A review of the first elements from the FX Track system

[M_slug357]

@paulmaglev A bit late to the party, but welcome!

Hopefully they’ll achieve success!!

[Toastie]

Yes! Here we go:

It is a nice find though!!! The topic has been discussed here quite a bit. But: Thank you for the link (I did not have it!)

All the best
Thorsten

[dr_spock]

Michael posted that himself in this thread:

https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/183202-a-review-of-the-first-elements-from-the-fx-track-system/&do=findComment&comment=3357504

 

[LEGOTrainBuilderSG]

So great to see high quality metal rails being produced again. Cool to know that there will be a potential FX 9v bogie down the line. Exciting times for 9v LEGO train hobbyists. 

Out of curiosity, are there any plans of also making narrow gauge metal tracks (4-wide) with 9V narrow gauge bogies? This would be the dream for me (and probably for other narrow gauge train builders) because all these gearing system takes up too much space within the locomotive body. 

Looking forward to what FX produces next. 

 

[Bartosz]

Sort of a tangential question, hope it's not a hijacking.

Do people using powered rails control their trains separately via some kind of DCC? (I understand itd require custom motors.) Does FX offering is going to alter the landscape in that regard (powered boogie?)

[zephyr1934]

8 hours ago, Bartosz said:

Sort of a tangential question, hope it's not a hijacking.

Do people using powered rails control their trains separately via some kind of DCC? (I understand itd require custom motors.) Does FX offering is going to alter the landscape in that regard (powered boogie?)

There are a few people who have modified lego 9v train motors to be DCC. I think that is one of the ultimate directions that Michael is aiming for with the metal track, but that would be a ways off.

 

[SteamSewnEmpire]

It's a nice looking product, but batteries remain the future.

[dtomsen]

3 hours ago, SteamSewnEmpire said:

It's a nice looking product, but batteries remain the future.

Battery-driven trains can run on 9v metal track but rail-powered trains can't run on plastic track.

So best of both worlds really  

Edited February 26, 2021 by dtomsen

[fmp99]

Thanks for the very informative review and still Excited for this product March 1st 2021 launch and future 9V products.

Thank you Michael and FXBricks for taking the costly gamble to feed us 9V fanatics, wishing you success with this venture and future FXBrick products. I’m still trying to get my wife into my Lego hobby with little success but she does support me, think its awesome you and Jason have spouses who are talented Lego fans themselves.

Edited February 27, 2021 by fmp99

[XG BC]

I am soooo going to buy 9v motors from fx tracks when they (hopefully) become available at the end of this year! Thanks for doing this for us FxBricks!!!

XG BC

[zephyr1934]

Part VI and closing thoughts added to first post in this thread. The formal review is now complete

[zephyr1934]

On 2/10/2021 at 9:54 AM, Ashi Valkoinen said:

Thanks for your article.

Do you allow me to translate it to my native language (Hungarian) and share is on our blog? With correct references, of course.

 

On 2/11/2021 at 4:48 AM, Ashi Valkoinen said:

Thank you. In this case I'll wait until you finish your article.

The review is complete and you can repost this article with translations, just include a link to the original source (this thread)

[Black Knight]

Oooooh! You can now pre-order up to 3x S32 packages at JB Spielwaren. Which I just did.

[dtomsen]

I also had to buy some right away even though our LTC is organizing a joint purchase 

Edited March 1, 2021 by dtomsen

[Sunil766]

Have followed this endeavor since I joined the forum and am very happy that all this is happening. When coming out of my dark ages I could only read about past relics with ME models. Very glad that we are now presented an even better alternative. @michaelgaleyour video is amazingly professional and soothing to watch.

Due to a lack of space I prefer building layouts for a short duration and prefer the 9v system for that. Was gonna order the large radius curves first thing in the morning but had to realize they are only available in June as opposed to the s32 in March - I must have misunderstood that unfortunately. I built up a collection of approx 140 straights so I'm good in that regard (for now). 

Anyway, ordering the curves as soon as they're available! 

Keep it up and I hope the best for you and this undertaking. Thanks for the comprehensive review as well, really got me looking forward to better looking trains in curves :-) 

 

 

[derlumpi]

I really love my old 9V trains and my two sons love them as well :-D. Budget is tight but I will order those straight tracks just to support future development. Can't wait to see what fx bricks come up with next.

[fhurlbrink]

On 2/16/2021 at 11:19 PM, michaelgale said:

@fhurlbrink From our perspective, producing the R40 curve would really be commercial suicide. 

Even with a thin retail margin of 25%, there is no way anyone would pay $50 USD for a box of 8x R40 curve tracks--or more to the point, there is definitely not 625x customers who would pay $50 USD per box ($6.25 per unit).  Re

 

@michaelgale

Thank you for your explanations. Well, I personally would pay these $50 (or ~ 42 € in my case), but I have to suspect, that I would be the only one.

We both are interested, that your company makes economically sense and does exist for longer time. For you it is obvious, but for me being a customer I am also interested that your company does exist, because I can't buy products from a closed company. This would be loose-loose situation.

I understand now, why you don't produce R40 curves.

Well, then I will just use the greater radiuses (at the moment I plan with R56 and R72) and enjoy the fact that it will be more flexible and realistic.

I wish your company good success!

Like some other users, I have also ordered 3 packs of S32 tracks at JB Spielwaren.

[michaelgale]

Since the launch of our Fx Track system on Mar 1, we have been truly blown away by the response and support of you guys!  We have nearly sold out of our first production batch of S32 straight tracks in both our Canadian and EU inventories in less than 3 days!  We expected a positive response, but we did not expect such a rapid sell out--thank you so much!  There are still some small remaining quantities in both the Canadian and EU stores, so if you're still on the fence about placing an order, time is running out before our inventories our completely depleted. 

We are already getting our next production runs setup with our manufacturers for much larger production batches of not only the S32 straight track, but also the R72 curve track.  We are also going to try to expedite the introduction of the R88 curve and S8 straight track into the product catalog.

For those of you have bought the S32 straight tracks, we have confirmed that they have shipped from Hong Kong to both our inventory locations in Canada and Germany.  Once those shipments have cleared customs and have been delivered, we will do our best to get orders packed and shipped as soon as possible.  We will ask for some patience since it will take some time to process the large volume of orders.

Lastly, a huge thanks to Benn @zephyr1934 for his amazing and comprehensive review.  I am so impressed with the level of detail and disciplined methodology that he brought to the review.   His feedback has been truly valuable and we've already absorbed some of his observations into our future products. 

Once again, thank you so much for your confidence and support of Fx Bricks and our new Fx Track metal track system.  We are so proud of the product and can't wait for you folks to get it into your hands into your layouts!  In the meantime, we are doing are best to make more tracks and get them to our stores as soon as we can!

[Bartosz]

Great news. And let's also hope for converts - I'm saying that because I don't own any 9V stuff but I'm seriously considering it after this release (looking for 4563, i just love that small red loco), so hopefully there's more such people.

[kieran]

Great result guys, well done all round

[legotownlinz]

13 hours ago, Bartosz said:

And let's also hope for converts 

A few years earlier I would have started with Fx Tracks but now I own so many plastic tracks that it would be prohibitively expensive to convert to 9V (see some impressions of my current layout below). I couldn't use all the special elements that I enjoy a lot, but will never be available in a 9V version. Beside that, multi-train control is an unresolved issue of the 9V system. There are no DCC motors available and personally I hate the complexity of DCC and do not like to use it for my LEGO trains.

Therefore, I do not see conversion from plastic to 9V to happen at a larger scale. Plastic tracks have far more advantages than disadvantages when compared to 9V.

 

[The Brick Boss]

@legotownlinz Nice layouts! 

[legotownlinz]

Just now, Brandon Pea said:

@legotownlinz Nice layouts! 

It's actually one layout across multiple rooms.

[The Brick Boss]

1 hour ago, legotownlinz said:

It's actually one layout across multiple rooms.

Wow! That's neat! I wish I had more trains myself. 

[Black Knight]

@legotownlinzAwesome. Is this a permanent layout?