With the dry unseasonal weather today I decided to take a drive to my nearest good model railway shop, a return trip of 130 miles. The shop, located in the tourist town of Ross on Wye is luckily for me open on a Sunday and has reasonable stocks of products from around the globe.
The object of the trip was to pick up some samples of PECO code 83 flexi track ( the chosen rail profile for Futatsu no Kawa) and to browse along the shelves of scenic products. I returned with two sections of flexi rail and also a single PECO point from the recently introduced code 83 series.
The points that I already have for the layout are handbuilt, on wooden sleepers and are of a very good quality and very realistic in appearance, these USA manufactured point kits are not generally available here in the United Kingdom so I purchase them pre-constructed from the USA via this useful tool the "Internet".
It is was interesting to just make a very quick examination of the mass factory produced PECO product (top of the photograph) with my handbuilt item, the first item of difference to grab your eye is the finish of the PECO product, with very shiny sleepers and bright rail, true this can be toned down by light air brushing when laid but it still lacks the realistic look of wooden trackwork. The other advantage of my handbuilt point is that is has a one piece blade unike the jointed PECO blade. Im sure there are many advantages of the PECO product, especially the price, but I will stay firmly with my Hanbuilt items.
The final major advantage of bespoke handbuilt points for my own personal use is the overall length of the point, some items of my Japanese HO 1/80 motive power, mostly EMU and DMU models with complicated underfloor drive mechanisms, is that they do not like negotiating sharp degrees of cuvrvature and "stall" with the bogies on maximum articulation and the powered wheels spinning on the track, so take a look at www.walthers.com and the various hand laid HO and N tracks that are available.
