Fastrack and postwar milk car platform

@Scotie posted:

Also does anyone have a wiring diagram for connecting the controller to the track?

Do you have the owner's manual?

It has drawings showing how to connect everything.

Mike

Aren't there conversion track pieces available for mating FasTrak to Lionel tin track and/or operating platforms? Same for MTH Realtrax.

As I recall, for my milk platform, I did NOT cut the MTH track I used. I have not put up anything for years, but I seem to recall bending the outside platform flange from the upright 90 degress it was, to a flat edge, so it would go under the operating track. I attached a picture, sorry it is not a close up.

And for other items, like the cattle loader, I did not cut the track. I don't know about fast track, but MTH Realtrax track had adapters that allowed their track to mate up to older O track, 2 pieces -  which fits the  cattle platform perfectly. That was how I did it. Here is a pict of the cattle loader. If I find a pict of the cut MTH track on the milk loader, I will post it.

Perhaps this previous thread will help. 

Didn't come with the owner's manual. Anyone have the wiring diagram?

Yeah I had to cut them off for it to fit

Found a link to the Lionel manual in an old thread but it's broken. Anyone?

I enlarged the bottom picture in my post above. It appears that I cut the activation track (it appears to be missing the left and  right end on the platform side, BUT I had forgotten that MTH made a track where the side removed. (That picture might be from my 2012 Christmas layout, the last time I believe I put up a garden!  I tend to forget things over the years.) Perhaps that is one of their tracks, if so I did not take the time to beautify it as shown in the link posted for the solution, by cutting it up. I am pretty sure I had to bend the outside flange on one of my platforms one year, again, memory.

There are 3 controllers at the edge of my board in that picture. If I recall, the left runs the cattle loader, the middle runs the coal loader across from the platform, and the right activates the milk car track. I had the accessories so the guests could activate each one from the side of the board.

Maybe one year I will put up another Christmas garden, but age every year is starting to take its toll. I am 75 this, and just do not have the ambition, but I do like to come back here to the site every once in a blue moon. Always good to see the new blood in the hobby!

Not that it really matters, but here is a pict of one of my layouts. Not the one above, in this one the milk platform is tube track with MTH transition pieces.

I put it up in about 2 weeks, a month before Christmas, as I recall. I liked a challenge each year, back then, trains are controlled by DCS. Trains are not on the track in this pict. Greg

@Scotie posted:

Found a link to the Lionel manual in an old thread but it's broken. Anyone?

To wire the FasTrack Operating Track to work with the postwar milk car and plarform, these are the directions needed. Link:

https://www.lionelsupport.com/...315712054250Oper.pdf

Also the original instructions for the postwar operating milk car and platform can be found on Tandem Associates website.  Link:

https://www.tandem-associates....62_operating_car.htm

I hope this helps.

Thanks all who replied. Steve thanks for that manual, Lionel doesn't make finding things easy these day.

@Scotie,

Just in case you need to do any more searches, a little typing and a couple of clicks is all it takes:

1.) Go to lionelsupport.com

2.) Type the product number (6-12054) in the "Search" box and click on '6-12054' after it comes up in the dropdown list:

3.) When the detail page comes up click on 'View' to see the Operating Manual:

Since this new site came online earlier in the year it's been problematic, however it is getting better, slowly, week by week, month by month.

Mike

Thanks Mike

I went through a long out of service Postwar set for my Dad's boss a couple of years ago which included acquiring fastrack sections to replace the original rusty tubular track.  For the milk car, I did take the time to clean up the original tubular operating track section and used fastrack to tubular adapter pieces to splice it into the rest of the loop.  The Milk platform then mounted to the original section as it always had.  In my experience, the original operating track sections are a lot more reliable than the Fastrack ones.  Perhaps I got a dud with the last one I tried.