The layout is unitrack both for the running quality and the electrical quality. In a few places I have used Atlas flex. A lot of my sidings and spurs are also unitrack. The few places I have used the Atlas flex is where I needed the track low such as the container and ore shipping pier. There I have used the little short adapter piece to join my flex after the turnout. No need to shim anything and it works like a charm. The low track and with shelving cork butted up to the Atlas track it appears as if the track is recessed into the surface. The unitrack and its wiring and connection solved a heck of a lot of electrical issues that I do not have anymore. I use the short Kato flex track connector after I have used unitrack to get the track siding headed in the right direction off the turnout. A nice trouble and hassle free way of coming off the high iron to the low iron. It has been almost 2 years since I ripped up all the Atlas and Peco turnouts and the flextrack and went to a layout of about 95% unitrack and I have not looked back. I also have used Katos power terminals and wiring and their turnout controllers.
I have used Atlas track on my principle layout, almost exclusively, for 56 years and, other than having to tweak some switches, which must be done with ALL commercial switches, I have never really had a problem with it. In fact, I do believe that some of the track on my current layout is some of the original 56-year-old track and the trains roll right along. Doig
I don't delude myself into thinking I am operating real trains. And, I use under-table machines for many locations. Doug
Gotta love that bumpy plastic that kind of almost might be getting close to looking like ballast. Doug
I have to guess because it has been about 8 years since I bought any but it was all through eBay and with careful shopping/bidding, I suppose it was about 20 bucks per #6 switch and under table machine for the code 80's. The code 55's probably 5 bucks more but there are only 2- 3 of those. Doug
Actually, I went back through my old emails from 2015 and found the eBay confirmations and such. I was buying #6 Custom Line switches for about 10 dollars apiece and I found an auction for a bunch of the #65 under table machines that worked out to about 2 dollars apiece so the total cost per installation was about 12 dollars apiece. These were all new items still in the packages. Hooray for eBay! Doug
Ever notice that you cannot disguise Unitrack? Even if you add that horrendously overpriced ballast that Kato sells ($11.90 for a mere 7 ounces) it still screams Unitrack.
I just want to be clear that I am not criticizing anybody for using Unitrack or anything like that. I also have nothing against Kato or even Unitrack specifically. I remember way back when Linn Westcott proposed track with integral simulated ballast, as a deluxe track, in an old MR in the sixties. I didn't like the idea then, either. I just thought such a track restricted the modeler to a given appearance without drastic disguise and then, what's the point? And, I'm afraid I may have gotten this thread started way off track with my original wise-crack. Doug
You won't find those prices today. Peco C55 large turnouts that I purchased new for $12.95 are now priced north of $28.00. Unitrack turnouts (#4,6) are around $37.00. If I had to start in model RRing today, I probably wouldn't.
Look, we all have different product/practice preferences to share with others. We all take those we like, and we leave those we don't. One can point out the reasons why they prefer a specific product/method/etc. without demeaning the different choices others have made. Last time I checked, almost every choice involves an assessment of our time, skill, space and/or money. Guess what? Everyone of us has different amounts of each of those, but we still gather here to find and share helpful information, and to encourage each other. Can we all do that?! Please?
I agree 100%. Those that have been here since at least 2008 know me pretty well. I'll stir the pot now and then and even pull a leg...or two. I am basically harmless.
They are right..... You know what guys, every kind of track has it's advantages and disadvantaged. I think good ole regular flex track and other track products that don't have attached roadbed looks good but you know what, my skill level with it was never good enough to get super reliable running like some of you do and I was never good with ballast work so in the end, i was just never happy with how my layouts built with it ran or looked. Despite that, I don't frown upon people who use and enjoy it and I don't bash the product. My current layout is built with Unitrack and I'm pleased with how well the trains run on it and I'm even okay with how it looks. In the overall scheme of things, I'm happy with the choice I made to go with it and that's that, if you don't like it or me for using it and saying good things about it, then I guess I should just crawl back under my rock and go back to being my usual unsocial self.
C'mon guys, enough of this track talk!! Let's talk about what is the best DCC system. (Ducks and runs for the nearest exit. )
Through a well known TrainBoard advertiser, the Kato #6 are $22.99 each. #4 are more expensive as they also come packaged with additional track for building yard ladders, etc. I am a senior with limited hobby funds. But when I scrapped my old T-Trak modules and went with all new manufactured bases and track, I went all Unitrack. I had spent budgeted years using Peco and Atlas flex. This time I wanted rock solid, highest reliability possible.
