I’ve got 13 Peco N scale medium turnouts on my N scale layout and keep running into cam/spring failures after approximately 2 years of use? It’s really aggravating to have to unsolder the rail joiners and re-install a new turnout each time the darned cam wire (spring for lack of a better term) comes loose out of it’s pocket. To date I’ve never found a way to reseat the little guy so I always end up having to replace the whole assembly?!! I use the peco remote machines to switch them and they’re hanging in there fine with no replacement at all after 6 years of continuous use but the points on the failing turnouts of course aren’t fully closed so I end up losing electrical contact. Even though I’m seriously considering hard wiring each turnout through a SPST switch (to ensure good electrical contact ALL the time) I’m still stuck with the un-reliability of the cam spring??? Any ideas out there or should I just switch over to ATLAS code 80’s and swallow my pride (which I don’t even know if they’re compatable??)
Although I don’t use Peco ‘N’ points as such, I had a similar problem with their HO/OO point springs. I got round the problem by using ‘sprung’ motors (ie. switch motors that have an integral spring to make sure the bar inside the solenoids moves the full distance and stays there. This is a favourite trick with modellers who build their own switches.
Peco motors rely on the spring in the switch to keep the rail tie hard over and as such have a tendancy to bounce back a little if there is no spring, often enough to break the electrical contact or derail your stock.
One motor I could recommend is the Seep Point Motor PM4 (point motor latching with switch) available from Gaugemaster in the UK. sorry I don’t have their website address to hand, but you should find it on your search engine.
good luck
Jon Grant
Thanks for the great tip Jon! I’ll definitely start my search to check on the availability in N scale of the Seep Point Motor PM4 turnouts to replace my unreliable Peco’s. It would be a great relief to not have to worry about this problem raising it’s ugly head again in the future on my layout.
Thanks again,
Paul Plovick
A few suggestions that might save you having to replace the turnouts:
I’ve never had a problem with my hand thrown N scale Peco turnout springs, but that’s not to say it can’t happen. I did have lots of trouble with dirt getting into the points and preventing them from contacting the stock rails. Have you tried swiping a folded piece of 600 or 1000 grit emery paper (available from auto parts stores) through the points when closed against the stock rails to clean the crud off?
Peco makes an electrical contact attachment for the turnout motor which duplicates the points electrical contact and makes it reliable even when the points do get dirty.
Finally, if the springs are coming loose, it might be possible to make a new latch mechanism by gluing small magnets to the motors in a position that allows a moving magnet on the actuator to pull against stationary magnets or steel screws to latch the points tightly, yet still release to the opposite position when the turnout is thrown. Radio Shack and craft stores sell very small but powerful ‘rare earth’ magnets. This should solve your problem permanently without having to replace entire turnouts. Good luck.
Peco make a device that’s intended for mounting their switch machine on the surface beside the turnout. It contains another spring. I’ve found that two springs can be more than the switch machine can handle, so I often remove one of them. This could be a solution for you.
If you have the extended shaft on the switch machine, you could mount the surface mount underneath and run the shaft up through a hole. If you don’t use switch machines, you could just use it to reinforce the turnout spring.
A tip I learned many years ago is to never solder a turnout in place. Of all the track, a turnout is the piece that has moving parts and will give you trouble. If you don’t solder them, they are a lot easier to get out when the need arises. As far as those Peco springs are concerned, I don’t have any experience with their N-scale turnouts but use almost nothing but Peco HO-scale turnouts, and have never had any problems with the centering spring on the HO versions.
I’ve got 13 Peco N scale medium turnouts on my N scale layout and keep running into cam/spring failures after approximately 2 years of use? It’s really aggravating to have to unsolder the rail joiners and re-install a new turnout each time the darned cam wire (spring for lack of a better term) comes loose out of it’s pocket. To date I’ve never found a way to reseat the little guy so I always end up having to replace the whole assembly?!! I use the peco remote machines to switch them and they’re hanging in there fine with no replacement at all after 6 years of continuous use but the points on the failing turnouts of course aren’t fully closed so I end up losing electrical contact. Even though I’m seriously considering hard wiring each turnout through a SPST switch (to ensure good electrical contact ALL the time) I’m still stuck with the un-reliability of the cam spring??? Any ideas out there or should I just switch over to ATLAS code 80’s and swallow my pride (which I don’t even know if they’re compatable??)
Although I don’t use Peco ‘N’ points as such, I had a similar problem with their HO/OO point springs. I got round the problem by using ‘sprung’ motors (ie. switch motors that have an integral spring to make sure the bar inside the solenoids moves the full distance and stays there. This is a favourite trick with modellers who build their own switches.
Peco motors rely on the spring in the switch to keep the rail tie hard over and as such have a tendancy to bounce back a little if there is no spring, often enough to break the electrical contact or derail your stock.
One motor I could recommend is the Seep Point Motor PM4 (point motor latching with switch) available from Gaugemaster in the UK. sorry I don’t have their website address to hand, but you should find it on your search engine.
good luck
Jon Grant
Thanks for the great tip Jon! I’ll definitely start my search to check on the availability in N scale of the Seep Point Motor PM4 turnouts to replace my unreliable Peco’s. It would be a great relief to not have to worry about this problem raising it’s ugly head again in the future on my layout.
Thanks again,
Paul Plovick
A few suggestions that might save you having to replace the turnouts:
I’ve never had a problem with my hand thrown N scale Peco turnout springs, but that’s not to say it can’t happen. I did have lots of trouble with dirt getting into the points and preventing them from contacting the stock rails. Have you tried swiping a folded piece of 600 or 1000 grit emery paper (available from auto parts stores) through the points when closed against the stock rails to clean the crud off?
Peco makes an electrical contact attachment for the turnout motor which duplicates the points electrical contact and makes it reliable even when the points do get dirty.
Finally, if the springs are coming loose, it might be possible to make a new latch mechanism by gluing small magnets to the motors in a position that allows a moving magnet on the actuator to pull against stationary magnets or steel screws to latch the points tightly, yet still release to the opposite position when the turnout is thrown. Radio Shack and craft stores sell very small but powerful ‘rare earth’ magnets. This should solve your problem permanently without having to replace entire turnouts. Good luck.
Peco make a device that’s intended for mounting their switch machine on the surface beside the turnout. It contains another spring. I’ve found that two springs can be more than the switch machine can handle, so I often remove one of them. This could be a solution for you.
If you have the extended shaft on the switch machine, you could mount the surface mount underneath and run the shaft up through a hole. If you don’t use switch machines, you could just use it to reinforce the turnout spring.
A tip I learned many years ago is to never solder a turnout in place. Of all the track, a turnout is the piece that has moving parts and will give you trouble. If you don’t solder them, they are a lot easier to get out when the need arises. As far as those Peco springs are concerned, I don’t have any experience with their N-scale turnouts but use almost nothing but Peco HO-scale turnouts, and have never had any problems with the centering spring on the HO versions.