PECO announces its entry into the TT gauge market

[Jeff Smith]

On 25/02/2023 at 13:26, Jeff Smith said:

Maybe I ordered from the wrong shop........

Well I ordered from a shop that had them in stock, just received a r/h point and the signal box kit.  Comparing a Mk1 coach sitting on Hornby track to it sitting on the Peco point, there really is a significant improvement, it just looks right.

[Les1952]

On 19/03/2023 at 20:29, osbornsmodels said:

we do it in N scale already Les so not a problem to scale up. The only issue is time!!!

 

Oh good.  Put me down for half a dozen some time in late 2024, early 2025...

 

Les

By that time I'll be building  Broken Scar to run my Hornby J94s on.

[luke_stevens]

I got sent this today which might be of use to others.

 

Peco Ready-to-run 7-plank wagons

TTR-7000W GWR grey

TTR-7001E LNER grey

TTR-7002S SR brown

TTR-7003M LMS grey

TTR-7004B BR grey

TTR-7006P Coleman's Mustard yellow

TTR-70014P Cadbury

 

Which suggest there are several other liveries planned (05. 07-13)

 

I ordered 3x BR and 1x SR.

 

Luke

 

 

PECO_TT120_Brochure.pdf

[Porfuera]

1 hour ago, luke_stevens said:

I ordered 3x BR and 1x SR.

 

Was that direct from Peco? Although I can't find them on Peco's website. The only place that I can find is Antics but they don't give a price, just for preorder.

Edited March 24, 2023 by Porfuera

[luke_stevens]

3 hours ago, Porfuera said:

 

Was that direct from Peco? Although I can't find them on Peco's website. The only place that I can find is Antics but they don't give a price, just for preorder.

 

No my local model shop (they e-mailed me the leaflet). We couldn't find them on the Peco website either. They said they would put the order into Peco and see what happens...

 

Luke

[Porfuera]

Following Peco's recent announcement of their small radius points, I ordered some and they arrived this morning. Here are couple of photos comparing them to the medium radius points.

 

I must get on and build that small shunting plank - I have no excuses now!

 

Cheers, Neil.

 

 

 

 

[Compound2632]

Nice timbering - better by far than the ancient design of their 00 points.

[Keith Addenbrooke]

1 hour ago, Porfuera said:

Following Peco's recent announcement of their small radius points, I ordered some and they arrived this morning. Here are couple of photos comparing them to the medium radius points.

 

I must get on and build that small shunting plank - I have no excuses now!

 

Cheers, Neil.

 

 

 

 

As I understand it they have a common exit angle of 11.25° - so you could mix and match crossovers.  Could you post a photo to show if it works - just for information?  Hope that’s OK to ask, Keith.

[Porfuera]

37 minutes ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:

As I understand it they have a common exit angle of 11.25° - so you could mix and match crossovers.  Could you post a photo to show if it works - just for information?  Hope that’s OK to ask, Keith.

 

Hi Keith - no problem and I hope these are what you are looking for. They seem pretty parallel to me - I don't know whether the second photo on the cutting mat helps with that.

 

On the cutting mat photo, the top small radius point (the R/H) didn't quite seem to be parallel (maybe it was just my eyes!) but I guess fettling the ends of the diverging rails with a file on one of the points is all that would be needed.

 

To give an idea of the separation, the parallel lines on the cutting mat are 1 inch / 25mm apart. I guess it might have been a better idea to use the metric side - a lack of planning ahead...

 

Cheers, Neil.

 

 

[Jeff Smith]

Do you have a Hornby point to compare with the small radius one?

[Porfuera]

43 minutes ago, Jeff Smith said:

Do you have a Hornby point to compare with the small radius one?

 

Hi Jeff - is this the sort of thing you were after?

 

From left to right: Tillig (129.5mm), Peco small radius (135mm), Hornby (166mm), Peco medium radius (180mm).

 

Tillig points are the same rail code and geometry as Hornby (15 degrees) but they have no locking springs:

 

https://www.tillig.com/eng/Produkte/produktinfo-83323.html and https://www.tillig.com/eng/Produkte/produktinfo-83324.html

 

Cheers, Neil.

 

Edited March 25, 2023 by Porfuera

[bradfordbuffer]

18 minutes ago, Porfuera said:

 

Hi Jeff - is this the sort of thing you were after?

 

From left to right: Tillig (129.5mm), Peco small radius (135mm), Hornby (166mm), Peco medium radius (180mm).

 

Tillig points are the same rail code and geometry as Hornby (15 degrees) but they have no locking springs:

 

https://www.tillig.com/eng/Produkte/produktinfo-83323.html and https://www.tillig.com/eng/Produkte/produktinfo-83324.html

 

Cheers, Neil.

 

Watching tt120 as a by stander....love the vibe of new scale....Hornby have made such a song and dance about scale track to stock...12mm dead scale etc....then they slap the hideous plastic frog!...and not a fan of code 55 as the switch rails look wrong next to the stock rails...

But as designed for playing trains on table tops they are what they are......

 

[Les1952]

The Hornby points are fine for fiddle yards, and certainly more robust overall than my first Peco ones, two of which fell apart and were repaired by Peco.

 

Having said that I'll probably use Peco throughout on Broken Scar, where all locos will be small and the space saving in the fiddle yard by using the small radius will be welcome.  Bregstadt is now past that stage.

 

Les

 

[InTheTrainShed]

Thanks for the photos Les - do the new Peco short radius points seem any more robust than the longer Peco ones to you ?

[Jeff Smith]

Neil, yes, thanks, an interesting comparison.  As noted on a YouTube comparing Peco and Hornby TT track, Hornby points are cheaper than Peco but plain track is the other way round!

[Porfuera]

2 hours ago, InTheTrainShed said:

Thanks for the photos Les - do the new Peco short radius points seem any more robust than the longer Peco ones to you ?

 

Actually it was me that posted the photos but pretty much all I've ever done is take them out of the packets a few times so I don't really have any idea if the new small radius points are any hardier than the medium ones.

 

That said, I don't think @Les1952 did anything more than take his two points out of the packet before they suddenly dismantled themselves. However, I'm pretty sure they were not his only pair - I believe he had others that have been fine. Bregstadt has quite a few points from what I've seen. Hopefully it was just a bit of bad luck or maybe they were 'Friday afternoon' or 'POETS day' points.

 

And I'm not aware of Les having any of the small radius points yet so I don't think he can do a comparison at this time.

 

But I'm sure Les will correct me if I'm wrong on any of those things.

 

Cheers, Neil

Edited March 25, 2023 by Porfuera

[Les1952]

3 hours ago, InTheTrainShed said:

Thanks for the photos Les - do the new Peco short radius points seem any more robust than the longer Peco ones to you ?

 

My two long points that failed were one straight out of the packet as I was fitting fishplates, and the other very shortly after being laid, indeed only about half a dozen throws of the switch.  I bought four (two left and two right) in my first batch plus a replacement from Malc's Models.   That would make five early points, of which two failed.  The other three of these are in place and seem to work OK, though I am always careful when I throw them- the levers are behind the backscene and I use wire in tube, with a little "give" in the plastic tube in case I am over-enthusiastic with the lever.  The second batch of four from Peco took a long time to get to Access Models, so I suspect these are the later version with the strengthened tie bar.  The two that fell apart Peco repaired and the engineer's report sent with them states these were then were fitted with the strengthened tie bar.

 

In all I have six Peco points on the layout (those behind the backscene are Hornby as these are a little shorter).  Three of these are early and the other three are from my second batch, giving me one of those plus the two repaired ones as spares in case of another failure - which Sod's Law says will happen either just after I've ballasted the track or during the layout's first show....

 

I'm still waiting for my short points to appear at Access Models.  The delay in issuing them after they were first advertised would lead me to believe these have the strengthened tie bar from the start.  I won't be using the ones I have on order until Bregstadt is finished and on the exhibition circuit and I'm ready to start Broken Scar. 

 

Les

 

Edited March 25, 2023 by Les1952

[InTheTrainShed]

2 hours ago, Porfuera said:

 

Actually it was me that posted the photos but pretty much all I've ever done is take them out of the packets a few times so I don't really have any idea if the new small radius points are any hardier than the medium ones.

 

That said, I don't think @Les1952 did anything more than take his two points out of the packet before they suddenly dismantled themselves. However, I'm pretty sure they were not his only pair - I believe he had others that have been fine. Bregstadt has quite a few points from what I've seen. Hopefully it was just a bit of bad luck or maybe they were 'Friday afternoon' or 'POETS day' points.

 

And I'm not aware of Les having any of the small radius points yet so I don't think he can do a comparison at this time.

 

But I'm sure Les will correct me if I'm wrong on any of those things.

 

Cheers, Neil

Thanks Neil 
yes as per usual I got my wires crossed - and thanks for the pictures and the replh

[Jeff Smith]

16 hours ago, Les1952 said:

I'm still waiting for my short points to appear at Access Models.  The delay in issuing them after they were first advertised would lead me to believe these have the strengthened tie bar from the start.  I won't be using the ones I have on order until Bregstadt is finished and on the exhibition circuit and I'm ready to start Broken Scar. 

Les, any chance of photos of the old and new tie bars - do they look different?

[Les1952]

4 hours ago, Jeff Smith said:

Les, any chance of photos of the old and new tie bars - do they look different?

 

No chance sorry, the three that I suspect are the old tie bar still are fixed to the layout which is stacked in the corner of the workshop with Bregenbach in front of it until a week tomorrow.  Then Bregenbach moves onto the stands and I can reach the layout but not open it until after the N Gauge show at York in May (my TT operations are on hold until then).

 

Les

 

[Porfuera]

4 hours ago, Les1952 said:

 

No chance sorry, the three that I suspect are the old tie bar still are fixed to the layout which is stacked in the corner of the workshop with Bregenbach in front of it until a week tomorrow.  Then Bregenbach moves onto the stands and I can reach the layout but not open it until after the N Gauge show at York in May (my TT operations are on hold until then).

 

Les

 

I had a look at my Peco points but I can't see any difference between the tiebars on the older, medium radius points and the new, small radius ones.

 

The medium radius points were bought new mid-December (except for one L/H one that was bought second-hand off eBay towards the end of November so I've no idea exactly how old that one is). The small radius points were bought new and arrived yesterday.

 

Everything with respect to the tiebar area looks identical on all the points, small and medium - I can’t even tell which L/H point was the second-hand one. Unless the change is very, very subtle I would say that all mine are all the same.

 

Cheers, Neil.

Edited March 26, 2023 by Porfuera

[Les1952]

23 hours ago, Porfuera said:

 

I had a look at my Peco points but I can't see any difference between the tiebars on the older, medium radius points and the new, small radius ones.

 

The medium radius points were bought new mid-December (except for one L/H one that was bought second-hand off eBay towards the end of November so I've no idea exactly how old that one is). The small radius points were bought new and arrived yesterday.

 

Everything with respect to the tiebar area looks identical on all the points, small and medium - I can’t even tell which L/H point was the second-hand one. Unless the change is very, very subtle I would say that all mine are all the same.

 

Cheers, Neil.

 

It could be thickness rather than width, or possibly just a little more off underneath to hang the tab of the blade on to.

 

All the best

Les

[Flying Pig]

4 hours ago, Les1952 said:

 

It could be thickness rather than width, or possibly just a little more off underneath to hang the tab of the blade on to.

 

All the best

Les

 

Or a tooling or process change that gives more reliable assembly of the existing components.

[Hobby]

I'm about to get a couple for the station throat, is there anything I should look out for before using them?

[Porfuera]

3 hours ago, Hobby said:

I'm about to get a couple for the station throat, is there anything I should look out for before using them?

 

Sorry - I can't really think of anything! I'm still planning, I don't even have baseboards yet. All I've done is take them out of the packet and photograph them. Presumably all you can do is treat them as you would any other point. Maybe someone else can think of something more helpful.