Peco turnouts

[BillyDee53]

Peco track is made to European standards, not NMRA.  They use wider flangeways.  The guard rail is far enough from the running rail, that it allows the opposite wheel to pick the point of the frog.  The answer, as given above is to shim the guardrail.  I use N gauge rail joiners.  They hold code 100 rail better.  I flare one end of the joiner slightly with a screwdriver to make it easier to slip on the rail. 

[BigG]

  I also have had problems in the frog area of my C-100 Pecos. In every case, using the NMRA guage and the 'wheels' notches showed that a properly guaged wheelset could indeed pick at the frog. It is more likely to cause a derail in the diverging route, but I glue 10-thou styrene on the rail-side of the frog guard rail. This has solved the trouble, but may need a bit of sanding near the ends of the shim for locos like my 2-10-0. I wonder if it has to do with the 'HO/OO' rating of the Peco units?

        Have fun....    George

[spidge]

I have many large radius Pecos and I installed a shim between the guardrail and rail across from the frog. This will better guarranty that the frog won't get picked as mentioned above. Also, as another poster mentioned, a few of my problems were due to the turnout not having been installed as flat as possible or the incoming routes did not enter the turnout straight. I The shims are acceptable to me especially after painting the track.

[cacole]

I've used nearly 50 code 100 and code 83 Peco turnouts and have not had any problems with them except one.  A code 100 turnout's plastic guard rail at one frog was too far away from the rail and allowed wheels to catch on the tip of the frog.  The solution was to carefully squeeze the plastic guard rail toward the stock rail with a large pair of pliers.

I suspect you have out-of-gauge wheels on your rolling stock if you're having derailment problems.  Get a NMRA guage and check all of your wheelsets.

In my opinion, Peco turnouts are some of the best.

[MisterBeasley]

I had one Peco turnout where I had problems.  There was nothing wrong with the turnout, but instead with the rail joint between the turnout and the adjacent Atlas flex-track.  Peco and Atlas Code 100 rails have a slightly different cross-section, and this makes it impossible to get a tight fit on both with a rail joiner.  I use the Atlas joiners, because I can't even get the Peco ones to work on the Atlas track, but then there's a slight looseness on the Peco.

I'd advise using a short piece of non-flex track adjacent to the divergent path.  This will get rid of the sideways torque that causes a real problem when the rail joiners aren't tight.  If you can, solder the joints and make sure they are smooth, both on top and inside of the rails.

[dknelson]

In testing my Peco crossovers I have found that most of my (few) derailments were due to less than perfectly flat surfaces under the turnout.  The turnout was slightly distorted or twisted or the track leaving the turnout had vertical curves.  This might have been due to something I did before installation or it might be the roadbed.

Having said that I do not use the smallest radius Peco turnouts, but medium or large radius.

You tested gauge -- did you test the flangeways?

Dave Nelson

 

[perisher]

I have 5 code 100 streamline turnouts that are giving me a lot of trouble with derailments at the frog area.It only occurs when i want to send wagons through the divergent rails.I checked all the wheels for gauge and the rails as well and it makes no difference.Any help would be most welcome