Jack

After lots of fiddling I have decided to replace the 4 setrack points which form the crossovers with two pairs of regular 6 foot radius peco points. The 6'(!) is different, so it will mean a bit more work, but it should be OK. I will need to adjust the narrow gauge feeder line slightly, but other than that it should be straight forward. I had thought about building my own 4' radius points to the same geometry as Marcway (using the frogs from the redundant marcway points I first took out). However, it would require a lot of work and be just as expensive, if not more so, as buying Peco ones ... life is too short imo. it does mean I will now have to re-coup some of my costs by trying to shift 4 Marcway and 4 setrack points, but that should be OK. Hopefully there will be time to do this in a couple of weeks.

Thanks Chris. That thought had crossed my mind, but wouldn't suit some of the 'mainline' style locos, although I did find a picture of a Terrier with enlarged buffers. I have decided to remove the 4 offending crossover Setrack points and replace them with regular 6-footers. That should deal with the buffer locking. As for the auto-coupling, I will keep thunking.

The Folkestone show was very interesting, a very good range of 7mm layouts. I counted 5 using Dinghams and spoke to all the operators ... some thought they were great, others ... err ... didn't! Everyone seemed to agree they were fiddly to operate. Thanks for all the info everyone. I'm still undecided, but I'm also in no rush :)

Thanks all, The 4 wheel wagons (various), 6 wheel milk tank (Dapol) and pill box (Dapol) are all fine. The problem comes with the locos. I have 3 terriers (sang cheng and Dapol) and they cause the worst problems when running bunker first. Occasional problems occur with the panniers and jintys. The Minerva Victory is the biggest loco I have, but that is fine. What I wanted to know was, can the Dinghams be set on the terriers (especially) to prevent the locking when propelling through the points.

Ladies and Gents, Having sorted out the electrical issues on my Peco Setrack points I have finally given the layout a thorough 'test' (read, play trains for several hours)! The layout runs great and all the stock now traverse the points OK. However, I have found two issues ... 1) I find 3 links, even in 7mm, too fiddly, especially after a lot of use of Kadees in 4mm. 2) There is some buffer locking on the tight radius points. I was thus contemplating fitting Dingham couples to solve the first issue. My question is, will Dinghams be OK on the 40.5" radius of the peco track, or will there still be buffer locking issues? Thanks

The whole loco fleet now run through the points comfortably, although there is a little bit of buffer locking on some of the longer stock. Over the last couple of days my son and I have given the layout a thorough test ... something I realised I haven't done the in the past 8 years! Everything is lots of fun, but after a while coupling and uncoupling 3 links gets to be a pain! I'm also aware that when the buildings and bridges get put in, coupling up will be even harder. I have had great results with Kadees in OO, but was considering Dinghams for this layout. They seem to be straight forward to fit (unlike 7mm kadees) and are quite unobtrusive. It wouldn't take much to fit magnets. Has anyone got any experience of them on tight curves? I'm assuming from everything I have read that fitting them is just a case of taking out the 3 links and putting the Dingham in?

Now, you could put a slight incline on the track heading top right in the over all layout pic above, through the window, and escape into a garden railway!! Go on ... you will ... you will ... you will ...

All 6 points on the layout have had a small piece of rail removed with the mini-drill grinder and some araldite inserted and rubbed down with a track rubber, then tidied up with a craft knife. I have also added some wire between the blades and the stock rails so that when I come to spray the track paint doesn't isolate bits I don't want isolated. Took most of the day but I think in the long run it will be worth it. Everything running like a dream, including the Jinty with the poor back to backs.

Although today has been a little repetitve I have grinded down the straight rail approaching all 6 frogs, and filled with araldite. I have also added a small piece of wire between the stock rail and the point blades so they arn't reliant on the blades or fishplates for electrical contact. Hopefully these mods will be hard to spot when sprayed and the layout is now running very well.

Finally managed to get hold of a spare point and test the modification which will allow the Dapol Jinty and other longer wheelbase stock to negotiate the Peco setrack points. My plan for Friday is to modify all the points on the layout, including putting extra power feeds onto the point blades so they don't rely on contact for conductivity. The I really must get on with some stock kit building!

After having to wait ages to get hold of a spare point, I have finally had a test. Below are a couple of pictures of the very small amount of rail which has been ground away next to the frog. This appears to have cured the problem and the jinty drives through without shorting now. Please note, this is on the straight rail only ... when the jinty heads straight through the point it doesn't catch the curved rail, even with poor back-2-backs. When I come to do the actual pointwork on the layout I will fill in the small gap with a drop of araldite to insulate it and keep things smooth, although the slight drop made no difference to performance. Whilst it is annoying that I had to do this at all, it does seem to widen the scope for the amount of stock which can negotiate these points.

As far as I know none have become baked bean cans ... but you can ride on a preserved one at the Midland Railway, butterley!!!

I've just had chance to see this layout in the flesh and have a go ... it is absolutely superb. It is also a lot of fun to operate ... think Timesaver or Ingelnook only five times more complicated. Tim has done a brilliant job in making the headshunts long enough to look realistic, but tricky to shunt ... well done!! I thought we had been chatting and operating for half an hour, but when I looked at my watch we'd been playing trains for over two hours. IMO the only flaw in this layout is that it isn't exhibitable!

There was no way it would run through, but it was interesting to see how far it got!

As said before, the minerva pannier runs through ok. I think it is a combination of long wheel base and poor back to backs ... although as Andrew said, if you have long wheel base stock then use 6’ radius points. I have an idea for a fix, I’m just waiting on a spare point to test it on. The plan is to file down the top of about 3mm of rail on the straight rail on the toe side of the frog (next to the plastic), then in fill and smooth off with araldite. This should create a short isolated section for problematic locos. As long as the frog is live it shouldn’t affect the running of 4 wheel locos. This only needs to be done on the straight rail as stock going through in a straight line appears to be ok. I’ll post pics once i’ve tried it.

Looking good. Sorry I missed you at club today. Would be good to see the layout in the flesh some time.

Another running session today. My Minerva Victory and Peckett both ran through like a dream (especially the Victory which has to be one of the best runners I won). A friends kit bit steam sentinel also went through no problems (slaters wheels we think). Oddly another friends Golden Age merchant navy struggled ... ... however, since the loco barely fitted on the layout thats no great surprise. Waiting for a spare point to arrive from my favourite purveyor of modelling goodies, then I'll get on with testing a solution to the shorting issue.

Had a fun running session at the East Kent O Gauge Group today. It was good to try the layout out with the new track. Still a few jobs to do on the track and electrics, but nearly there. I also need to figure out the signalling plan and where point rodding etc needs to run. Some pics from EKOGG today ... Although there have been a few niggles (nearly resolved), I'm quite happy with the new pointwork from Peco.

Based on recent threads my guess is a set of 7mm Peppa Pig figures

Sort of. I think the combination of tight radius and unifrog means there is no room for error. The Jinty with good back to backs still causes a bit of shorting. i have certainly not experienced any manufacturing issues with the current batch though, so hopefully that issue is resolved.

OK, here are my findings from today ... tested with all 6 laid points. 1 Jinty has good back-to-backs, the other are about 0.5mm out. The good one stalls only occasionally on DCC, the other frequently. They only stall going through the curved direction, never the straight one. As they go though the curve the rear wheels are making a glancing contact with the straight rail between the frog and the blades. This is enough to trip a DCC system. Both locos run fine on analogue. I think the solution is to trim a little bit from the top and inside of the straight rail by the frog, but I'm not prepared to test it on a newly installed point, so I will try and get hold of a spare. I have spoken to Peco about this and they say this is the first they have heard of this (they don't appear to be avid RMWeb followers), although they are aware of some of the other problems users have experienced. So if you are also struggling with this, maybe you could give the Technical Advice chaps a call, so they are more aware of the running issues? Apparently all O gauge points are tested with a Dapol Jinty before they leave the factory ... I'm guessing its only analogue though, and maybe from a batch with correct back-to-backs.

Do you have a 7mm back-to-back gauge you can check it with? I presume your 14xx is a kit, what are the back-to-backs like on that?

Track re-laying and re-wiring is complete. Just a couple of small tidy-up jobs left to do. Problems with long wheel base locos & poor back to backs have been reported in the Peco Setrack thread ... need to find a solution (it shouldn't be too difficult).

I've had now had a try with a Minerva 57xx Pannier and that was fine, as was my Sang Cheng Terrier. Both would quite happily push a Dapol 6-wheel milk tank through OK. the milk tank also doesn't seem to cause shorts. I think the problem occurs if the wheel base is long and the back-to-backs are out. The Minerva 57xx B2Bs are spot on and it ran through like a dream. Having now relaid the track this isn't just a problem at crossovers as I first thought.

Thanks. Not sure this was a good idea! The Marcway points don't look great, but they are super robust, unlike the Peco Setrack ones. I currently have a shorting problem caused by poor back-to-backs on a Dapol Jinty. This was caused by removing 5 sleepers from the curve of the point to maintain a sensible (ish) 6'. Much fiddling needs to be done tomorrow!! Pics to follow ...