Bachmann HO EZ-Track - Multiple grades or a change in mfg. process?

[brandonbeckner]

After buying a few Bachmann DC starter sets, all of which came with Steel Alloy/Black Roadbed EZ-Track (I'm not referring to any Nickel Silver/Grey Roadbed), that there appear to be two different grades, or possibly two different series, of EZ-Track. Some are solid under the rail ends, and some are notched. I've also noticed the "notched" type have the rail ties more cheaply moulded onto the roadbed. I'm sorry I was not able to attach any comparison pictures to show you.

My "Thoroughbred" set came with 12pcs of the solid 18"R curves and one piece of notched 9" straight.
Three of my Santa Fe sets (SF Flyer, Canyon Chief, War Chief) all came with 11pcs of notched 18"R curves.
My "Overland Limited" set came with 16pcs of solid 22"R curves and 5pcs of solid 9" straight.

All of the other pieces of Bachmann EZ-Track which I purchased, including some 22"R curves, 9" straights, 36" straights (in bulk), 3" straights, and L/R Turnouts, all appear solid under the rail ends.

Has anyone else noticed this, or does anyone know if there is an expected difference of quality in the track which comes with starter kits vs. purchased track? Or, was there a change in the manufacturing process at some point?

[Terry Toenges]

Instead of drilling holes, try this with foam window seal-1/2" wide x 1/4" high. It works great. I cut strips and stick them under the track. I know drilling hole is cheaper.

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[Terry Toenges]

It worked for me as long as I made it three strips wide the length of each piece. I still hear some noise but it's greatly diminished.
Your's sounds great but I don't want to go through all of that. Mine isn't a serous layout anyway.

[Ralph S]

Has anyone else noticed this, or does anyone know if there is an expected difference of quality in the track which comes with starter kits vs. purchased track? Or, was there a change in the manufacturing process at some point?

From what I read (up to #5), I couldn't conclude that your question was answered.  So, for what's it's worth, here's my answer.
A little background is in order.  I first started my track with Atlas, when Bachmann came out with their EZ-track, I fell in love with it.  Now all of my track is EZ track, including all switches and turnouts. (Exception that I will be using a three-way switch not by Bachmann in the near future.  Bachmann doesn't make a three-way switch).    I use Atlas (previously Bachmann used Atlas track too, in my opinion) for short connections when Bachmann EZ doesn't quite fit the way I want my layout to function.  I have both the Steel and Nickel-Silver. 
Now to answer your question. 
The black Steel track I haven't seen any issues with quality, only that the black spring connectors will fail (break) more often than the grey Nickel-Silver connectors.  I don't have a root cause or contributing factor for that occurrence, but that's my experience.  I've bought both the starter kits and the purchased track via packages and have not noticed any observable differences.   I did have one exception, that I haven't been able to pin down.  On one of my grey Nickel-Silver switches, the rivet broke, there was no rust on the rivet, but it seems to have been an incomplete rivet before it was installed onto the track.  That's my only event that I can safely say was a problem.   Before it totally failed, I thought it was a frog issued in the track.

If there was a change in the manufacturing process, only Bachmann can answer that.

Hope this helps.

By the way, having the sound of the track vibrate and be noisy isn't an issue with my layout.  I don't use plywood.  All of my layout is on foam , and I do not tie down the EZ track to the foam except in curves.  To me, that's the plus behind the EZ track, all of the track will move if you move the track.  It stays together pretty well.  As for the sound, I believe the foam that I use absorbs most if not all of the track noise, if any.  I'm sure the wood/plywood doesn't absorb track noise as well as foam. 

[trainman203]

In my experience, EZ track does not handle changes ingredient very well. It will always have an immediate humpup at the nearest rail joint, the road bed being inflexible compared to traditional flex track laid on cork.

[trainman203]

I have EZ track on a layout exposed to outside coastal air. I have to say that in my case EZ track proved not well-suited to permanent installation in any place subject to extreme temperature variations. Depending on if it's hot or cold on any given day, the rail will expand or contract and bend that plastic roadbed up or down one way or another.  I know that EZ track roadbed can bend, but in my case, controlling the bend is nearly impossible. 

I had a bunch left over from a previous project, and I thought the plastic roadbed would be good in the constant ultrahigh humidity environment have down here in the deep south, but the warping of the track due to temperature has proved to be a major problem. I still have some future track to put down, but I won't be using EZ track for that.

[trainman203]

It rarely gets above 95° here but the humidity is always 110% or more.  You can't do anything outside in that kind of environment. You are a sweat box in 10 minutes just standing there.  You can feel the air. We call it "air you can wear." 😂😂

[brandonbeckner]

I thank you all for your replies. Best of all. I like Brian G's phrase "prototypically stupid". That's definitely me, especially when I have an EMD F7-B Unit pulling cars around with no head. I think I'll make a t-shirt with that saying. I like how some of you were able to attach nice pictures to your messages. I haven't been able to do that, because I get a message like "the upload directory is full, tell the sysop" or something like that. Anyway, thanks again!

[Len]

Generally speaking it's best to use a picture hosting site like Flickr, or whatever, then use 'img' tags to link the URL for the picture on that site into your post. There are instructions of a general nature here:
https://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,30172.0.html

Note: Photobucket has changed the link location since that post. Whatever host you use should have instructions on linking on their site.

Len

[Piyer]

I thank you all for your replies. Best of all. I like Brian G's phrase "prototypically stupid". That's definitely me, especially when I have an EMD F7-B Unit pulling cars around with no head.

Nope, that's prototypical, actually. There was a coal mining shortline, the Haysi Railroad, that connected to the Clinchfield that used a single B-unit as motive power from its founding in 1970 until 1977. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haysi_Railroad

[Terry Toenges]

Their modified B Unit.

[Terry Toenges]

[trainman203]

At least some B units had some kind of control to allow hostlers to move them around the engine terminal.

[brandonbeckner]

Remarkable stories about "B" units, thank you for posting!