[Brossard]

Regarding replacing th plastic check rail with metal rail - in my opinion it would improve appearance but these things are important for point performance and it would be fiddle - not worth it. Another point is that a metal check rail it will get shiny from track cleaning which would be quite wrong.

The newer PECO code 75 points are quite good. I could wish for better sleeper spacing but then, I believe pointwork had tighter sleeper spacing anyway so I can live with it. My main beef with PECO is that if you dont wire the frog (or common crossing for the cognoscenti) to change polarity you have to rely on those wimbly tab affairs on the point blade and these are very unreliable.

I have seen Tillig points and I'm not over the moon with them, plus they are nearly twice the price as PECO. The double slip is not like anything I have seen on British permanent way.

I haven't tried any recent point offerings from Hornby or Bachmann. Any comments there?

We have had eyewatering improvements to rolling stock once there was competition, there needs to be some serious competition on the track front for things to change.

I hear quite a bit about PECO making the track more British and I guess that mostly refers to sleeper spacing. But which track? A quick browse through any permanent way book and you will quickly realise that every company prior to 1923 had its own designs and even these evolved with time. After the grouping there was still a broad variety of track style even into BR days.

 

[34C]

QUOTE (Brossard @ 12 Sep 2007, 04:15) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I hear quite a bit about PECO making the track more British and I guess that mostly refers to sleeper spacing. But which track? A quick browse through any permanent way book and you will quickly realise that every company prior to 1923 had its own designs and even these evolved with time. After the grouping there was still a broad variety of track style even into BR days.
It has to be a 'typical' representation suitable for use from the big four era to present day. For a 'better OO track' they could do much worse than copy the style they have employed for their O gauge track. For those who must have an exact representation of Obscure Junction Joint, where the distinctly different styles of the GNWR and LBNC could be seen alongside each other, handbuilt will still have to be resorted to.

 

[double00]

There appears to be two camps relating to points - appearance or reliable working of the point.
Personally! I prefer a reliable point that changes route at each selected time rather than a point that looks identical to the real prototype but fails in reliable working.
Modellers who have Hornby point motors but have changed over to Peco set track points, can still use the Hornby point motor by enlarging the hole on the linkage bar.

 

[Richard Johnson]

You said: "There appears to be two camps relating to points - appearance or reliable working of the point"

*** I don't think so... Most who value scale appearance have the same attitude to the running qualities - and there is no more reliable point (in every facet of performance) than a well made hand built one which is certainly going to give a better running quality and more reliable performance electically than anything Peco or Hornby ever produced!

Richard

 

[Robert Stokes]

I have resurrected this thread from a couple of months ago because of something I saw two days ago. You may remember that I started the thread by asking whether peco points would be improved by replacing the plastic checkrails with metal ones.

Two days ago I was at Doncaster station waiting for my wife to arrive. Whilst waiting I was looking around at anything of interest including the track. Now there is a crossover right next to the middle of platform 3. (It is because platform 3 is divided into two, 3a and 3b, with a crossover between them so that it can act as two short platforms.) I suddenly realised that, although I was only about 20 yards away, I could hardly see the checkrails because they were so dark that they merged with the sleepers below.

So perhaps peco have got this detail of the point correct by making it of dark plastic.

 

[Richard Johnson]

[quote name='Robert Stokes' date='8 Nov 2007, 05:47' post='39010']
I have resurrected this thread from a couple of months ago because of something I saw two days ago. You may r

So perhaps peco have got this detail of the point correct by making it of dark plastic.

***Actually the problem with Peco check rails isn't the colour, just their position.

If I was to use Peco instead of making all my own, I'd not bother removing the checkrails, I'd do the wiring mods as often advised to improve long term reliability & then just glue a strip of 10 thou plastic to the inside of the checkrail (between checkrail and stock rail) so it actually did "check" the wheels properly and paint it the same colour as the existing one.

As you noted quite accurately Robert, checkrails rust and stay that way, so shiny ones are pretty but actually quite incorrect. Perhaps we who make our own should use phosphor bronze for checkrails and bright metals for the rails.

Richard