# anyone used Bachmann EZ Street 'track' ?



## spacomp92653 (Jul 5, 2018)

I'm interested in the EZ street track and wondered if anyone has experience with using it, the quality, reliability, whether trolleys work well on it?

Wondering also what is the rail material if known?

Wanting to use it with an MTH bump n go trolley


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## Logan (Nov 21, 2015)

Sure. For your trolley it should work well. I've used it with MTH, Lionel, Pittman, Bachman and Atlas. If you string wire it will even work with small flanged 2-rail cars. I much prefer using the 21 inch curves. My 4 wheel cars even slow down on the 16 inch ones. That being said....with slight modification my Atlas cars take the 16 inch turns easily. It's good stuff...proven over quite a number of years now.
Logan


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## bigdodgetrain (Jun 12, 2015)

the san diego 3 railers put in a small loop in 2014 and other then needing a cleaning now and then it works well.


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## Lehigh74 (Sep 25, 2015)

My motorized Corgi trolley would not work on the 21” EZ Streets curves so I had to make my own streets originally with O27 track and currently with a mix of Gargraves and O27. I use N scale roadbed between the rails and foamboard outside the rails. Here’s some background on my streets loop.
https://www.modeltrainforum.com/showthread.php?t=185222

Are you just running your bump and go back and forth in a straight line or will you have Streets curves? MTH says their bump and go trolley operates on O27 curves. They may go on 21” curves, but I would see if there is a local shop where you can test it before you buy a bunch of Streets track. Williams/Bachmann Peter Witt Street Car will work on diameters as little as 21”.

Lee Willis has extensive experience with Streets track. He has written a few books on the track as well as the vehicles and has made them available in pdf format to forum members.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Lee Willis is the EZ Streets expert here, he's done a ton of it, and also created a host of unique Streets vehicles.


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## Lee Willis (Jan 1, 2014)

*Yes. I have used it since 2005 on my layout,* at one time having about 300+ lane-feet of it. I have a bit less now, about 200 feet.

I call the road-track and car system 'Streets, because it has been sold over the years as Superstreets by K-Line and by Lionel, and is now made and sold by Bachmann under the name EZ-Street. I wrote two books on using it, available on Amazon, and I posted downloadable free versions of them here years ago, but forget where. I'll try to find links if I can. 

To answer your questions specifically. 
*
Yes, I have a lot of experience with it,* including using, modifying, and taking care of it. The quality is excellent - the track is exactly the same (except for the markers name cast in the underside, and the color of the plastic) whether made and sold my K-Line, Lionel, or WBB. 

*The reliability is okay, but you can make it better. *The road-track sections are much shorter than train track sections, which means that you have _more junctions_ between track sections than you would for a similar length of train track -- point being there are more opportunities for there to be a bad connection between adjacent roadtrack sections. Exacerbating that, the thin narrow rails mean that contact patches at each junction are far smaller than with train track, making it more likely you will not get a fim connection when you clip the track together or that a connection might open as the track settles and ages. Thus, Superstreets and EZ-Street roadtrack are _much _more likely to develop dead spots - the odd 2 1/2 inch section or straight ten inch section that has no power - than train track is. I'd say about four times more likely.
That problem was _very _annoying for me when I first started using 'Streets. I could always find the dead spot and fix the issue, but it kept happening once place ort another. So all my road track is soldered underneath now. This takes a lot of work and attention to detail. Unlike with train track Ican't solder the joints at the junction (I would melt the plastic), so I installed jumpers for each rail from each section under the track between sections. This greatly increases the time and work required. You have to solder a small jumper wire (#24 or smaller works) to the underside for the rail under the road on one section and lead and solder it to the same rail on the next section, then cut a notch for the wire to smoothly pass from one track section to another through the butted junction of the "road" section endswhere they meet, etc. But once done the track never fails. My current 300 feet has been on the layout for maybe ten years, operating maybe two hours a day ever day of the year. I have problems with dirty rails once in a while, but no electrical issues. 

I have very limited experience with WBB's turnout (switch) so I do not know how durable that is, but the ones I have work well. 

Almost all the track on my layout is built into the landscape, as shown in the photos, with soldered at all junctions 

The rails are stainless steel, and quite thin. 

The MTH bump and go trolley works well on it, as do most other trolleys - I have about four or five different types and at one time had a dedicated trolley line - a third lane between two going- and coming- roads for cars and trucks, on my main Street. A bump and go trolley ran continuously with no problems for ages. 

There are two radii of 'Streets track available, 16" and 22" diameter. Both are tighter than O-27 and two-axle trolleys like the bump and go trolleys, or anything with just two fixed axles (as opposed to piviting trucks) that you run will slow down through these curves, compared to the speed it willrun on striaghts, muchmore than it will slow down on O-27 curves. In fact, with some trolleys, the difference in speed through an EZ-Street 16" curve compared to the speed it will go through a 22" curve is quite dramatic - so you may find that your trolley will be smoother running if you set up the route with only the wider of the two radii available - 22" curves.

Here are some photos from a trolley discussion posted in sept. 2018. Note one of the trolleys is a bump and go.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

And that, as we say in the news business, is a wrap!


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## Maxum (Apr 10, 2017)

Little bit off topic here, but if anyone is looking for a system to have operable vehicles, I think I found a new type. This is a new start up company and they're still working on their website. I just saw a demo of their system at the Denver train show last week. It was impressive. There are no tracks or rails. The vehicles can turn different directions at intersections or stop for traffic lights. The vehicles come in a multitude of scales. They sell the parts to motorize your own vehicle if you want.

https://automotionfx.com/


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## Lee Willis (Jan 1, 2014)

Yeah, this is the Faller car system, made in N and HO. I had a bunch on my N-guage layout until 2004. Tt was great, but _very_ expensive. Still, it was neat: the cars have rchargeable batteries powering them and use a magnetic steering actuator follow an iron wire buring just under the road. I've always wanted to see it in O but faller doesn't make its system in that scale. If these guys do, I might take a chance . . . It would be fun.


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## Maxum (Apr 10, 2017)

Lee Willis said:


> I've always wanted to see it in O but faller doesn't make its system in that scale. If these guys do, I might take a chance . . . It would be fun.


It looks like AutomotionFX is doing some new stuff and building on the Faller system. AutomotionFX is doing 1/43 and 1/48 cars. They had them running at the show in Denver. The link below has a photo from the Denver show with a O scale train on Fast Track. Also in the background was a display of O scale cars in both 1/43 and 1/48.

https://img1.wsimg.com/isteam/ip/1a62e907-3616-4411-b5cc-382593ca2fd4/IMG_2515.jpg/:/rs=h:650,cg:true,m


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## spacomp92653 (Jul 5, 2018)

Lee, can E-Z Street track connect to any other type of track, Fastrack, Atlas, or it's strictly stand alone?


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## Lee Willis (Jan 1, 2014)

As designed it is really stand alone. Irecall there might have been a connector section to fastrak. Not sure though.

Ah, found one!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/O-Gauge-K-Line-Super-Streets-10-Transition-to-FasTrack-2-Pcs-/262854386977


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## Millstonemike (Aug 9, 2018)

Lee Willis said:


> As designed it is really stand alone. Irecall there might have been a connector section to fastrak. Not sure though.
> 
> Ah, found one!
> 
> https://www.ebay.com/itm/O-Gauge-K-Line-Super-Streets-10-Transition-to-FasTrack-2-Pcs-/262854386977


You need pairs of two, no?

Other than a straight trolley line ...


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

spacomp92653 said:


> Lee, can E-Z Street track connect to any other type of track, Fastrack, Atlas, or it's strictly stand alone?


It wouldn't be that difficult to simple line up the Streets track to the desired mating track for the transition. You don't really have to have a specific mating piece.


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## Bill Webb (Sep 14, 2015)

Lee or anyone else who is interested, check out automotionfx.com. They have O scale and a selection of vehicles. Looks pretty neat.


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