Improving (or wrecking) a Peco turnout in N…

In my quest for an introductory step for modellers in N, wanting to get started but not confident to build turnouts, I’ve taken a second look at Peco Code 55…

Its robust and reliable construction and ease of use are huge benefits - however it has one massive draw back, one exacerbated for British use by two axle short wheelbase wagons. The gap in the frog is massive!

This is a design decision. To cater for larger flanges found on older stock and for wider tyres and narrow back to backs Peco have increased the tolerances here… this means that modern (and even ten year old) Farish models drop in the frog area - visibly drop - as they run through the turnout in either direction. This problem even impacts American stock - and it can cause derailments or inconsistent performance on locomotives too…

 

I decided to try and address this - with some but not total success. The first change, relatively easy, is to narrow the gap at the frog by increasing the width of the check rails with styrene strip. This helps a little but most wheels still drop. The second, and much change is to extend the ‘tip’ of the frog. I used some old rail and filed this until it was nearly invisible before supergluing it in place. The result is much better, still a small dip, but not a drop for a passing wheelset. 

For this to be workable on a larger layout I would need to design a ‘drop in’ solution - this requires some thought, but there is at least, some promise.

The other area for improvement, but not impacting performance, is the excessive plastic around the switch and tie bar. By removing these extra sections of plastic we are weakening the turnout, but if not fitting a solonoid directly to the ties, this is unlikely to cause any long term problems. The visual appearance is marked (bottom and centre of the photo here).

They are still some way from the visual finesse of a British finescale turnout but perhaps a stepping stone for those wanting to give N a try? It’s a shame that Peco couldn’t revisit the finescale range and improve the turnout performance with over 20 years of finer flanges behind us… leaving the Code 80 for the dinosaurs… as it is, you need to make your own mind up.

For me, I’m still not sure I can use this - its performance is not good enough for the accepted visual compromise. My journey for that continues, until next time more soon…

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