Peco

Peco are one of the most important companies for people interested in British N scale. They make very high quality trackwork, ready-to-run goods wagons and a variety of accessories.

Peco
Beer, Seaton, Devon, EX12 3NA
England

Phone from within the UK: 01297 21542
Phone from outside UK: +44 1297 21542

The Pritchard Patent Product Company Ltd was founded in 1947 by Sidney Pritchard, who ran the firm for nearly 50 years. He died in the mid 1990s, and the company is apparently now run by his son. Peco is a very significant manufacturer on the British scene, and supply track in just about every popular scale. They also run a rather strange little tourist attraction in their home town - the sleepy fishing village of Beer, Devon. The tourist attraction is called Pecorama, and consists of displays of all kinds of model railways, a live steam miniature railway that takes passengers around the gardens, a small restaurant in a converted Pullman coach, etc. Very quaint, I daresay. Can you imagine an American model manufacturer running such a thing?

Other aspects to the Peco empire include their publications division and their agency services. Peco Publications and Promotions, which publishes a wide range of books on the subject of railways - model and full-size - also produces Railway Modeller and Continental Modeller magazines. Railway Modeller is the largest British model railway magazine, roughly analogous to the American Model Railroader in terms of its general audience. Some people like it a lot because it attracts a wide range of advertisers and because it’s comfortingly familiar. Other people don’t like it at all because its style, format and content haven’t really changed in 40 years and thus they prefer more specialized competing publications. One point in its favour from my perspective here in Canada is that it’s very readily available - I can walk into a couple of local (Vancouver) magazine shops and pick up a copy. Continental Modeller is a magazine aimed at the English market, for people who are interested in model railways based on non-British prototypes.

Peco’s position is unique in terms of its status as both a manufacturer and the publisher of two high-circulation periodicals that cover developments in the field. It’s interesting to speculate how this dual role might affect Peco’s editorial angle concerning both its own products and those of other makers.

Their agency services are an important distributor of British manufacturers. Like Walthers in the US, Peco is a distributor of other manufacturers’ products as well as being a maker in its own right. The PPP catalogue lists all their agency products, including a number of manufacturers of N products, including GEM, Parkside, Kestrel, Tiny Signs, etc. Unlike Walthers, however, Peco is careful to carry product lines that do not compete with their own - products “complementary” to the Peco offerings, as they euphemistically phrase it. They also don’t serve as importers - all the PPP-listed companies seem to be British.

Peco publishes a sizeable A4 catalogue (if you’re not familiar with European metric paper sizes, A4 is roughly equivalent to the North American standard of 8.5 x 11 inches, only slightly taller and narrower) of all their products, including their N stuff. The copy I have, from July 1994, is 84 pages long and illustrated with colour and black and white photographs throughout. It’s available through any UK mail order model railway shop, for around £3.50. Highly recommended. Does not include any prices - that’s a separate list.

Additionally, the Peco PPP agency division (ie: the non-Peco product distributor) also publish the PPP catalogue of products “complementary to the Peco range.” I have a somewhat old catalogue - from January 1992. It’s 71 pages long and black and white only, though printed on glossy stock. Like the Peco catalogue, the PPP catalogue is available through any UK mail order model railway shop, for around £3.50. The price list is separate.

Peco manufactures three product lines of track for N scale. All are 9 mm gauge, and thus can be used with N scale models anywhere in the world.

The first type is Setrack - a sectional track system aimed at children and novices. Like most sectional track the end sleepers/ties have big rectangular cutout notches to accommodate rail joiners - rather ugly. Like most commercial N scale track, Setrack is code 80 height, which means that that the rail is 80/1000 of an inch high. Since Setrack isn’t a track system designed for serious modellers there are only two types of turnouts - very sharp (9 inch radius) left and right hand turnouts.

The second type of track is Peco Streamline. This is a line of flexible track with matching turnouts. Unlike Setrack, the Streamline turnouts do not have rail joiner notches. They’re also available in a wide range of sizes, though like Setrack the rail is code 80. Peco Streamline has been popular for years with modellers who want reasonably good-looking track without the bother of having to handlay it all.

Finally, the most recent product line of rail in N is Peco Universal Fine, sometimes called Finescale. This is quite an innovative product. The rail height is slightly greater than code 80, but part of the rail is buried within the plastic sleepers/ties. That means that the visible rail protruding out is only code 55 high. So it’s marketed as code 55 track, although pedants probably would prefer to see it called visible code 55 track. Since prototype track, scaled to N dimensions, is around code 40 or so, the code 55 trackwork looks considerably more realistic than the code 80.

However, since the the rail is submerged in the plastic webbing, Peco code 55 is quite tough track - much less fragile than the code 40 stuff used by purists, who often have to lay the track by hand. Additionally, the fact that the rail is surrounded by plastic at its base means that the little plastic nubs on conventional N scale track (that are supposed to look like spikes or rail chairs) aren’t mechanically necessary to hold the track down. So Peco made the inner plastic nubs very small. This means that most rolling stock can clear them, despite the lower rail height. However, keep in mind that some rolling stock will hit even these small plastic chairs. I have, for example, an old Graham Farish prairie tank engine that needs its flanges turned down. I also have a pair of dreadful old Lima N wagons that barely roll on Peco code 55, their flanges are so huge.

One other thing that purists object to, however, is that the code 55 turnouts all have the same frog angle - 10 degrees. This is different from the code 80 Streamline turnouts - in that product line large radius turnouts have large radius frogs and small radius turnouts have small radius frogs. For this reason the geometry of the code 55 line is thus less realistic than the older code 80 line. I think the rationale behind Peco’s decision to standardize the frog angle was that it makes track planning a little simpler, as you can mix and match different sizes of turnouts more easily. However, if you are very fussy and have protractors built into your eyeballs you may find the 10 degree frogs to be unrealistic.

I personally think that the Peco finescale trackwork is about the best mass-market stuff out there. It’s reasonably realistic - the lower profile rail is very nice - and reliable. If you’re modelling modern European you can buy flexible track with concrete sleepers/ties rather than wooden ones. The turnouts and crossings don’t have those big toylike notches for accommodating rail joiners. The turnouts are all designed to be operated from below the baseboard, so you don’t get those huge plastic boxes on the side of turnouts for housing switch machines or manual turnout operating levers. (though you can use a surface-mounted machine with an adapter if you really need to) The turnouts are also all spring-centred, reducing the likelihood of derailments since your turnouts can’t get stuck set halfway.

All of Peco’s turnouts - except for the toylike Setrack ones - come in two different versions. The Electrofrog series have powered metal frogs and the Insulfrog series have insulated ones. (the frog is the X-shaped part of the turnout where the rails cross) With an insulated frog (all of Atlas’ turnouts are of this design, incidentally) you have a rather ugly plastic frog, which also increases the chances of shorter locos stalling, since the loco’s wheels have to run over an unpowered plastic piece of rail in order to avoid short circuits. Powered frogs are all metal, which look much more realistic, but also require more careful wiring. I personally vastly prefer the electrofrog design - I feel that the minor wiring issue is a small sacrifice to make for the vastly better look and more reliable performance that electrofrogs offer.

If you decide to use powered frogs you have to put insulated joiners at certain places to avoid shorts - something that you don’t need to worry about with insulated frogs. Peco’s electrofrog turnouts rely on electrical contact of the blades against the side of the rail. This works fine when the rails are clean, but if you paint the rail sides or if things get a bit grubby, contact can become unreliable. I personally prefer using a switch that can detect which position the turnout is in and route power accordingly. Either use Peco’s switch machine and attach their optional (and sadly rather expensive) microswitch base so that the frog is powered automatically depending on which way the turnout is thrown or else, if you prefer manual operation, use a manual turnout lever that incorporates an electrical switch. Note that Peco doesn’t sell powered frog crossings, simply because there’s no easy way to power electrified frogs on a crossing. (you’d need to know which track the train is running on at any given time) The final advantage of Electrofrogs is that you can make really lame jokes about "live frogs".

Since information concerning Peco turnout dimensions is not readily available if you can’t get the Peco catalogue, I’ve put up what information I have onto a Peco turnout dimensions page.

Downside of Peco track? Well, it’s all shipped in from the UK and the stuff is pretty expensive. Sometimes double the price of US-manufactured Atlas trackwork. Some people don’t like the spring-centred turnout blades, because it means the turnouts snap with unrealistic speed compared to the prototype. If you want slow stall motor turnout operation you have to rip the springs out. (or just use a fast clock and claim the turnout operation speed is quite accurate...) Since the ties/sleepers are injection-moulded plastic they have that tacky phony-looking woodgrain, which people who handlay track with nice smooth basswood ties make fun of. Their turnouts have extra-long ties and manual operating knobs at the point where the switch machine is installed, which isn’t very prototypical. But these can be trimmed off with a sharp knife if you intend to use under the board switch machine mounting. (ie: you don’t clip the machine directly to the turnout)

If you go for Code 55 be aware that some oversized wheel flanges may bump on the track or even derail. The turnouts use power routing - power runs to the rail for the direction in which the turnout is set. This may be useful (eg: for sidings, etc.) but since it’s different behaviour from Atlas, etc., turnouts, you need to keep it in mind. The turnout guard rails are built to a different standard than US NMRA standards, so some American modellers may want to consider shimming the rails with plastic to reduce derailments. (the American Kalmbach book on building a Burlington Northern model talks about this)

Finally, it has been pointed out to me that the shape and curvature of the turnouts follows European practices, not North American practices. (there are extremely minor and subtle differences in geometry, particularly the curvature of the turnout blades) This obviously doesn’t bother me, since I’m interested in British N scale, but if you are a detail-oriented person building a North American-style layout, you may find this objectionable. If so, look into the line of turnouts built by the American firm Micro Engineering.

Peco make a fairly comprehensive line of British prototype goods wagons, which they market as Peco Wonderful Wagons. And I think they’re great. The models are well-constructed, nicely detailed, crisply painted. Marvelous stuff that’s on par with the best ready-to-run US prototype models, IMO. (though MicroTrains have a slight edge up in terms of fine detailing) It may not compare very well with handcrafted 2 mm scale models, assembled in lapidary detail by obsessed craftspeople, but for stock that works right out of the box, it’s very good.

They use a variant of Rapido couplers, which they have dubbed “Elsie” or ELC for easy-lift coupling or something silly like that. The point of their coupler design is that it’s a standard Rapido coupler moulding, only with a very short shaft that’s on a hinge. The hinge permits the coupler to swing vertically upwards out of the way. This instead of having a longer shaft mounted on a spring, as with the traditional Rapido design. The ELC design allows the goods wagons to be coupled much more closely together than with regular Rapido couplers.

One minor irritant for me, however... they make models of all the Big Four’s brake vans, except for one company. They don’t build a model of the famous GWR “Toad” brake van. Yet ironically the only brake van they sell in O is based on GWR designs. I wrote Peco about this and they said that Farish sell a GWR brake van in N, and they didn’t want to compete. Which frustrates the hell out of me, since the Farish brake van looks absolutely terrible whereas all the Peco brake vans look great. There are also at least a dozen other wagons available from both Peco and Graham Farish and in every case, the Peco product is by far the superior one. Oh, well. Time to haul out the styrene sheet and glue, I think. This is made a little easier by the fact that Peco sell chassis and unpainted kits of nearly all their wagons. So if you want to scratchbuild something or put together a van with your own paint scheme, you can always take this route.

Peco have also gradually been making small improvements to their wagons over the years. Moulding and painting quality has improved. Earlier wagons had bodies permanently fastened to the chassis by melting the plastic knobs that connect the two... later wagons have a small nut, so you can separate the two. And recent photographs in the press show their new wagons seem to have actual spoked wheels. For years their N wagons have had less realistic solid disc wheels. One thing that might be a problem, as discussed on the N scale mailing list, is that the Peco wheels are solid plastic mouldings, so you can’t regauge them. Not only that, but the back to back measurements of the wheels are more narrow than US NMRA standards, which can apparently lead to problems if you run Peco wagons on American track. Finally, I’m told they have a new 9' chassis kit out, which has thinner and thus more realistic mouldings.

Modellers of contemporary modern image layouts will find, however, that the bulk of Peco’s wagons tend to be of the older steam era. They do make British Rail wagons - just not as many. Also, Peco don’t build passenger coaches. For coaches you have to go to Graham Farish, who have a very wide range of British N coaches. In the 1970s they sold a model of an LMS Jubilee class steam engine that was built by Rivarossi. Unfortunately, although it looked very nice it had a pretty awful and unreliable tender-drive system that never worked. That product has long been discontinued. Recently they introduced a new 0-6-0 tender locomotive, the GWR Collett 2251, which is apparently based on their own design and built in their own factory. Interestingly it ships standard with a DCC module.

Peco manufacture a series of solenoid-style turnout motors / switch machines for use with their turnouts. These motors have optional switches that can be fastened to the underside - very useful for powering electrified frogs or for lighting indicator lights on control panels.

Finally, Peco make a variety of miscellaneous accessories of varying quality. They acquired the Merit line of figures and detailing accessories some time ago, and now produce it under the Peco Modelscene name. Unfortunately, the Merit stuff was pretty low-end. The figures are blobby mouldings with no detail at all. Stick with Preiser figures if you want detailed N scale people. (of course, the Preiser stuff is to 1:160 whereas the Merit stuff is to 1:148, but give me crisp detailing over miniscule differences in scale any day!)

Peco make a handful of model buildings - train shed, wooden goods shed, etc. - which aren’t bad but aren’t great either. They don’t even come close to Ratio’s products. For some reason they also sell three lousy model houses, based on moulds made by some European manufacturer in the late 60s or early 70s. Life-Like sells the same models in the US. Hideous. There are also a handful of other scenic accessories that are okay, but not spectacular - tunnel mouths, platform edging, trackside fencing.