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Peco track- long term deterioration?


Pacific231G

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I was sorting my store of track this morning and discovered to my surprise that on a couple of lengths of N gauge Streamline the sleepering had become very weak and brittle. Basically it just started to disintergrate when I was trying to bundle it with some other lengths. This track had never been used and had been in storage for a very long time- I stopped using N gauge track (for 009/H0e) in about 1990- and I think these lengths would have dated from much earlier than that. One of them still had its paper label so I presume I bought it new but possibly as early as about 1980.

 

All my other Peco track, H0m and 00/H0 codes 100 and 75, appear to be fine as is a length of Shinohara track dating back to my days of North American modelling in the 1970s. The track has all been stored for some years, in its original paper packaging most recently in a garage so it's never AFAIK been subject to UV though will have been subject to a range of temperatures.

 

I've never had the slightest problem wiith Peco track deteriorating and have used it for donkeys years so I'm curious about this phenomenon and wondered if anyone else has ever experienced anything like this.

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Everything deteriorates over time - the storage conditions may hasten any decline.

 

Where was this track being kept?

Over the years in a variety of places, mostly in the house but for the past couple of years in an unheated garage. The thing is that I know layouts laid with Peco streamline that have been around since the 1970s with no sign of plastic deterioration. My own portable H0 layout was first built in the early 1990s with track that had been used before and it's absolutely fine. For plastics I'd expect UV to be the main threat but this track has barely seen the light of day.

I'm unlikely to ever use N gauge track again so was planning to pas it on to friends that do but I am planning to use the H0m and H0 track at some point so want to reassure myself that it won't suffer the same fate.

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I have not had a problem with PECO track but have had something similar with SMP trackwork.  Basically, the plastic has gone brittle resulting in the chairs breaking away from the sleepers.  My layout is in an integral garage containg central heating pipes and a freezer so there have been no extremes of temperature.

 

I guess most plastics degrade with time and one can just be unlucky with variables in manufacture and use.. 

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I have had some Peco 00 track - mostly recovered off a layout - in storage for more years than I can remember (at least 30) originally in an unheated but insulated attic and more recently in a rather better insulated attic but with Velux windows so daylight is getting in.  It is stored bundled with some Graham Farish Formoway of similar vintage so about 50+ years old - I used some of the Formoway on a new module a few years ago because i prefer its sleeper spacing to Peco's but both it and the Peco were still in quite usable condition  needing only the railhead cleaned before use.

 

Sounds like either something strange has happened during storage or it was a 'bad' batch of track so i agree fully with the above advice to contact Peco.

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I suggest going straight to Peco with your enquiry.  

I'm not going to complain that possibly fifty year old track stored in uncertain conditions has become brittle.  I may though contact Peco out of sheer curiosity as I've never met this phenomenon before. The other track appears fine. 

I have come across embrittlement of plastic in the bodies of some old model coaches and locos- the sort where you have to pull the body sides apart to release a series of lugs to free them from the chassis are always slightly nerve wracking.

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The ballast foam is well known to deteriorate very quickly I've had some which went off after a couple of years.

 

Peco 100 streamline I've got some from the 1960's I tend to find its soft compared to Hornby dublo 2 rail which goes very brittle, I've most peco stuff purchased over the years and not had a problem.

 

However have noticed 00n9 tends to go brittle the points especially seem to break on the tie rod is the moving bit where the point motor fits, round the pin hole especially is liable to break

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I have had a few pieces of peco OO track with the same problem, the sleepers crumble with a small amount of effort

This track could be up to 45 years old, it may have come from one of my first layouts to use flex track

First flex track layout was under an old Queenslander (style of house for those who don't know) that was enclosed but still had lots of drafts & no insulation

It got very hot in the summer and very cold in winter(Queensland cold not UK cold)

Current room is much better but still has a large temperature swing

One summer I ran a train through a section or straight track(hidden behind a cutting) & saw the train Zig-Zag, on closer inspection the track had a large S bend in it from expansion

 

John

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