A daily updated blog typed by someone with painty hands, oil under his fingernails and the smell of solder in his nostrils who likes making all sort of models and miniatures. And fixing things.
Monday, February 10, 2014
Peco point bodgery
Much as I love Peco pointwork, it can be troublesome sometimes. As supplied, the track polarity changing works perfectly. Once laid and weathered though, the reliance on using switch rail to stock rail contact isn't so clever.
Edgeworth uses Peco track and I'm keen to keep things as simple as possible. Therefore, we have point motors but, at the moment, no supplementary polarity switching.
Testing the model, this appears OK, except on the first point after the fiddle yard. Aim the track at the loop and all is OK. Go for the platform and the electric juice isn't flowing.
After cleaning all the contact points, I improved maters a little but not enough. Still unwilling to give in and fit the switch, I tweaked the switch blade where you can see the arrow and lo - it works perfectly!
Now, I may come to regret being lazy, I did with Clayhanger Yard, but hopefully this will see me through at least one show. If not, well, I'm prepared. My local model shop now has only half the Peco PL-13 stitches they had earlier on last week. Just in case.
Relying on rail to rail contact always worries me, but I'm sure I'm not alone in hating soldering wires to rail but I've found the rail droppers from Palatine Models make life easier http://www.palatinemodels.co.uk/
ReplyDeleteThese are nifty. Might have to try a set. Thanks
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