[Ravenser]

QUOTE To play safe, they advised me to get insulfrog points and Code 100 Peco track.

I say to you, don't play safe, get something that you will really appreciate.

Go to a model shop, ask the owner to open some packets and look at insulfrog points and Code 100 Peco track. Compare it to electrofrog points and Code 75 track and make up your own mind.

I'd strongly agree. If you are starting out there is no reason to buy code 100 unless :

- You have Triang Hornby locos from the Middle Bronze Age with wheels like a Mamod steamroller
- You can't wire a switch
- You already have lots of the stuff on the rest of the layout.

Everything you can buy today will run as well on code 75 as on code 100.

The little extra wiring involved with electro frog will bring big dividends in terms of better running - the large dead spot created by Insulfrogs encourages locos to stall on points

Tillig points are more expensive , and more difficult to find (Peco's in every model shop). The range is a bit more limited . International Models seem to be the main British seller. I've no personal experience of it , but there seem to be a lot of people who are very favourably impressed - see above

I'd strongly recommend you steer away from both Hornby and Peco Setrack, which are very coarse and not ideal for modern stock . I've had pretty unhappy experiences with Setrack in the past

 

[Ravenser]

Basically the electrofrog changes polarity depending on the way the points are set. So you need a wire from the frog to a switch which connects it to one or other of the running rails - which one depends on which way the point is set.

But it does assume a baseboard to which the track is perminently fixed. I'd missed that that might not be available - sorry

 

[Ravenser]

For very practical reasons I'd always use live frog if possible.

Given the (regrettable) absence of ready made track with British sleeper spacing , you are going to end up with HO track . You won't , in the first instance , be able to use conventional point motors

I wasn't aware of the various items dbclass50 lists , but frankly you'll do a lot better with these than with more Hornby or with Peco Streamline code 100 deadfrog . They will also be less coarse than Hornby or Peco (Roco I think is to NMRA standard) and will therefore give you better more reliable running with modern stock. They should also be code 83?

(I note Johan de Villiers comments about RP25/110 wheels - but I'm afraid the problem lies with very coarse points such as Hornby and Peco Setrack, not with the wheels . On properly compatible points - such as those listed by dbclass50 running should be good)

While I wouldn't go for "moulded ballast" in my own circumstances (I'd use glued down ballast) its going to look much better than no ballast.

The Roco and Flischmann stuff will be more expensive , but will be more "future-proof" for you than either Hornby or Peco Setrack.

It certainly won't look half as good as handbuilt points with SMP/C+L flexible , well ballasted , but that's not a relevant consideration in your position