Got a simple question for anyone here,[:I] please bare in mind im just starting in the Hobbie of model railroading.
All of my H0 tracks that I have purchaced (on ebay) are code 83, now after speaking to one (of the very few) hobbie shops in my city i was told that they only stock Peco Code 100 flextrack, i know that there is a VERY slight size diffrence between the two, but the real question that comes to mind is would that slight hight diffrence cause de-railments and other such hassels, and would i actually need to have the tracks level? … or none of the above
Your tracks need to be level at the joints. This is one of the first commandments of good trackwork.
You will find Peco to be expensive versus the atlas track you already own. Try to start with the track you have and use it to learn from trial and error.
Dont forget the cork roadbed. Remember the Mark 1 Eyeball is the best measuring tool when checking joints for flaws.
If you insist on using Peco (Why not? it’s your railroad =) then you would need to build up under the code 83 track until it matches the peco track in height. But opens a can of worms related to track joining.
well thank you both very much, im going to hunt down code 83 then, god only knows why one of the more major stores in melbourne (AU) only stocks the peco 100, but like i said i gotta hunt around more.
I built a layout with code 100 rail and wanted to use the Walther’s (Shinohara) #8 double slip switch, which was made only in code 83 rail. I mounted the switch on blotter paper to get the rail tops to match in height , soldered the rails together and filed the joints smoothe, and hand no problems.
Leon, you bring a question to mind though, is there an actual advantage to using code 100 over code 83? or vise-versa? from the scale standpoint the only real diffrence I can see is (remember im new to this) its just emulating diffrent types of “real life” track that hold heavier trains/cars/cargo, and apart from the obvious (like i stated above) the actual track hieght diffrence i really cant grasp any advantage or disadvantage over either of them.
The 83 looks better than 100 in my opinion… Smaller rail always does… I never could get use to the rail being half the height of the freight car wheels on the layout (code 100)… You can buy the special rail joiners if you want to or you can flatten the end of one and then solder the rail on top of it to make your 83/100 transition… Doesn’t look quite as clean but it gets the job done… Just make sure that your rail tops are all even…
BTW, You Do know what the code Means don’t you?? Code 100 = 0.100 inch… Code 83 = 0.083 inch… Height that is…
