Peco Setrack points

[Respite]

I have over the years found Peco points to be unreliable. The problem is the loss of conductivity of power.

 

Cleaning the rail and the sides where there is electric contact makes no difference. The little wiper blades under the rails can easily snap off without care and cleaning these makes no difference either it seems to me. Hacking out ballast and sawing thru fishplates is a tedious business in order to replace the point. You invariably have to lift rail either side of the point to replace it and then you have to replace the ballast, a right faff. Points aren't cheap either so I would expect the recurring problem to have been ironed out by now.

[edcayton]

How many power feeds to your track? I suspect you are relying too much on the points. Have you painted the rails and got paint in the wrong places?  I don't think you will find other propriety points any better.

 

Ed

[Respite]

How many power feeds to your track? I suspect you are relying too much on the points. Have you painted the rails and got paint in the wrong places?  I don't think you will find other propriety points any better.

 

Ed

HI Ed

 

Yes I have painted the rails but this hasn't caused a problem in the past and they have been painted for some years now. There is only one set of set of feeds, you are right that I should add more,  but again the loco fleet haven't found this a problem in the past. I shall persevere but this fault is so common in my experience. I have been planing a new small layout and shall use Tillig track on that.

[edcayton]

How are you operating the points? If, like me you are using your fingers, you won't be able to with Tillig as they don't have an over-centre spring. You will need a point motor or something to hold the blade in place.

 

Ed

[Gwiwer]

I use Peco points though mine are Streamline not Setrack.  I use them outside and I only have four power feeds for 34 metres of track on the main circuit (yards and sidings additional but off the same feeds).  I rely substantially on blade contact.

 

There is a slight power loss at times but this is to be expected given what I am asking the points to do.  It doesn't make a great deal of difference as the trains slow slightly on the approach to a station much as they might in real life, stopping or not.  

 

I clean the blades, contact tabs (where they exist; the newer releases don't have them and feature a different movement altogether) and rails with IPA on cotton wool buds.  It works.  There should be no need for pressure on the tabs such that they break.  They are reasonably robust but won't take endless pressure and tweaking to obtain better contact.  

 

It's worth remembering also that those tabs connect to the underside of the running rail which is a real pain to keep clean.  I have been known to use a slip of wet and dry worked between the rail base and sleeper moulding with some success.  If you don't like the idea of abrasion even at that level you can always try dipping a strip of old cotton shirt in the IPA, teasing that through the space and cleaning the rail-bottom that way.  

[Butler Henderson]

Aside from the contact between the point blade and the stock rail another cause of problems on Peco points can be the point blade pivot, with the result that the entire blade can be electrically dead even if fed from the stock rail and the frog.

[Mark201]

Aside from the contact between the point blade and the stock rail another cause of problems on Peco points can be the point blade pivot, with the result that the entire blade can be electrically dead even if fed from the stock rail and the frog.

I have put a small blob of solder on the point blade pivot to electrically bond it to the closure rail (outside of the rail only) as well as electrically bonding the stock rail to the closure rail.

 

The soldering of the point blade pivot to the closure rail does limit the movement of the point blades a little, however it does improve running significantly.

[rue_d_etropal]

mentioned it elsewhere, but i hard wire all my point blades(as some also do for DCC), and add section breaks with switches. This means you are not dependent on tips of point blades and those other bits. This type of wiring used to be standards for continental made points, and there used to be a slot in base of some sleepers on Peco points, hinting that this might have been an option for Peco. Suspect typical British pundit did not want something sso complex so idea was dropped. Sprung blades would have also had advantages.