Peco - yes Peco! - better OO track

[Richard Lee]

Twice the price, but it is easily twice the product.

Why do you think it is

Fundamentally it is still the wrong gauge.

Personally I feel that track with a 16.5mm gauge is much more useful for indoor layouts than 4' 8 1/2" (or 4' 1 1/2" if one would want to replicate the gauge inaccuracy of OO gauge). Do feel free to hold a different opinion though.

[Bigmet]

The Bullhead rail track manufacturing process involves greater manual input than the Flatbottom rail equivalent, and there's the development investment to recover too, and quite possibly a charge to support the next developments. Peco will have a selection from that in their pricing model, but that's information privy to them.

From this customer's perspective, the resulting superior appearance makes it worth it, simple as that. I wish to get on with building and operating the best looking OO model railway possible with my skill set, and will cheerfully fork over the premium price to get there that bit sooner. Secondarily, voting with one's wallet is the most honest vote we ever make: clearest possible indication to both Peco and retailers that this is a product for which there is demand. I have already put my suggestion for the next item in to my retailer, on the back of the purchase; produce this and my wallet can be raided again!

[b308]

Read what I said again, Dave, and you will understand why I mentioned it, there's three issues, the gauge (which you raised), the looks (code 75 vs 100) and RTR vs Kits (price difference). Each person will have their own thoughts about which is best, for many Peco's RTR code 75 answers their prayers irrespective of being the wrong gauge or the cost.

I'll leave it at that!

[D605Eagle]

Damn Peco's website is a mess! The track is all jumbled together with zero organisation. Theres no mention anywhere of this new track. Its almost like peco wants it to fail.

[Bufferstop]

Agreed, for a start there's an image that requires the now deprecated Flash, then having navigated to 00/H0 track it all appears to be indexed in item number order. They have an excellent packaging strategy with each range having it's own coloured boxes. Why can't their online catalogue be subdivided in the same way. Their alpha numeric product numbering seems to be inspired by Oliver Bullied's loco number policy. If anyone in Beer is reading this print it out and wave it at Mr P the Younger.
I'm pretty clued up on Peco's track ranges, and after 30 years or so have some inkling of how databases work, but my heart sinks once I arrive at the 00/H0 track section. You have to decode the part numbers to work out which range they belong to. Heaven help an older newby coming to railway modelling and using IT at the same time!

[Richard Lee]

If anyone gets and starts to use the new points, I would be very interested to hear of their experiences. I am thinking about doing a new layout, and like the look of the new track. As many people will be aware, the new points are "Unifrog", that is with a metal frog that can either be left as a dead frog, or supplied with power as an electro-frog. The points don't route power, which I understand is convenient for DCC users but less convenient for DC users.

Of particular interest to me is whether you can move Hornby Terriers and similar over them slowly in dead-frog mode.

Thank you in anticipation.

[Bigmet]

I don't have a Terrier, but the same design origin Hornby J94, and the Bachmann 08, both of which are short six coupled wheelbase, go across without trouble in dead frog mode. If your Terrier will cross whatever dead frog points you have now, the 'unifrog' will be no trouble. Part of this I suspect is that with the rails all bonded for conduction, there is no reliance on point blade contact to keep the track live.

There's a lot more good news in these points. The base is flexible, so if required the point can be slightly curved. The check rails are relatively lightly secured too, so that for those inclined to modify they could be replaced with phosphor bronze rail (better for 'rusty' appearance that won't wear off) and if the points are arranged as a crossover, such a DIY fitted checkrail could be made continuous between the two points, as is common on the protoype.

[GWR_fan]

I could not find the points on the Peco website but found two entries on Hattons. Hattons have preorder on large radius only. While I prefer code 100 standard gauge, I was thinking of sidings and goods yards in code 75 bullhead. It seemed obvious to me that sidings and goods yards would have been the last pieces of track to be upgraded on the prototype and thus bullhead would survive there while not on the mainline. Surely small or medium radius points would have been a better first release option unless Peco see the finescale crowd as a more potentially rich target. It would be nice to view an image.

[b308]

Finescale people don't tend to use sharp curves, GWR, so for an initial launch of points for a "finescale" range the large ones seem a perfectly logical choice...

[Richard Lee]

Thanks for your reply, Bigmet. Currently I use live frog points (Marcway on one layout and Peco Code 75 on the smaller one). The first version of the smaller one used Hornby points; one of the reasons that I changed track is that I didn't like the way the Terrier sometimes needed a bit of manual help at low speeds. I understand that Hornby points have a larger insulated area than some other dead-frogs points.

This might seem surprising to some, but I actually like operating my points by hand. With the Marcway ones I use their point levers. (Marcway points rely upon blade contact for power.) With the Peco ones I have linked them to little slider switches that control polarity of the frog. I could do something similar with the new ones, but it can be a bit of a faff getting things to work smoothly, particularly on an extruded polystyrene baseboard.

[GWR_fan]

Finescale people don't tend to use sharp curves, GWR, so for an initial launch of points for a "finescale" range the large ones seem a perfectly logical choice...

How many layouts use large radius points in sidings and goods yards? One would need a very large layout if they did. It is prototypical to use smaller radii points in industrial sidings, etc. As I referred finescale to large radius points then your point seems superfluous. Also, I feel that a larger market exists beyond the finescale modeller.

[Bigmet]

If these points sell well, Peco will almost certainly offer an equivalent to the medium radius point among other items. I doubt they will go for the small radius though, as it won't look so well in this format. Really the 'medium' is a good representation of a confined yard point, the sort of point found in yards restricted to shorter wheelbase six coupleds and smaller.

I am hoping for some far closer to protoype running line points with 6 degree crossings...

...This might seem surprising to some, but I actually like operating my points by hand...With the Peco ones I have linked them to little slider switches that control polarity of the frog. I could do something similar with the new ones, but it can be a bit of a faff getting things to work smoothly, particularly on an extruded polystyrene baseboard.

No surprise to me. Other than points in the running lines which are ultimately to be automatically switched by route selection programming and thus need motors, my layout is planned for manual point change using slide switches and push rods. You have to be present at a yard to operate it, and pushing and pulling a bank of swiches on the layout front is far and away easiest when shunting a yard or moving locos around a shed. And it is cheap!

[Bigmet]

Finally got around to buying a box of the new Peco bullhead track before the weekend, and it fully lives up to it's promise. Easier to use and ballast neatly than the SMP bullhead I had planned to use, because it forms curves more easily than any previous flexi I have tried, and the deeper sleeper base makes it easier to conceal the thin base linkages while still leaving clear space between the top of the ballast and the underside of the rail. (The SMP will go in the yard areas with their 3' radius plastic based point kits, with the usual 'yard dirt' infill, there or thereabouts up to the rail underside.)