What is y’all’s experience with Peco turnouts for yards? I’m designing my layout right now and am having trouble deciding which to use. The “small” obviously lets me have a longer ladder, but I’m concerned about how well long locos and cars may negotiate those. What are your experiences and recommendations?
If there is one ting that I hate bout Peco turnouts, it is their poor electrical continuity. The contacts where the points pivot/bend are not very good. Further, they are in constant need of cleaning. When it gets dirty where the points meet the stock rails (and this point gets dirty frequently), you lose electrical contact. I do not have too many, if any, problems with locomotives' or rolling stock's derailing on them.. Be the turnout electrofrog or insulfrog, Peco turnouts are power routing.
I use standard Peco Electrofrogs in the yards. The one shorty I used has been replaced, not because cars couldn't handle them but because it looked wrong - too toy like. My experience with conductivity is that Pecos work better than other brands due to the sprung points, no problem until I added ballast. To solve that mine are thrown with slide switches that power the frog. Unifrogs are easier to wire, saves you having to solder to the frog.
Hoss, I have used the Peco Electrofrog Code 55 turnouts for 30 years without issues. I use the medium and large turnouts as I like to run long passenger trains which prefer the 18 and 36 radius of the medium and large turnouts. An excellent feature of the Peco turnouts is the sprung switch points. But, to ensure reliable operation and good electrical contact, I keep ballast and paint away from the switch points. Also, even if I nail down the flex track I do not nail down the turnout, so that the tiebar and switch points can move easily. I really like the sprung manual turnout feature and have found these turnouts very reliable.
I would use the medium Peco in the yard for more reliable pushing of cars through them. Many years ago I built a switching module using the Peco small radius turnouts and was restricted to four axle diesels and pushing through them was frustrating. Reliable point to stock rail electrical contact was an issue with the electrofrogs I had back then. I was constantly cleaning them.
Peco makes two small radius turnouts. The smallest one is called 'set track' and good for traction and trolleys and possibly for really tight factory or warehouse operations. It also was made for European layouts. The other small radius turnout approximates an Atlas #4 switch. It is not a direct replacement without additional track work.
Sure they do. It isn't C55 but I never said they made a #4 in C55. Atlas 2751 N Code 80 Nickel Silver #4 Custom Line Right Hand Switch Turnout | eBay
The code 80 standard switch is not a #4. The custom line one isn't either. They are closer to a #5 but they really aren't a numbered frog switch. They are a switch with a 19" radius curve through them. Doug
Okay, if it pleases you, the #4 Atlas switch/turnout I referred to is now called an Atlas "STANDARD switch turnout" per their packaging. But previously it was referred to as a #4. Notice I wrote "switch/turnout in an attempt to avoid that whole argument.
I used code 80 back then and there were three main choices small, medium, and large. They were not numbered from Peco. They could have been equivalent to other manufacturers who numbered thiers, but that is off the topic. The point of my statement was to help the original poster make a decision with more info in mind. As he asked for.
Atlas has never officially referred to their standard switch as a #4. It has been modelers doing that to differentiate from the #6 switch. Years ago, Model Railroader had an article addressing this very issue of modelers incorrectly naming switches. Actually, it may have been in HO Railroad That Grows. MK might be right. Doug
The Peco does have the sprung points. You can have all of the contact that you like but if oxidation and dirt get in the way it is the same as a ten mile wide gap. "Y'ain't gittin' no 'lectric thru it". My Pecos need cleaning far more frequently than my Atlas, Kato or B-mann. I have had further problems with the plastic's deteriorating in them resulting in their discombobulating. While I have managed to get six axle diesels through the sharp and even the matchbook turnouts (set track). I put them only in places frequented by switchers. a Shay and freight cars no longer than fifty feet (and as few of the fifty feet as possible). I do not put them where passenger cars would go. I still have a few Peco turnouts but have replaced most of them with Kato or Atlas. I now need do far less cleaning than I used to.
What plastic is deteriorating? Is it the frog? If so, then you have C80 Insulfrogs switches because Peco did not make C55 switches with a plastic frog. I don't use any Insulfrog switches so I am not familiar with the wiring. I have heard they are similar to the Atlas switches. Maybe someone more knowledgeable can comment on that. But are you sure that oxidation and dirt are the culprits here rather than something else? Peco uses a nickel silver rail that has a high nickel content. Unlike brass, whose oxide is non conductive, nickel oxide is conductive. That's why we have, so called, nickel silver rail and not plain brass. Despite its name there is no silver in it, just brass and nickel.
I have one Peco medium radius code 55 electrofrog switch on my layout which I bought in the 1990s and it's in a crossover, paired with an Atlas #6 because they are close to the same geometry. It has been there about 12 years and, maybe two or three years into the layout. locos started stalling as they crossed that switch. I surmised the point to stock rail problem and took my Dremel with the wire wheel and cleaned the surfaces involved. It's been fine, since. They are very well-made, robust, switches. Doug
It is the plastic near the spring load on the points. It happens on both Insul nd Electro frog turnouts. The worst offenders are the "matchbook" or set track turnouts. I have some Insul and some Electro Frogs. Most of mine were code eighty but I did have one or two "dual code" eighty/fifty five. If I get constant stalls on the given turnout, I take out the LL Track clener and Q-tips. The Q-tip always comes out filthy. After I clean, the problems go away until they return. When they return, I take out the LL Track Cleaner and Q-tips. The Q-tip always comes out dirty.
Never seen any deterioration. My Peco C55 turnouts were installed over 25 years ago. They are an order of magnitude more robust than Atlas, my only gripe is the oversized ties. I throw them with SPDTs and since using NO-OX-ID I haven't cleaned them. Only issue prior to the SPDTs was loose ballast or cleaning cloth lint getting caught between the point and the rail. It was always a quick fix.
In my 50+ years in model RR'ing this is the first mention I have seen of this problem and based on the limited information provided it sounds like it could be an environmental problem. What exactly do you mean by "deterioration"? I never heard of a "dual code eighty/fifty five". Are you referring to the double flange on the code 55 where the top flange is code 55 and the bottom code 80? Okay, you don't state whether this is an Eectrofrog or an Insulfrog turnout or if it is a set track or regular turnout. There is a difference between the Electrofrog and Insulfrog turnouts in how the electric is applied to the rails. In the Electrofrog version the power comes from the points only (unless the switch has been modified). In the Insulfrog there is a jumper wire underneath the turnout connecting the frog rails to the closure and point rails. So, in the Insulfrog switch the point rails receive power from both directions. Please note that I have four of the set track switches and they are all Insulfrogs. They are the only insulfrogs I have. I don't think Peco made these in an Electrofrog version but I could be mistaken about that.
