00 scale track

>what on earth is peco 75 and peco 100 ?????
Aside from Setrack, Peco make two ranges of OO gauge track aimed at the British / European market. The older range uses code 100 nickel silver rail which is 1mm high. This rail height allows virtually any model rail wheel to negotiate point crossings, an invaluable asset if you run old Triang/Hornby or Lima stock from the early '80s or earlier.

The newer "Finescale" range uses code 75 nickel silver rail which is 0.75mm high. There is not enough depth in the point crossings to allow deep wheel flanges to pass, so at best the stock jumps about a bit, at worst it derails. There are a few track configurations available in the Finescale range that are not available in the standard range - namely electrofrog crossings, slips and a tandem point. All of these 'Finescale only' items require external switches to be added to the wiring before they will work correctly. The standard range items including the electrofrog points do not require external switches so long as normal point wiring practices are followed.

I use Peco code 75 track because I want the absolute minimum length of "dead" rail in my point crossings and I am prepared to deal with the additional wiring to get it.

I guess you really didn't want to know all that, but you did ask...

David

QUOTE (KODIAK BEAR @ 27 May 2007, 12:55) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>what on earth is peco 75 and peco 100 ?????
The number (or code) indicates the height of the rail in thousandsth of an inch. Thus the smaller the number, the smaller the rail. What it doesn't tell you is the cross-sectional shape, or in the case of flat bottomed rail, the width of the foot. This means that although rails of the same height might be available from several manufacturers, you can't necessarily assume they will be the same in all other dimensions, and may not fit any premoulded sleeper assemblies.
I found exactly this problem when trying to use some flat bottom rail from C & L that I already had with the concrete sleeper bases produced by InterCity Models. The foot of the rail was really too wide for the Pandrol rail fastenings, and caused the sleeper material to deform during assembly. Using the recommended code 82 rail solved the problem, but you could hardly tell the difference just by looking at the rails beforehand.