Recently, I have had several of the "matchbook" Peco turnouts discombobulate on me. It appears that the plastic goes bad. It turns brittle and the whole thing falls apart. Admittedly, the turnouts are close to, if not over, thirty years old. I did have the same thing happen with a Number Six that I had been using for only ten years, perhaps less. Has anyone had similar experiences with Peco turnouts in general or only the "matchbook" turnouts? Is the plastic that they use re-cycled, or something? I use these "matchbook" turnouts in an industrial section of the pike thus it is only small power and freight cars no more than fifty feet that operate on that trackage. I have considered replacing them with the Kato or Tomy sharp turnouts. Are they any better?
Never heard the term "matchbook turnout" before, can you explain? Kind of interested since mine are 25 years old.
They are plastic frog turnouts that have a sharp radius; nine and three quarters on the diverging. They come in a plastic bag that is stapled to what looks like an oversized matchbook. I will take a photograph and post it later.
I have two of the short Peco turnouts installed with the 9.75" radius curve diverging, and plastic frog. I bought them between 15-20 years ago at a local hobby shop, and installed them at that time. I don't know how long they had been in stock at that local hobby shop. They have been nailed into the same piece of homasote for about 15 years. I just looked at them, and poked at their ties with a screwdriver blade, both between the rails and outside of the rails. I did not detect any sign of brittleness in the ties, and I did not detect any sign that the ties no longer have a good grab on the code 80 rail (I pushed down on the plastic ties outside the rail for that test). I have no memory of what kind of packaging they came in, but for the longer-radius PECO turnouts which I bought I saved the cardboard boxes they came in, and I do not have any saved cardboard boxes for these short Peco turnouts that have the 9.75" radius curve diverging.
I've used a whole mess of these Setrack turnouts, along with Peco flex track and darn near every other turnout they make. Never had a problem with the plastic. I wonder if there was a defective batch made at some point, or maybe those specific turnouts were exposed to UV light, solvent, or something else that weakened the plastic?
Brokemoto, I have multiple medium and large radius Peco turnouts but none of the 9 inch radius. I have been using them for 35 years with no issues. - Tonkphilip
Did you ballast the turnouts? If so, what ballast - and perhaps more significantly - what glue/adhesive did you use?
Never mind, he beat me to it. I have only incandescent and fluorescent lights. I have not used any solvents other than LL track cleaner, which is mostly alcohol. The points on these things get dirty frequently causing a loss of contact. They are power routing. I have had only one of the non-matchbook turnouts discombobulate. It was a Number Six..I have had three or four of these discombobulate. A house in the Capital of Your Nation. It has central heat and air conditioning. I used ballast only past the moving parts. It was Woodland Scenics. I used Elmer's® as an adhesive.
Do they ever! On my local club layout I've had to blast them with the heaviest artillery to get them working smoothly after various years of abuse. Mineral spirits, rubbing alcohol, even the occasional brass wire brush. The plastic holds up to all that abuse. A defective batch of plastic seems like a likelier culprit to me. Every maker of plastic models seems to have a notorious bad run now and then.
These Setrack turnouts were originally designed using NEMO (not NMRA) standards for European style layouts with the two axle, four-wheel cars. I would only use them in a trolley/traction operation and then only checking them with a NMRA gauge especially at the frog and guard rail areas.
I am using them in an industrial area. The usual car that runs over them is a forty foot box car. There are also thirty four foot gondolas, flat cars aswell as fifty foot box cars and flats. The power that runs over them are Atlas Baldwins, Kato NW-2s, B-mann 44 tonners, B-mann USRA 0-6-0 and MDC 2-6-0/2-8-0. All of them operate over them without any trouble until the points get dirty. When that happens, it is time for Q-Tips™ and LL track cleaner. Four cars is the maximum string of cars pushed or pulled over them; the usual is two.
