Fastrack

I had the same problem with one of my fastrack pieces. I fixed it by using a spare Lionel power wire to jump the power rails on either side of the bad connection, using the tabs a power supply is supposed to be connected to.

Not sure what part breaks.

Are you saying the pin breaks?  If so, there are some batches of Fast Track that went out with pins made of pot metal which were very brittle. Could be what you have.

Train Nut posted:

Are you saying the pin breaks?  If so, there are some batches of Fast Track that went out with pins made of pot metal which were very brittle. Could be what you have.

Are replacement pins available?

Brent 

BReece posted:

Train Nut posted:

Are you saying the pin breaks?  If so, there are some batches of Fast Track that went out with pins made of pot metal which were very brittle. Could be what you have.

Are replacement pins available?

Brent 

No pins are available - it is plated pot potmetal - just find used fastrack for sale here and there for less than retail and replace and keep the broken one for parts or modding.  You can fit O scale track pins in by carefully drilling a 7/64" hole straight into the end with the pins removed.

if you are breaking the pins you are too rough with the disassembly. A left/ right flat or level wiggle should enable you to get a flat screwdriver into - then turn the screwdriver

Thanks for all the comments,  the problem was corrected by using a wire (as suggested) from one piece on track to the next one,  problem with this was the Fasrtrack is 084 curved and has only one electrical connection on a piece ,so the pins were replaced ( total of 10 pins were replaced using some track not in use) . One problem popped up and took an hour or so to find.

One of the pieces of Fastrack that the center pin was replaced, the rail was not re-fastened correctly, so the center rail has higher than the next one , creating a short when a piece of rolling stock rolled over the elevated track and the uncoupling pin touched the rail

Again thanks for all the advice

Brent

Hey Brent,

Thanks for update and details. It may have been worth a call to Lionel for a problem that occurred on that many pieces of track.

In case you haven't discovered the method yet, when you pry the tabs up, use a large flat bladed screwdriver and try to do it in one move. Then, when it is time to rebend them, turn the track railhead down and press on it to hold the rail tightly to the roadbed.

The, place the edge of screwdriver next to roadbed with the blade parallel in the center of the tab. Bend it flat with a rocking motion levering off of the base. That secures it tightly. That will keep the railhead down.

It took a few tries to learn this when I started making custom cut length pieces.

I have attached the technique from the FasTrack Modular specification appendix. You can find the O gauge pin method there, too.