...I'd be drinking too!

Seriously, I'm in awe every time I see your layout - I'm looking forward to seeing it in person at Hartford.

No video of the tortise installs?  It looks like the turnouts are all good so far, not that there was much doubt if any!  A look behind the scenes where the tortii are being installed would be cool, IMO.

Hi Tim, Sounds all too familiar to me. I have purchased lots of Fast Track products lately and have just made my first few N-scale turnouts. I set up a test jig where I could use the ol 0-5-0 to push cars through and test them all while holding the points closed with one hand. My problem was testing the engines. All of my Engines checked out fine (or so I thought) with my NMRA gauge, but the Atlas and Life- likes all bind at the guard rails. This had me stumped for a while until I tested my Kato engines which went smoothly. It turns out the Atlas engines are all under-gauged too much which was causing the wheels to climb the guard rails. I am not looking forward to re-gauging them! Have you noticed this ever? I love my turnouts by the way! It's funny, cause they technically are in gauge... But they have noticebly more slop on the rails than the Kato units... Presumably to allow for tighter radii. Dustin

I've got two Atlas locos, so now I have to prepare for some issues.  I've got three Kato units (two of them are over 15 years old, though) , so we'll see.  Never a dull moment building models!

I found that if you take all of your old Life-Like and Atlas engines and cars along with all your old Brass sectional track and brass switches and a couple of the little transformers  and give them to the 12 year old across the street you won't have to worry about re-setting any wheelsets. It works really well and I haven't had any problems since.

Dan

P.S

at the same time you start a kid on the road to Model Railroading. The old killing 2 birds with one stone.

Too funny Dan....!

I have found that engines with sloppy wheelsets run well on sloppy commercial turnouts... Take an engine with perfect wheelsets and put it through a sloppy turnout and you get trouble. Put an engine with perfect wheelsets through a precisely built turnout (such as Fast Tracks) and you get  as close to perfection as possible.

I have found the Fast Tracks stuff to be great, but one has to be willing to scrap a few turnouts getting the techniques down. Now that I have done about 6 of them..... (51 more to go),  I can almost do it in my sleep! I love listening to the cars roll through them. You have to listen hard as they don't make much noise!

Since I am handlaying all of my track in N-scale, I have learned patience is a virtue... especially when I am filing every wooden tie and placing them into the tie racks......

Dustin

No video of the tortise installs?  It looks like the turnouts are all good so far, not that there was much doubt if any!  A look behind the scenes where the tortii are being installed would be cool,

I did shoot video of installing some switch machines, I just haven't got to editing it up yet.  Will have it soon and post it here.

especially when I am filing every wooden tie and placing them into the tie racks..

Dustin, why are you filing each tie before they go in the racks? I'm doing the same thing in HO, but I haven't  found that necessary.  I'll be going over them with a sanding block once they're down, but not before.

Just curious!

You offer an interesting solution to this problem. But what if there is no 12 year old across the street?

Irv