How do you repair Peco Code 55 tiebar holes?

[Dave Searle]

Hi,

 

We operate our Peco code 55 points using SEEP point motors acting via the small hole in the end of the tiebar.  One of the tiebars seems to have suffered from too much activity and the end has split off.

 

Does anyone have a method of repairing the end of the tie bar to replace the hole and surround.  We have several others that are looking a bit delicate.

 

We were thinking of a small washer (plastic or metal) attached below the tie bar end. Would this work?  Does anyone have suggestions how to attach it, i.e. what sort of glue would work with the Peco point plastic and provide a strong enough bond for solenoid operation?

 

Many thanks,

 

Cheers,

Dave

[ktundu99]

I've never had that precise problem, but I've had similar. I'd use some kind of washer as you suggest, and fix it in place using Evostik contact adhesive. This seems to bond peco plastic (on their 00 points, at least) very well, it forms a strong, long-lastig bond, and is slightly flexible (which is important when it comes to preventing the same from happening again).

[Dave Searle]

Hi Sam,

 

many thanks for that - we'll try it out.

 

Cheers,

Dave

[shottsj]

Hi! I have encountered exactly the same problem and was just about to replace the entire set of points which is now well in place and wired in so it is going to be a completre pain in the neck!
So before I do that my questions are..
Did you try the method suggested? (Which sound promising!)
Did it work?
If it did what 'washer' (or other bit of hardware?) did you use and where can I get one too?
All the very best! Jeremy
 

[Dave Searle]

Hi! I have encountered exactly the same problem and was just about to replace the entire set of points which is now well in place and wired in so it is going to be a completre pain in the neck!

So before I do that my questions are..

Did you try the method suggested? (Which sound promising!)

Did it work?

If it did what 'washer' (or other bit of hardware?) did you use and where can I get one too?

All the very best! Jeremy

 

 

Hi Jeremy,

 

Probably not helpful for you, but in the end we decided to move the point motor to the other end of the tie bar (where the hole was still usable). This involved some careful drilling and cutting through the board, but we were lucky there were no obstacles in the way.

 

Cheers,

 

Dave

[shottsj]

Hi Jeremy,

 

Probably not helpful for you, but in the end we decided to move the point motor to the other end of the tie bar (where the hole was still usable). This involved some careful drilling and cutting through the board, but we were lucky there were no obstacles in the way.

 

Cheers,

 

Dave

Hi Dave!

Darn! Unfortunately that option is not available to me as in this case - and annoyingly in this case ONLY! - my track design placed these points above a brace in the baseboard and I already had to make a cutaway to place the motor. Moving it would be a lot more drastic than replacing the points. Very annoying as the hole at the other end is perfectly intact. Shame the tie-bar on the N scale points is so flimsy. The OO tie bar apart from being larger of course looks as though it benefits from bracing in the design!

Ah well. Hattons are just going to get some more of my money and the soldering iron will be getting warmed up again!!

Thanks for your reply anyway!

All the best! Jeremy

[HLT 0109]

Jeremy,

 

Would it be feasible to make a small piece of reinforcement from thin plastic card through which to drill a suitable hole (ie make up your own washer) before bonding the reinforcement to the tiebar with either plastic solvent or contact/epoxy adhesive?  Don't know how easy this would be in 2mm - I model in 4mm.

 

Harold.

[shottsj]

Jeremy,

 

Would it be feasible to make a small piece of reinforcement from thin plastic card through which to drill a suitable hole (ie make up your own washer) before bonding the reinforcement to the tiebar with either plastic solvent or contact/epoxy adhesive?  Don't know how easy this would be in 2mm - I model in 4mm.

 

Harold.

Hi Harold!

Thanks for the suggestion! I think your idea might well work. To do this however realistically I would in any case need to remove the points from the layout which is what I was trying to avoid. (Lazy!!) The thing about this kind of repair is that it would perpetually be subjected to the 'whack' of a capacitor powered solenoid every time the points change in the 'out' direction. So it would need to be very robust indeed to survive for a significant period of usage. So I suspect the metal washer or bit of tubing might be a better option. Still very fiddly to do in N gauge.

The point is now somewhat moot as I have now switched the points for new pair which was a bit of a faff but is now done and dusted - and the pin slotted in perfectly without adjustment and should be fine.

So I now have a spare pair of points with one side's pin hole unavailable for use on the tie-bar. It could of course still be used perfectly with a motor displaced to the other side. So I suspect I will be giving up on the idea of a repair as I have lots more construction work to catch up with!

But once again thanks for the additional suggestion. As ever I am absolutely delighted and continaully impressed with the enthusiastic and rapid repsonses one gets to solving problems from the RM community!

Enjoy your Railway and have a Great Christmas and New Year! All the best. Jeremy

[bike2steam]

Dunno whether it's possible with N gauge but when I've had similar problems with OO I've replaced the errant tie-bar with a copperclad replacement.   

[HLT 0109]

Jeremy,

 

Glad you have overcome the problem!  I can't be sure how securely plasticweld would stick to the tiebar but that would be my first choice if using my suggested method.  I have managed to repair 00 gauge Hornby and Peco points (triggered by solenoid motors) using two-part epoxy and that should work if a metal washer were used - in my case, one of the switch rails had come loose from the tiebar.

 

Best Seasonal Wishes to you too!

Harold.

[DCB]

Hi Harold!

 The thing about this kind of repair is that it would perpetually be subjected to the 'whack' of a capacitor powered solenoid every time the points change in the 'out' direction. So it would need to be very robust indeed to survive for a significant period of usage. 

Just wondering if the underlying issue is the capacitor is too large for the application.   We had a point fail several times on a crossover exiting the fiddle yard, rail puled out of tie bar, and I eventually realised only two points moved on that route while up to five moved on other routes, so I wired in two old broken point motor solenoids in parallel to soak up a bit of the surplus energy and no more problems (Touch wood)  It may be a smaller capacitor or running the existing system at a lower voltage, daisy chain of series diodes maybe, would ease the issue.   On my latest board I y use a 22 000 uf 25 volt cap on floating across a 12 volts DC aux output from an H & M to shift three points at a time, three points are energised every time.  Cap cost £2.50 from a (Lower) High Street store.