The Kingdom of Philtopia

I have a lot of EZ track, my local hobby store buys used trains from people and most sets they originally got came with it so it is easy to get cheap EZ track. I probably have around 40 curves and 15-20 straight sections at this point which my boys and I arrange into a different configuration each time. It’s simple, it’s fun and it’s different every time.

Not quite enough though

A closed circuit single line track is fun for a bit but everyone wants more eventually, whether it be 2 lines linked together running trains at the same time or spurs for shunting a turnout is a necessary accessory to any model railway. My hobby store carries turnouts for EZ track and I had been eying this crossover track for some time now to add to my set. I finally decided to buy it on my last pay day and took it home to try right away. I laid out a double oval linked together by the crossover and I placed some trains on it for a test.

What the heck man, that’s not cool

So in the store it looked big enough to line up with 3 straight tracks so i did not buy any additional smaller straights (the store didn’t have any anyways) but alas when I got home guess what? It’s about 6″ shorter than 3. I don’t have any 6″ tracks. Luckily I made do with some quick thinking and spare regular tracks.

The good

Wiring up the turnout was a breeze, Bachmann pretty much has simple electrical connectors down to a science, I had this thing wired up and working in no time. It works differently than your usual atlas switch, no need to press down and the switch is immediate. The track also looks real good, you can’t get this product in the crappy steel alloy EZ track.

Then there was trouble

I had some engines on it for a test, my 3 Bachman DCC engines and they were running just fine then I switched directions and it happened, derailment. I put the engine back on the track it went around for another pass….derailment. One more time…Derailment. Derailment derailment derailment!

The track was not filed down very well and it would cause the engines and some rolling stock to jump when they pass over it. Ok I thought, I can file that down later no biggie. Put some cars on the train and decided to do a crossover into the center loop…derailment. In this particular case the one rail on the points was sorta loose and when rolling stock traveled across it the rail leaned out a bit and came out of alignment with the frog causing the wheels to jump the track and derail.

Now the filing I can almost understand, even quality turnouts can sometimes need a little bit of filing to smooth the edge but that plus a loose rail, no matter which direction I choose on that half of the crossover leads to derailments? Plus lets not forget this is called “EZ track” I should have the expectation that out of the box I wouldn’t have to do anything to it to make it work.

So, after fiddling with that for an hour or so I was quite annoyed and wrote Bachmann a lengthy e-mail explaining my disappointment in the product. I explained that I had many of their products and that I was happy with all of them except this one and I hoped we could resolve it. Couple days passed, I tried tweaking the turnout, it’s still broken and I will most likely return it but not one peep from the company.

Sigh

First time they’ve disappointed me. Last time I had issues they were immediately helpful. After doing some research I found out problems with their turnouts are very common so perhaps they are just tone deaf to complaints about the tracks?

Hope you do better in the future Bachmann, one more problem like that and we’re done.