Realtrax switches

hello boilmaker1.many people have had great success using realtrax switches and realtrax track products.

i used these products also when i first started out a few years ago.i had trouble with mis-alignment with the rails,especially the curved and 10 inch straight sections.

the longer sections i purchased were made perfectly as were many of the short filler sections.

many people however had no issues with the realtrax.i beleive some of the production runs had a quality control issue throughout the years.

i had trouble with my steamers running through the 031 and some of the 042 switches.my diesels ran through the realtrax with flying colors so to speak.

good luck with your purchases.

terry....

I had to fiddle with my switches and some track alignments. Typically, the adjustment has lasted without fail. I have had one switch have more issues thought. But I think it was due to stress of the location as it was a reversing turn. I figured out that it was tender length causing the issue. It was getting caught on the moving rail and the frog, thus it would jump the frog and bend out the rail. A few adjustments to the layout by adding a straight between the turns solved the problem. Now all is well.

What I did:
- I had to adjust the location of where the curve track hits the frog on 2 of the 4. The plastic frog and the rail were not flush. Thus would cause the tender to jump the track as well as some of the cars. It was very hard to bend the rail over on this spot.
- The sliding track for the curve had to be bent over to get tighter to the rail to keep the front 4 wheels on the 4-6-0 to track. The cars would go through without issue.
- I have had to bend in/out track end points to smooth out the junctions. If you can see the cars jump, bounce, or rock at the junctions, then it probably has mis-aligned rail. A slight bend with a pair of pliers makes all nice and smooth.

I have a bunch and am close to hating them. But, I am buried in the stuff and am pretty much stuck with it now.

I started a buddy into trains years ago and he bought the MTH starter sets. Then a couple of switches. After a couple of Christmases of putting them up he had enough.

I found out last week, he bought fasttrack and really likes it. Just bought some switches also. He is bringing me his remnants of Realtrax this weekend. Just what I need. If I was starting over, it would not be with that.

To each his own. I get tired of the "ting" I hear...tabs interlocking then having to be pulled apart. Rails not welded in, and switches that are problems. The do not play nicely with post war sliders on Lionel cars either.

It is the only track I know of that you need to put it together upside down, then flip it. It may be great on a permanent layout, but for temp use, I would steer away.

My 2 cents. Greg

hello guys and gals.....
are the 0-72 realtrax switches trouble free ? I haven't bought one yet but planing to purchase 5 pairs and i am running DCS remote commander and railking challenger. I am using 0-72 curves.
the woman who loves toy trains
Tiffany

I started with RealTrax in 2002, have 25 swithces (21 x O72 and 4 x O54). Have had trouble with only one. Track must be checked for continuity with an ohmeter before installing to ensure that the welds of the track clips to the rail are good. Found quite a few "dead" sections over the years, particularly on the first and second runs. Jim Barrett described the fix for the dead sections and it works well. Overall very happy with the track and switches. Joe

There are 14 Real Trax switches on my layout, and all have been working fine since their installation in 2008. The only issue I had was the guard rails were ineffective because they were too far apart from the running rails. To fix the guard rails, I pry them up, cutoff their locating tabs, and cement them back onto the switch closer to the running rails.

In the yards I use 031 switches. On the main line I use 042, 054 and 072 switches. The coach yard has 042 switches. The non-derailing feature of the Real Trax switch works really well. Had it not been for the really good Real Trax switches, my choice of track would been something other than Real Trax.

Think ROSS!

GG1 man,
I have to agree with you, the next switches I purchase to use with my
FasTrack will be Ross. I run the old 072 Lionel switches right now, the only real problem they have, is the massive power they take to operate correctly.
Ross switches operate corectly with a lot less power, with newer engineering.
PCRR

What i do is check your switches over at
the time of purchase an if something
doesn't look good to your liking get another one.
MTH track doesn't always line up very well an you
have to bend them a little.Its alot easyer being
that the track is hollow now.
I use graffite powder on my MTH switches to make them
work smoother.
All in all you have to take the good an bad of each
kind of track you buy.

quote:

, such as nasty for Lionel sliding operating car contacts,(I think Jim Barrett had a fix for that, too, and I only have one of these cars now) and engine and cars bouncing thru them,

Could you or someone PLEASE post this cure or the link to it???

I for one, would greatly appreciate it......

Thanks much in advance, Greg

quote:

Track must be checked for continuity with an ohmeter before installing to ensure that the welds of the track clips to the rail are good. Found quite a few "dead" sections over the years, particularly on the first and second runs. Jim Barrett described the fix for the dead sections and it works well.

I would be intetrested in Jim Barrett's fix for broken spot welds on the track clips. Anyone know what it is?

Mike

Thanks Joe,

How do you heat the clip & track enough without melting the plastic?

Mike

I don't want to bash MTH because they are my manufacturer of choice, and I have had great success with anything they put wheels on, and love the DCS system.

Three years ago, I started a new layout and bought all Realtrax, about $1500 worth. I had used it on my first small layout and had no problems with it, except for an occasional sloppy switch operation which I could live with.

After the track was fastened to the benchwork and all wiring was done, I was satisfied with its solid performance, but the switches began developing problems almost immediately. Slowly, one switch after another started to malfunction. I made weekly trips to my LHS returning defective switches. I am very lucky to have 2 great hobby shops in my area - Catoctin Mountain Trains and J & B Trains. Eventually, I returned almost all of them for exchange to MTH's headquarters in nearby Columbia, Md. There was no problem in doing the swap with their helpful staff.

However, the exchanges were just as bad. Very sloppy workmanship was noted, like pinched wires hanging out of the bottom covers, rail sections that were uneven, switch motors that would hang up, and a little spring underneath inside the cover that kept slipping off the post. It was easy to fix, but once the layout was decorated, I couldn't imagine having to pull a switch up after it was ballasted so I could flip it over, remove the cover, slip the spring leg back on the post and wire it back into the layout.

Finally, I had enough. Of the 16 042 and 054 switches, I could only get 3 of them to perform reliably. The others all had chronic problems, many of them derailing MTH engines or having the engine stop and hang up on the uneven joints. After contacting MTH and meeting with their staff, we came to a resolution and all the switches were returned.

I must point out that I heard from various sources that MTH was having manufacturing issues with some lots, although they did not disclose that information to me. My 031 switches purchased years earlier for my first layout worked well and are still working fine.

I changed to Gargraves track and Ross switches, with flawless operation for 3 years and counting.

Listen to what others have to say about the current Realtrax switches. I think MTH resolved the manufacturing problems a few years back, but it's hard to tell when the switches that you buy were made (unless they have hollow rail). I don't think there's any date code or other information to tell when they were produced. And I don't know what era my switches were from, so it would be unfair to say that all switches produced in the year 200X are bad.

I never had any connectivity problems between Realtrax sections, even after pulling them apart several times for switch removal. (Yes, they are difficult to put together.) The copper contact fingers were robust and only needed to press against the adjoining section rather than clip or engage with another piece. The plastic roadbed made for a solid railroad, and there was no need for cork underlayment, although I used some foam for sound insulation. Of course, these were the solid rail sections.

I have read comments on this forum regarding MTH's Scale Trax, and I think the owners were happy with the performance. It looks good and performs well, from what I understand.

Just wanted to give you some more information to think about before you commit to Realtrax. Good luck on your design.

Mike

I have had balky MTH switches, too. I haven't had them blow-out altogether. I empathize with folks that get frog-derailments, especially with high-rail Lionel stuff (like Thomas). The only empathy I can offer is the olde 'lining the guide plastic to push the wheel closer to the outside rail' trick. It DOES work.

 

... I just like automated loopback setups. I can't help myself...