Customer Reviews

The Lionel FasTrack Book

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I was very excited to purchase this book when it came out. The first thing I did after reading it cover to cover was try out some of the layouts. That's where my excitement turned to disappointment.

The book has a lot of information but most of the layouts will not work if you build them according to layout plans. Track ends will not meet. Layouts that have been confirmed not to work as planned are on page 67 and on page 104. Also all the reversing loops in the book are wrong as well which are incorporated in the layouts. They can be modified to work, but it will not be obvious how to do this without track layout software. All the layouts in the book should have been checked by the author / editor for accuracy and I can just see the frustrated looks on children and parents trying to duplicate them from the book.

Also, many of the chapters are a rehash of Robert Schleigher's other book, "Big Book of Lionel" so if you have that already, you don't need this book.

Save your money and pass on this one.

This book is of very marginal value. It has many nice, but not very useful picture, but it's technical descriptions are very, very thin and incomplete. If all you're interested in is layouts, the book is ok, but if you're looking for information on how to use lionel systems, this book will be of little help. Typical of the book's inattention to detail: pages 42-44 purport to explain how to use TMCC with Fastrack. In those three pages, there are approximately 2/3 a page of text and 4 different pictures, ALL of which show you how to connect to your track using a Lionel lock-on onto an O-27 (i.e. non-Fastrack) piece of track. Need to know how to get a third wire connected to your Fastrack so you can connect to both the command base and power supply? Figute it out yourself. Worried that Lionel tells you to use 14 gauge wire and the Fastrack connections are 22 gauge? Too bad. No answers here. No apparent awareness of Fastrack-related issues.

This book is typical Lionel. Plenty of gloss, but very poor documentation.

Neither the author or editor have verified the accuracy of the diagrams and parts lists via running actual trains on set up track layouts. This is proven by the diagrams that are not accurate. Checking the layouts on a model railroad CAD program would also have been prudent. The lack of credibility of the track layouts casts a black cloud over the contents of the entire book. If you want to be diappointed when you set-up your layout, buy this book. Otherwise, buyer beware!

This book, while attractively printed, is useless for actually designing and setting up layouts.

I bought it to get the FasFrack geometry, which is meagerly covered in Lionel's catalogs (unlike the exhaustive treatment by, say, Märklin.

Schleicher gets off on the wrong foot by stating that "Lionel has always measured the size of a curve by the diameter of the circle that the curve creates at the outside rail." (Page 77) Bzzzt! WRONG for FasTrack, anyway. A simple tape measure check shows that the curve size is measured by the CENTER rail.

This basic mistake propagates throughout the example layouts in the book. If you measure the track pieces and use a CAD system for track planning, you will find that Schleicher's layouts do NOT align correctly-- in some cases by several inches, as in the yard layout on Page 154. When you try to assemble the listed pieces as shown, reality sets in and you realize that these plans simply do not work. If you force the specified pieces together you will have a distorted and unreliable track layout.

Lionel seems to have made a beautiful track product but picked very bad track section sizes. Schleicher compounds the problem by presenting examples that simply do not work.

This book gives a pretty good overview of Fastrack and layout building in general. A lot of the information has been covered in other books, but the areas specific to Fastrack made this worth the purchase. I suppose that had I not had the other books, this would have made 5 stars and been more valuable. I think this is a must have for folks that are just getting into O gauge railroading as many who have starter sets have Fastrack.

If you're just getting into O scale model railroading, chances are you're going to buy a Lionel set. Since all 'new' Lionel sets feature Fastrack, I would consider this a good book for that beginner to purchase. It give a good overview of model railroading, including scenery, some benchwork, and wiring. If you've already purchased other books, especially overviews, I'd say it's a toss up as to whether or not to buy this one.

With regards to the invalid layouts, I say:

a). As with other layout books, you should use these layouts for idea's and inspiration. Copy some of it, then add your own touch.

b). If you're serious about expanding beyond a basic oval, you'll most likely be purchasing track layout software anyways, so you can fix the problems yourself.

I wish I read the reviews before buying this book. This book is nearly useless and full of misinformation.

I was hoping that this book would have enough information on Lionel FasTrack geometry to allow me to design my own layout. But sadly, it does not. In one chapter, it says that one could design a layout with a compass and triangle, but most people find it easier to just buy a bunch of track and see what works. Well.... Lionel track is EXPENSIVE. I want to know it will work before I drop a few hundred bucks. What exactly is this book for?

Other pieces of misinformation in the book:
- FasTrack curve radius is from the CENTER rail, not the OUTER rail as described in the book.
- Last I checked, a quarter circle is 90 degrees, not 45 degrees...
- Lionel does make 048 switches (left out of this book?)
- The electrical diagram for keeping two transformers in phase is MISSING A VERY CRITICAL DETAIL - the transformers must also be plugged into a wall outlet that is on the same phase!!! If you plug one in to an outlet on one side of the room and another on the other side of the room and they happen to be on circuits that are on opposite sides of your house breaker box and you follow this diagram, you will have out of phase wiring!!!
- As others have mentioned, some of the layouts in this book do not work!

Here are two questions I'd still like answered (you will not find the answers in this book):

- The larger Lionel FasTrack switches drive the train straight forward before the switch begins the turn... how far forward does it go? This is important if you need to buy a matching straight section on the other side of your layout.

- How long are the 45 cross pieces or the 90 cross pieces?

- Can a switch be used as an electrical isolation block?

I agree with the previous review. This was not what I expected. There were plenty of O track plans for 'old' Lionel track that don't work with the new FastTrack. Very dissapointed.

The book provides a very thorough treatment of the FasTrack product line covering the individual FasTrack components. There is a great amount of detail on the FasTrack switches, their design and use, as well as how to wire and operate them. Extensive track layouts are shown, in photos and schematics, from very simple to extremely complex. The legends for the track components on the schematics are sometimes hard to follow, but that was only a minor nuisance. Overall, an excellent book for the FasTrack user, or if one is contemplating investing in the product line for their Lionel layout.

Others have detailed the factual inaccuracies of this overly expensive book and the fact that certain of its track diagrams simply do not work. In addition to these issues, the book is weak on substantive technical information, especially on wiring matters.