today at work. We got a couple of cases in.

 

Steve

Does it fit inside the o36 Fastrack? You know I really would like to know and I want a circle if so........

Not even close to fitting inside. The outer edge of the 031 roadbed fits just inside the inner rail of the 036. The joints do not fit together as crisp as the older track and the seams show up much more.

 

Steve

Boy, could we use some standards.  I, like Captain Cog, was hoping to fit the O31 inside an O36 loop.  MTH Realtrax O31 DOES fit inside O36 Fastrack.

 

Steve, when you put the two loops together, is there 5" from center rail to center rail? There IS 6" between O36 and O48... 48-36=12 / 2 = 6" (corrected O42 mistake!)

 

I was hoping to replace my darker colored Realtrax loops with O31 Fastrack on my layout.

 

Ed

OR, what is the actual center rail diameter?  Is it 31" per "FasTrack" rules, or 28.8" per "O-31" rules?

031 and 036 measure pretty accurately center rail to center rail so there is 2.5 inches between the center rails. The track offers lots of new possibilities, but Lionel sure missed an important one.

 

Steve

I only have a 4'wide area at one end of my layout ( furnance was there first!)

and I don't like how its been suggested to run a double loop so I am looking forward to picking up 2-1/2" on each side inside of a 5 piece 36;48;48;48;36 180 degree turn.

Also looking to build an elevated loop with the new track.

I waited 6 months on this track only to find out it won't fit inside a 36 loop.....???? Seriously! ....What were they thinking?  I don't get it.  James

I'm pretty sure the idea was that the O31 FasTrack would be a direct replacement for O31 tubular and *NOT* part of the rest of the system as far as track geometry goes.

I have concentric circles of tubular O31 and O36 Super-O around the Christmas tree. The center-to-center track spacing is about 3.5", suitable double-track spacing if you don't run overly long cars.

 

It sounds like Lionel really missed the boat by not making their new "O31" FasTrack to complement their O36 FasTrack.

True, but o31 tubular does fit inside o36 Fastrack and we have been using the tubular on our AllAboardFastracker boards. I was really hoping that it would fit inside for continuity. I have a picture attached of what we use now and apparently going forward...

I'm afraid that O31 Fastrak might end up being an odd duck as it would be fine by itself but not mixed with anything else. It's not nesting-compatible with the rest of the Fastrack line (it would need to be O27 to nest against O36). Also, since it is O31 measured center-to-center instead of from edge of tie as tubular is, it won't be a drop-in replacement for tubular plans as it will be too big (31" vs 28.8"). Lionel will have to come up with O31 switches if they want to make this size more useful.

 

Seems to me that they should have made it with the same measurement standards as tubular so it could be a drop-in (and likely nest with O36). I got Fastrak at home and was interested, but not now.

 

Peter

You hit it right on there Pete.  I hope they didn't make too much of it.

You may well be right about that.  I, too, was hoping that a circle of O31 would fit comfortably inside a circle of O36.

[FT] 031 ... measure pretty accurately center rail to center rail

If the Fastrack O-31 (6-37103) does measure 31" center rail to center rail then there is a discrepancy with the RR-Track rendering of it which shows 29.75" ctr-to-ctr.

  --Joe

Gentlemen,

   Which ever Lionel engineer messed this up should his bosses foot way up his

Keister.  Lord what a SNAFU this guy made, I was really looking forward to the 0-31

FT to do more inside engineering.  We got rid of all our MTH Real Track a few years back, might be kicking myself for doing so now.  Got little use for the 0-31 FT now.

PCRR/Dave

Am I missing something here? Did we think this was going to come without the roadbed? If you wanted 31 FT to fit inside 36FT it would need to be closer to 27FT

The rendering in RR-Track shows that the Fastrack 031 curves match the prewar 031 curves and not the postwar/modern 031 curves. I posted this once before a while ago and people felt that RR-Track got it wrong. I guess not. Someone had posted at that time that they had RealTrax 031 nested inside Fastrack 036 and wanted to replace it with Fastrack. I mentioned then that RR-Track showed it wouldn't work. This is not a surprise. I have been playing with uses for the 031 curves in RR-Track and it is good to know that those plans should fittogether as planned.

Yes. If you look closely at my AllAboard Fastrack squares we are running o31 with Lionel roadbed on the inside loop and if the new O31 Fastrack had been that same rail size then the Fastrack O31 should have fit inside the O36...a tight fit but it should have worked. That is what I was hoping for but since it is not then I move on.

If you want (almost) concentric Fastrack or on the carpet around the tree you can do this with the new FT O-31.  This is not for somewhere that you have O-36 screwed down already.

With 4 of the 1.75" Fastrack pieces, one each placed at the "north", "south", "east", and "west" positions of the O-36 ring should allow the FT O-31 ring to sit inside.

  --Joe    


[Note this image is not exactly in proportion as RR-track rendering of FT O-31 seems to be not to the actual dimentions of FT O-31]

It will also fit inside if you use a 1.375" fitter each 90° on the 036 loop. You also need a 10" and 1.75" section off each leg of a 90° crossing to make a figure 8.

Let's hope Lionel sticks to o-36 fastrack in their rtr sets. 

Mike,

   Now that is interesting, gives me hope I can at least custom make the Lionel 031 engineering, to run in a similar manner on a dual layout design.  I though the new Atlas O was going to be made in 031, but its is 036 also, looks like I will need to use some MTH RealTrax for the inside loop after all.

PCRR/Dave

 

Interesting discussion.  Apparently, Lionel was being responsive to the requests from customers for O-31 FT, but did not give thought to why folks wanted O-31.  Replacement of tubular seems to be a strong rational, but that got lost in the discussion at Lionel.

 

Still, the smaller O-31 will help with small layouts where matching with tubular is not important - like the micro-layout contest.  I have been playing around with FT O-31 for the contest, and O-31 switches surely would be helpful.  Oh well.

Ken,

  I know what you mean, I was looking forward to having the 031 FasTrack run just inside the 036, as was shown I can still play some games with it and make it happen, however for the Lionel engineers to completely miss the engineering point of running both these FasTracks together, seems almost like they did it on purpose.  Being a PWE myself I have a hard time believing they simply made a mistake in their design work.  Like you say it will be nice to have this track for smaller layouts also.  Lets hope for some well made switches also.