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Released only a few months ago on April Fools' Day, these metal rails produced by Mike Fetsko and Eric Olson over at ME Models have been a breakthrough in LEGO trains. Years ago when LEGO announced that 9V trains would be no more, we were left with a finite amount of resources on the market, such as electrified tracks. The metal rails produced by ME Models have offered us an excellent alternative to the otherwise dwindling supply of official LEGO 9V tracks. Lots of people in the train community have expressed their satisfaction with the product, but today I'll offer my own perspective.
Name: Metal Rails - Gray (PolyBag) [ME900G-BAG]
Price: USD 4.99
Further References: flickr, ME Models, Eurobricks Discussion/Information Topic
ME Models sells a wide variety of rails. You can see them all here: Click me
The (USPS) Box
The United States Postal Service is gracious enough to lend a box for the box picture of this review. Now let's open this up to see the goodies inside.
The Contents
I ordered five of the polybagged rails in gray. Each polybag contains four rails and four dark bluish gray connectors, which allows two sixteen stud tracks to be created. What ME Models has done, and LEGO hasn't, is offer rails that come in different lengths, ranging from 8 studs long (half length) to a whopping 64 studs long (quad length). Furthermore, they even offer these in brown. In July, ME Models will be releasing curved tracks too, which will be real exciting to see.
They even throw in this neat little postcard/advertisement slip, with a montage of some of the other models they have for sale.
The Polybag
The packaging is pretty much akin to products that you may find in a hobby store, and easy to open without mangling up anything. Through the transparent bag you can see all the contents inside. The backside has the general disclaimers stating that this is not a product released by LEGO. It's also says it's American-made.
The Instructions
Not really instructions, but basically a paper slip with tips on ensuring conductivity when the layout is operating. It's a tip from ME to YOU...
The Pieces
Inside are four aluminum alloy rails, four ABS connectors, as well as a packet of aluminum tape. Obviously the rails and connectors are used to make the tracks. What the aluminum tape does is that it provides an additional connection between the rails of connected tracks to ensure that the electricity is conducted. It is optional; more than likely the tracks will work correctly even without the tape.
Note that the ties (or sleepers) are not included with the polybagged tracks. They only come with the boxed rails. The ties are just 2x8 plates which are fairly common.
The Tracks
They look beautiful when complete. Assembling them is fairly straightforward. Attaching some of the connectors and the ties to the metal rail required a lot of muscle, and I found that I had to press down with my hand and all of my body weight on the rail to get them to snap together. With others, it was much easier to snap together. Some of the plastic on the connectors and the ties shaved off a little bit as I was trying to attach them to the rail, but personally this doesn't matter much to me as they'll remain attached to it anyway. But regardless, this is only an assurance that these rails are strong and stable, and will not come apart unless you disassemble them.
The tracks connect with each other perfectly, and aren't loose or anything.
For some reason, in one of my polybags I found an extra connector, and it was just in that one too. Odd, but I'm not complaining. Always good to have an extra lying around!
Of course, they are made to be compatible with official LEGO 9V tracks, and consequently the newer plastic tracks too. As of now, they are not compatible with the flex tracks, but according to the website there will be an adapter for them released soon.
Here are the tracks installed in my small party table layout. I've only attached ties to some of the tracks, but they are not needed for the train to actually run.
At first when I turned on the electricity, the train didn't go. This is where the aluminum tape I mentioned before came in, and it was only one connection that was perhaps a little faulty. After that, everything worked out fine. Sometimes you don't even need to apply the tape, and for some reason just rearranging the tracks will create a better connection than before. But most of the time, the connection seems to be fine without any alterations.
This is also an incentive to get the longer pieces of track. If you have a display where there are long stretches of just straight track, it's best to get the double or quad length rails, as then you'll have fewer points of connection and the electricity is more likely to be conducted throughout the layout.
As you can see, my Railway Express runs just fine with the ME tracks.
When I decided that I needed more straight tracks, I was torn between buying official LEGO ones on Bricklink, or using a relatively new product by a third party. After reading some nice reviews on Railbricks and discussions on Train Tech, I eventually chose to buy the tracks from ME Models as that was cheaper and less of a hassle than going to many different sellers on Bricklink. Thank goodness for these, as the train community now has a source to buy 9V tracks, a source that will be continuously replenishing their supply too. I highly recommend them if you're looking for cost-effective and high quality tracks.
Thanks for reading!
