Lionel FasTrack Grade Crossing with Flashing Crossbucks and Gates

GRANDSON LOVES IT! He's obsessed with train especially the crossings. He has a fast track Mikey Disney train and a Army lional fast track trains. Tracks work with either set and you don't have to buy anything else for it to work, just plug it into the track and there you go. You also have the option to turn of the gate bell, which can be a little loud.. Very well built.

Muy bien fabricado como todo producto Lionel

This is a very realistic and detailed crossing for Lionel O-scale Fastrack. It has two moving barrier arms, two sets of alternating blinking red lights, and a ringing bell. Some of the other reviews I saw didn't install the device properly. Long story short, on most Lionel O scale setups the inside rail is hot and the two outside rails are neutral - and in electrical continuity with each other. This crossing, however, is a three-piece kit; it's one 10-inch straight with the actual crossing, and two 5 inch "insulated" straights. These insulated track pieces have one of their two outer rail sections that is insulated and doesn't conduct. One piece of insulated track has to be used on each side of the crossing; these pieces have to be oriented so that the insulated rail is on the same side; and the insulated rails have to be on the 'switch' side of the crossing (the crossing has a switch in case you want to turn off the bell for some reason.) The key piece of the puzzle is that Lionel O-scale rolling stock and locomotives have conductive wheels and axles and as they roll over a track piece, they will put the left and right outside rails into electrical continuity, bypassing the insulation on the insulated track section. When this happens, it signals the crossing machinery to activate. One of the problems, as you can see from the video, is that 5 inches of straight doesn't really give enough time to get the barriers down before the train enters the crossing. My two year old loves this feature, as it has allowed the train to crash into a lot of his Hot Wheels, which he enjoys; but many of you will want a more realistic experience. I thought you might be able to sneak a piece of regular straight Fastrack in between the crossing and the insulated track, but no dice, all regular Fastrack splices the outside rails. To make this work, Lionel makes extra insulated Fastrak available for purchase, although you may have to hunt around to find it. There is some in the Accessory Activator track set, which also has a little plug in it that will allow you to activate any Lionel accessory the same way. It's also sold separately as SKU 612027. What else? Well, the barrier arms have little red domes on them that look like they should light up, but they don't. The arms only raise to 45 degrees, which is not enough to let an O-scale car or truck pass under them. Does any of this matter? Not to me or my kids; we're delighted with our working crossing. Is it worth the price? I struggle to answer this; the thing is a small fortune, it cost almost as much as the whole rest of the set it's connected to. But if you've gotta have it, you're not likely to find anything anywhere that could substitute.

When I put this item in a new layout, the gates and lights worked as they should, but the engine would slow down briefly or stop when it got just beyond the crossing. I almost returned the product, but thought I would first try flipping it end for end, and that worked.

Love it. It really adds a lot to the train going around the Xmas tree and the gifts. Works just as advertised, my kids loved it (so do I). It's little on the expensive side (imo) but it really is nicely made and works just as advertised. Be sure to feel for the breaks on the rails of the track that comes with the gate crossing and make sure it matches up with the breaks on the gate crossing, this will make it work as advertised. Have fun.