The Lionel FasTrack Book |
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Author:
Robert S. Schleicher
By MBI
Average Customer Rating:  
List Price: $29.95
Our Price: $24.66
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Product Description
When Lionel introduced its new FasTrack system in 2004, model train enthusiasts quickly warmed to the increased realism—right down to the integrated roadbed and darkened center rail—and the greater ease of use. In this book, the author of The Big Book of Lionel presents the first complete guide to the FasTrack system. Amply illustrated with color photographs and 36 track diagrams, the book instructs readers on every aspect of the system, from assembling and disassembling FasTrack to building a simply oval, planning a layout within various space constraints, building tracks for two trains and reversing trains, and designing unique layouts—even yard layouts.
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Save your money, 2008-01-13
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.
Inaccurate! BEWARE!, 2008-01-11
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.
The Lionel FasTrack Book, 2007-09-13
Lionel FasTrack Book - 624200
This book was extremely helpful to me. It is well organized and provided a wealth of information about Lionel's newest track product. My only regret is that I didn't purchase it sooner. This is a "must have" for anyone launching into the use of this track system.
Get on Track with Fasttrack , 2007-05-24
It's a great place to start if you are new to fasttrack. lots of neat ideas, but I found myself using them as a starting point for more elaborate or special shaped layouts.
Lionel fastrack , 2007-03-08
The book was overall pretty good...I just would have liked to see more layouts and actual wiring schemes...
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 625.19
EAN: 9780760323526
ISBN: 0760323526
Label: MBI
Manufacturer: MBI
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 160
Publication Date: 2006-05-31
Publisher: MBI
Studio: MBI |
