Lionel Fastrack Layout Guide

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Table of Contents

 

 

Fastrack Layout Designs 

Fastrack Layout Designs for Christmas Trees

Straight Fastrack length guide

Curves Available in  Fastrack

Adding Accessories to your layout

How to Add power to your Layout

 

Lionel Fastrack is our most popular selling track.  It is very easy to assemble and take apart. It works well on carpet, hardwood or any flat surface.    It is far superior to the old "knuckle buster" tubular track (O27 -brown ties and O -black ties tubular track).
There is no need to move pins around as the Patented center half-pin allows for track orientation in either direction without the need for moving pins from one end to the next.Since Fastrack cannot be cut, you may need to make specific lengths made up of several FasTrack® sections. This layout designer’s table provides a handy guide to straight Fastrack lengths from 1 3/8 to 10 inches that can be made up from available FasTrack sections.

 

Curves

Curves available from 031 to 096 allow for more realistic operation. You will need a wider radius than O31 for the operation of larger locomotives. With O gauge, diameter is often used when measuring curves sections. These curves are shown as O-xx, where “xx” is the diameter of the curve. O-31is the tightest curve available and has a diameter of 31 inches. However the measurement is made from the Center rail to the Center rail, so the actual footprint of the track is slightly larger.

O-31 EIGHT Curves for A Circle - will make approx 3 foot with track bed
O-36 EIGHT Curves for A Circle - will make approx 3.5 foot with track bed
O-48 TWELVE Curves for A Circle - will make approx 4.5 foot with track bed
O-60 SIXTEEN Curves for A Circle - will make approx 5.5 foot with track bed
O-72 SIXTEEN Curves for A Circle - will make approx 6.5 foot with track bed
O-84 THIRTY TWO Curves for A Circle- will make approx 7.5 foot with track bed
O-96 THIRTY TWO Curves for A Circle- will make approx 8.5 foot with track bed

Adding Power

Fast track is easy to hook up to power.
If you have the terminal sections (comes with every starter set) then you can use that as it already has the wire attached to it. If not, there are 2 terminals under every piece of straight and curved track for transformer and/or accessory power connections - no Lockons required! These have a quick disconnect  so all you need to do is attach one end of your 6-12053 Power Wire to your power souce then the other end attach to one of the tracks. 
The newer sets come with a barrel jack plug and powerpack.

 

 Adding Accessories

Hooking up your Accessories
Under the roadbed of all straight and curved sections are electrical terminals. You can hook up to these terminals in different ways.
• If you already have wire for your accessories, or you have prewired accessories, you will need  FasTrack® terminal connectors. Strip wires back approximately 1/4”, insert wire into the quick connector, and crimp it into place under any section of track!

Operating your Accessories

The 153IR controller 6-14111: The 153IR controller can operates a number of accessories at one time and can operate accessories across a multitude of tracks.  Fro example, if you want to operate a crossing signal when a train passes either of  two tracks, you can accomplish this with the 153IR signal.  You can also control the amount of time you want to operate your signals or gates. There is no need for any insulated track sections.

The FasTrack® Accessory Activator Pack 6-12029: This pack includes one insulated 10” straight track section and two 5” isolated track sections. The isolated 5” sections feature an electrical isolation gap on one outside rail. As the train passes over the electrically isolated outside rail the wheels of the train complete the circuit and send power to your accessory, acting like an ON/OFF switch controlled by the train's presence. • To increase the length of time over which the accessory operates, simply add more insulated track sections between the two isolated sections. To operate more than one accessory, you will need another activator pack

 

Designers Guide to Lengths of Straight Fastrack

Lionel fastrack length chart 

Fastrack Corner Configurations   Fastrack Lengths Chart     Wye Guide Charts  Passing Sidings Plans

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