PECO TURNOUTS

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

In trying to determine which PECO turnouts to use in replacing old Atlas turnouts is it accurate

to say PECO MEDIUM is equivalent to ATKAS #6 and PECO Large is like an #8??

Any comments appreciated

JIM

2

I was just researching this very same issue for my layout and came across the following spreadsheet that was VERY helpful. Has all the Peco track dimensions including turnouts (radius, diverging angle, etc.) and appears to cover all scales. Hope it helps! Jamie

PECO TURNOUT DIMENSIONS
http://www.rmcq.mixedpk.com/worksheets/peco_turnout_dimensions.pdf

3

I think they are smaller than that because the older line, or British style, turnouts by Peco have full radius diverging routes…they are curved all along, and don’t straighten at and beyond the frog as N. American style turnouts do. However, their new Customline oooops…I meant Streamline ones are of the style we use over here. I have #6 in my yards, and I have no reason to believe that they are not what they claim. I can run all of my engines, including a BLI 2-10-4 through them.

So, if their descriptors are “medium”, I think you might be looking at the older, or at least British, style.

4

I checked once by holding a Peco large radius (C100) turnout against a #6 Atlas…

To my eye, they looked close to being the same radius, dimensions etc. Definitely a Peco large is not a #8.

I think a Peco medium is close to an Atlas #4.

K

5

I just reread your post and while the spreadsheet I linked in my previous reply will help it does not give an actual substitution or compatability listing between Atlas and Peco. I know that in my N-scale layout, I was looking for a similar replacement but there is not really a one-to-one correlation because of the differences in construction between the Peco Code 55 turnouts and Atlas Code 55 turnouts. For example, I found that the diverging route in the Atlas turnouts is not a continuous curve, while the Peco turnouts feature a continuous curve on the diverging route. This was very useful to me because I want to place a turnout on a curve, and I know that my curve has to be either 12", 18" or 36" radius for the Peco small, medium, or large turnouts to fit (since these are the matching radii used in the Peco turnouts). Basically, in N scale there is not a direct cross-reference between the two manufacturers turnouts. They are close but you can’t just pull out an Atlas #5 and replace it with a Peco small, some additional modifications to the track alignments are necessary.

6

K, I think you miss-spoke. In N-scale as far as I know Atlas does not have a # 4. The Peco small would be comparable to a #4. Yet the Atlas medium (#6) is very close to the Peco medium. Now the large radius Peco is close to a # 8 but I have never had the Atlas version to compare. The Peco curved are #7, if interested.

I believe the main difference between the Atlas and the Peco is the Peco’s diverging route is striaght through the frog and the Atlas are curved. This may have changed over time though.

7

In a word, no. As others have noted, the traditional PECO tunouts use a curved diverging route which is often more space-efficient than a numbered turnout, but will not be a drop-in fit.

Of course, a Walthers # 6 is not a drop-in replacement for an Atlas #6, either – or for any other manufacturer’s #6. Only the frog numbers between manufacturers are the same, the overall dimensions will differ. (Adn even the frog numbers sometimes are a little off)

Detial on the dimensions of PECO C75 and C100 HO turnouts and C55 and C80 N scale tunrouts is found here (HO’s toward the bottom of the page):
http://www.awrr.com/PECO.html

So you’ll probably have to do some realignment of the track to replace those turnouts. The good news in using PECOs is that they are likely a little more compact, which may help.

Byron
Model RR Blog

8

No, I did not miss-spoke…for starters, I was referencing HO scale, not N scale, as my C100 should have indicated to you.

Second I said I held an Atlas and a Peco turnout back to back, and i was describing what I saw by doing this comparison.

K

9

Thanks all. I did leave out my layout is HO Code 100 (heck I’m 77 what would you expect?)

but the info was appreciated

Jim

10

Well, I’m a 60-year-old youngster, but I’m using HO code 100 as well.

A Peco Medium is a reasonable substitute for an Atlas snap-switch. Yes, you’ll have to do a bit of re-configuration on the diverging route, but it shouldn’t be major surgery. That’s why God invented flex-track, after all.