Got to keep this on the DL. I don't want the 5-year-old to find out ;). But I bought him a Kato Unitrack pack for Christmas. It's tough for him to run trains on the layout, since he has to be so careful and the track is pretty spotty. I've heard only good things about Unitrack, especially how easy it is for younger children to get trains up and running with it. MSRP on the Master 2 pack is $210, but I found a NIB set for less than $170 including shipping on eBay.
Since I haven't purchased any new track in about 25 years, my curiosity got the best of me. I had to try it out. There's also the fear that something may have gotten damaged in transit. I didn't set up the whole thing. Just did a visual once-over of the contents. But I did get the feeder track, one straight section, and the power pack set up. My first test was with the Penn Central E9. It ran smoother than I can ever remember. Of course, I ran downstairs to get one of the Atlas 4-4-0's to really see how much difference this track would make. Well, you can see for yourself...
