How many of you are using their jigs? The Knoxville club uses them almost exclusively and bought a complete set.
I have helped Stephen Priest build some FastTracks turnouts. I made my first at his house and it was fantastic.
I had Fast Tracks, all siding, for the spacing of the turn of the century, and I loved it. So easy to make the track! I'm going to go back to it. I really like hand laid rail over commercial track. You have control over the ties being crooked and uneven and you can really make great looking track. Jim should have used Fast Track for the Zalma Branch. Boy would that have really set it! I wouldn't and don't hesitate to recommend them!
Doug, interesting timing. I've been seriously contemplating doing some handlaying in my layout's Stage II (KC 29th Street Interlocking) after reading an EAA magazine article on craftsmanship vs. kit assembly (long story). I'd love to hear more details from you, your club or others as I'm really in the exploratory "have I really lost it for good" stages. Best Regards,
Ah Jim, you have done a fine outstanding job on your track work. Nothing the old hobby knife couldn't fix, right? And your dirt is awesome!
I bought one of the Fast Tracks #4 1/2 jigs and tool sets for some of the tight industry tracks I will have. I plan to use it to make some of the switches I will need. I will borrow jigs from other local modelers to make the rest of the switches that I will need. The smoothness of rolling stock passage through them, the electrical superiority over commercial switches and ease of construction sold me.
Yes, they do many scales. A Google search of Fast Tracks provides http://www.handlaidtrack.com/ If you are thinking about less than 10 of any L/R combination of a given size switch, the payoff is pretty steep, because you will want to use their point and stock rail shaping tools along with the jigs. Their system provides the accuracy to create very high quality product, not unlike a lot of woodworking tools and jigs I use, i.e. Kreg Tools.
