Is PECO Setrack good?

[john new]

19 minutes ago, PaulaDoesTrains said:

 

I think you're a tiny bit out of date. PECO have been making track, including Setrack, at their factory in Beer, Somerset for a long time. They also have a second site at Buddly Salterton where they manufacture their Wills, Ratio and Parkside products. They make all their injection moulds in-house (something Hornby were incapable of doing) using two vertical CNCs - a Hurco and a Roeders - and an EDM machine. They're now starting to use robot automation to help with the assembly of track. All of this is well documented in various videos on YouTube.

Minor correction Beer is actually in Devon.  
 

Ref the earlier post wasn’t it Hornby that for a while used Austrian made track before shifting to China?

 

Edited November 6, 2021 by john new
Changing auto correct error!

[Dungrange]

26 minutes ago, john new said:

Ref the earlier post wasn’t it Hornby that for a while used Austrian made track before shifting to China?

 

I think that is correct.  I thought Peco always made their track in the UK.

[Steamport Southport]

31 minutes ago, john new said:

Minor correction Beer is actually in Devon.  
 

Ref the earlier post wasn’t it Hornby that for a while used Austrian made track before shifting to China?

 

 

Cider is in Somerset.... 

 

The track was made by ROCO I seem to recall.

 

 

 

 

I'll get my coat for the joke though

[kevinlms]

2 hours ago, PaulaDoesTrains said:

 

I think you're a tiny bit out of date. PECO have been making track, including Setrack, at their factory in Beer, Somerset for a long time. They also have a second site at Buddly Salterton where they manufacture their Wills, Ratio and Parkside products. They make all their injection moulds in-house (something Hornby were incapable of doing) using two vertical CNCs - a Hurco and a Roeders - and an EDM machine. They're now starting to use robot automation to help with the assembly of track. All of this is well documented in various videos on YouTube.

I wasn't out of date by saying they don't make it. I was asking a question, because I knew that at one stage that their Set Track was all made in Austria. Indeed for the very reason you stated, at one time couldn't be made themselves, at least not at an acceptable price.

 

2 things to point out.

1/ I have never used any Set Track.

2/ Thank you for the detail in answering the question.

[kevinlms]

1 hour ago, Dungrange said:

 

I think that is correct.  I thought Peco always made their track in the UK.

 

Not so.

 

From Model Railway Constructor 1976 May Newsdesk

 

"Mr S.C. Pritchard of Peco also wrote to us stating that some of the Set Track parts are being made here and sent to Austria for assembly. Mr Pritchard is also sorry that they had to put the work to Austria and, incidentally it is not the same factory as making the Rovex (Hornby) track, but Austria is one of EFTA  [not sure what that means - I'm guessing that Austria wasn't a full EU member then?] countries for free trade and therefore no duties are payable. However, the fact remains that 2 firms in Austria have developed special automatic machinery for making unit track and can do so efficiently and economically. Another point is that, in spite of the so called depression, Devon is in an area of very full employment and Peco cannot get sufficient labour force  - in this case girls - on assembly work. If they could they would have space difficulties,  for in spite of the big new factory, they are bursting at the seams - the factory, not the girls."

[RichardT]

EFTA = European Free Trade Association. 
 

Yes, Austria didn’t join the EU until 1995.  In 1976 we’d (the UK) been a member of the EEC for 3 years.

 

RT

Edited November 7, 2021 by RichardT
Adding info

[PaulaDoesTrains]

21 hours ago, john new said:

Minor correction Beer is actually in Devon.  
 

 

Mia Culpa

[phil-b259]

On 04/11/2021 at 12:24, RJS1977 said:

I wouldn't say using streamline points to create a crossover between tracks at Setrack spacing requires a *lot* of jigging - just cutting a short straight piece to fill the gap is sufficient. With regards to points on curves, if you're using Setrack on the curves, then any points forming part of the curve should also be Setrack so that the radius matches.

 

The solution to this is to use Streamline spacing on the straights but arrange the curves such that the parallel tracks move apart to Setrack spacing as they go round the bend. You do this by not having the Setrack curves start at the same place on both lines - making the outermost straight slightly longer than the innermost one where the transition to Setrack curves happens will do the trick - the grater the offset the wider the tracks will end up as they go round the curve.

 

Once the curving is done you can still arrange the tracks to return to Streamline spacing without any issues  - again done simply by adjusting the relative extra straight distance before the outermost curve transitions to Setrack.

 

If you want to come up with a reason why this separation happens then you could imagine that the railway was built as single but later doubled* and add a bridge mid curve. As for why the straight bits are closer together - well if you have a station or goods facility then you could say that a passing loop was built there from the outset, hence the structures being built for double track (aka Streamline spacing) and the loop simply got interoperated into the 2nd line when the railway was doubled.

 

 

* The Somerset & Dorset railway was like this with only one bridge on the entire route built for double track - elsewhere each line on the double track section ended up with its own arch / tunnel bore.

[frobisher]

On 06/11/2021 at 23:05, Steamport Southport said:

The track was made by ROCO I seem to recall.

 

Are you perhaps confusing things with Hornby who had their track made by Roco (the last variant of that tooling eventually becoming Bachmann UK's set track after Hornby moved production to China)?

[Steamport Southport]

17 minutes ago, frobisher said:

 

Are you perhaps confusing things with Hornby who had their track made by Roco (the last variant of that tooling eventually becoming Bachmann UK's set track after Hornby moved production to China)?

 

Not confused.  As mentioned in the post I quoted.

 

On 06/11/2021 at 22:31, john new said:

Minor correction Beer is actually in Devon.  
 

Ref the earlier post wasn’t it Hornby that for a while used Austrian made track before shifting to China?

 

 

That's what I was replying to.

 

 

Jason

[RJS1977]

12 hours ago, phil-b259 said:

 

If you want to come up with a reason why this separation happens then you could imagine that the railway was built as single but later doubled* and add a bridge mid curve. As for why the straight bits are closer together - well if you have a station or goods facility then you could say that a passing loop was built there from the outset, hence the structures being built for double track (aka Streamline spacing) and the loop simply got interoperated into the 2nd line when the railway was doubled.

 

 

Presuming you mean adding an overbridge with separate arches. Unfortunately this won't work as the reason for the clearance is to avoid overhanging carriages hitting each other as they pass on the sharp curves. Having a bridge pillar on the curve means carriages will hit it (unless you stick to 4-wheelers).

 

Perhaps a better 'explanation' is that it was once a GWR broad gauge line that has been converted to standard gauge by keeping the outer rails where they were and moving the middle ones.