PECO Announces Bullhead Track for OO

[PatB]

A few years ago I was involved in a project involving a large range of piping sizes and specifications. In spite of Australia having been determinedly metric for at least 40 years, every single pipe size appeared to be either actually imperial (steel pipes using BSP threads) or bastardised metric equivalents (because what other rational reason could there be for using 32 mm, among others, as a standard size?). Adding to the interest, some specs use this strange metricated imperial number as a nominal bore size, whilst others use it as an outside diameter.

 

Oh what fun we had when ordering fittings .

[Derekstuart]

DavidH

 

Wise words that I cannot argue with.

 

Some progress is a good thing. Taking the topical example of trains, had it not been for Trevithick, Stephenson and a few others daring to challenge the status quo then we would be in a far darker place than we are now.

 

I suppose judging by some of the people around today, if they had the same sneering contempt in the early days of steam, they'd probably enjoy abusing horses for being "old fashioned." Technology changes, but people's attitudes seemingly do not. Let us be thankful that they do not run the Country or we might well find ourselves living through a real life 'Logan's Run'.

[No Decorum]

I think Trevithick & Co. were responsible for a much darker place. Things only started to lighten up when the much-lamented steam locomotive was replaced by internal combustion & electric. On the other hand, modern pollution is more insidious because it is less obvious.

[Derekstuart]

I'm not sure how to take that...

I think Trevithick & Co. were responsible for a much darker place. Things only started to lighten up when the much-lamented steam locomotive was replaced by internal combustion & electric. On the other hand, modern pollution is more insidious because it is less obvious.

[No Decorum]

I'm not sure how to take that...

We supposedly had a green and pleasant land until it was covered in soot. London was so dirty that office workers often took a spare collar to work to change into at lunchtime. There was an oil crisis in the early 50s, caused by the Iranians demanding more for their petroleum, or the British refusing to pay it, depending on your point of view. Coal made up the shortfall, which led to London smogs when the weather conditions favoured it. Probably it was due to the new National Health Service that there was an increased consciousness of the loss of life pollution cost.

 

On a rather more frivolous note, someone who worked on cleaning St. Paul’s Cathedral told me that it was so encrusted with grime that it was only realised that a cherub had a tear on its cheek when it had been cleaned.

[Junctionmad]

I hope Peco is reading this and taking it all in.

God I hope not

[Junctionmad]

A few years ago I was involved in a project involving a large range of piping sizes and specifications. In spite of Australia having been determinedly metric for at least 40 years, every single pipe size appeared to be either actually imperial (steel pipes using BSP threads) or bastardised metric equivalents (because what other rational reason could there be for using 32 mm, among others, as a standard size?). Adding to the interest, some specs use this strange metricated imperial number as a nominal bore size, whilst others use it as an outside diameter.

 

Oh what fun we had when ordering fittings .

Well Irish ½ copper pipe is 14.7mm of as opposed to uk 15mm ( what good compliant Europeans you all are ) !!! , which is why of course my ikea tap fittings always leak !!!

 

Oh PECO bullhead , good idea , feet or metres , I'm ambi-.......?

Edited April 3, 2016 by Junctionmad

[newbryford]

 

 

Oh sorry, new Peco track: yep, good idea

 

Has it really taken 44 pages for it to be summed up in the above one sentence?

 

Cheers,

Mick

[BG John]

Has it really taken 44 pages for it to be summed up in the above one sentence?

 

Cheers,

Mick

It took Ford Prefect a good number of years work to update the Earth's entry in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy from "Harmless" to "Mostly Harmless", so 44 pages of discussion in just over three months is pretty good going!

[martin_wynne]

Has it really taken 44 pages for it to be summed up in the above one sentence?

 

It didn't. We got that far after the first 6 posts on the first page. No-one was forced to read any further.

 

Martin.

[Guest]

Car crash. You just gotta look.

Fruit pastille. You just gotta chew.

[Derekstuart]

Interesting points. Question is, if I could wave a magic wand and get rid of the industrial revolution onwards, would you want it? No electrickery, no trains, no internet, no RMW, no peco thread (oh damn. That's done it), no holidays and so on. Would you do it? (not arguing your point btw, just interested).

 

If you don't mind me saying, my respect for your post has just shot up when reading "....depending on your point of view..." How refreshing it is to see someone putting both sides of an argument and leaving the reader to decide. Most unusual in this day and age and gives one hope for the future survival of the human race.

We supposedly had a green and pleasant land until it was covered in soot. London was so dirty that office workers often took a spare collar to work to change into at lunchtime. There was an oil crisis in the early 50s, caused by the Iranians demanding more for their petroleum, or the British refusing to pay it, depending on your point of view. Coal made up the shortfall, which led to London smogs when the weather conditions favoured it. Probably it was due to the new National Health Service that there was an increased consciousness of the loss of life pollution cost.

 

On a rather more frivolous note, someone who worked on cleaning St. Paul’s Cathedral told me that it was so encrusted with grime that it was only realised that a cherub had a tear on its cheek when it had been cleaned.

[autocoach]

If Peco made HO scale track for the Indian State Railways standard 5'6 inch gauge track it would be about 19.27 mm gauge track.  Would that be close enough for some people. You might have to rework the ties to different spacing.

[Dunsignalling]

Interesting points. Question is, if I could wave a magic wand and get rid of the industrial revolution onwards, would you want it? No electrickery, no trains, no internet, no RMW, no peco thread (oh damn. That's done it), no holidays and so on. Would you do it?

Not ruddy likely. Just do a bit of Family Tree research to find out why. Wall to wall drudgery for most.

 

My family comes from a rural area and my Grandfather (the youngest of the family, b.1897) and his siblings were the first generation of whom none were listed in censuses as "Farm Labourer" or "In Service" and where all lived past their fifties.

 

I got back to the late 1700s before I lost interest and only found one male ancestor who had escaped the land prior to that.

 

John

Edited April 3, 2016 by Dunsignalling

[Mike Storey]

Are Peco making some new track?

[Pacific231G]

Are Peco making some new track?

Apparently Mike.  We've not yet heard whether it's going to be based on Chemin de Fer de l'Ouest, Paris-Orleans, or Midi  double champignon asymétrique, but it's almost bound to be one of those.three.

Edited April 3, 2016 by Pacific231G

[AndyID]

Apparently Mike.  We've not yet heard whether it's going to be based on Chemin de Fer de l'Ouest, Paris-Orleans, or Midi  double champignon asymétrique, but it's almost bound to be one of those.three.

 

Is that the zig-zag stuff? I was thinking of printing some of that on my printer, but I thought it might be safer not to in case it upset some of the owners of this thread.

[Joseph_Pestell]

A few years ago I was involved in a project involving a large range of piping sizes and specifications. In spite of Australia having been determinedly metric for at least 40 years, every single pipe size appeared to be either actually imperial (steel pipes using BSP threads) or bastardised metric equivalents (because what other rational reason could there be for using 32 mm, among others, as a standard size?). Adding to the interest, some specs use this strange metricated imperial number as a nominal bore size, whilst others use it as an outside diameter.

 

Oh what fun we had when ordering fittings .

Even in Europe, a lot of plumbing fittings are equivalent to British measurements.

['CHARD]

Even in Europe, a lot of plumbing fittings are equivalent to British measurements.

 

My plumbing fitting has always interfaced perfectly well in European installations  

[Adams442T]

Even in Europe, a lot of plumbing fittings are equivalent to British measurements.

 

If I remember rightly the whole of the oil industry uses BSP world-wide.  Metric threads are OK, but... I seem to recall that Honda had to modify the thread form to a unique 'Honda Metric' when standard metric nuts kept vibrating loose on their early racing motor-cycles.

[t-b-g]

It didn't. We got that far after the first 6 posts on the first page. No-one was forced to read any further.

 

Martin.

 

The thing is, when you see that new posts have been added to a thread about something as significant as Peco introducing better track, it is easy to be misled into thinking that there may be something worth reading, so you have a look just in case.

 

Damn! I just did it again.

[Colin_McLeod]

Actually nothing new has been said about Peco's new track after the first page or two.

[polybear]

Apparently PECO are so p!ssed off reading about gauge wars they've decided the new track will be a monorail system supported by a representation of a continuous concrete beam, which'll stop people moaning about sleeper spacing too. 

[dhjgreen]

Apparently PECO are so p!ssed off reading about gauge wars they've decided the new track will be a monorail system supported by a representation of a continuous concrete beam, which'll stop people moaning about sleeper spacing too.

 

Do not, whatever you do, tell Stubby47.

[Pacific231G]

Is that the zig-zag stuff? I was thinking of printing some of that on my printer, but I thought it might be safer not to in case it upset some of the owners of this thread.

No but that might be fun. Asymetrique Double Champignon just means what we call Bullhead i.e. with a heavier section at the top. Symetrique was the sort of chaired rail that was supposed to be reversible but wasn't; several companies seem to have carried on using it anyway.

 

There were an awful lot of British engineers and contractors involved in the building of France's first main lines so apart from the once extensive and still not ended use of bullhead rail, they run on the left (except in Alsace-Lorraine) and even the signalling developed from very early Britiish practice though it then took a rather different path.  

 

I doubt if Peco's offering will be quite as detailed as this example from Normandy, at Gournay-Ferriéres, on the still open section of the old direct main line from Paris to Dieppe.

gare SNCF Gournay-Ferrières 2008  CC courtesy of Calude Villetaneuse. 

 

BTW, does anyone know how much bullhead rail is still being used on N.R.s running lines (as opposed to the remaining quite large number of sidings) including those used for passenger trains?

 

Edited April 5, 2016 by Pacific231G