Flexible track - Peco, Peko or LGB

D

davecar

Registered
Hi,
I have a track about 24 metres long with two loops at each end fitting in with the landscape and water features etc. All curves are R1. This track is about 3 years old and is raised on a wooden platform (5 inches wide) about 9/10 inches high.

Having started in electric I am now using live steam and battery powered. After much thought I have decided to rejig the loops to more gentle curves as the R1 curves are causing me trouble especially when using long, two bogie based rolling stock.

My track is 45 PiKo. I had some friends round today and we managed (despite the heavy rain) to come up with a plan involving more gentle curves and also incorporating a steaming area for use when having visitors. We decided that we would use a mixture of flexible track to enter and depart from the loop and some R3 curves (which I had already purchased) and some straights.

Now the problem. I have surfed the internet and it seems that PeKo and LGB make flexible track, but the plastic sleeper part and the rail itself are sold separately. The rail itself appears only to be sold in packs of 20 ie PeKo track 20 x 1500mm £149 and 20 x 3000mm £280. This is not really an option due to cost and minimum number for purchase. Am I correct in assuming that the track is only sold on this basis and in packs of 20 only, and is not available ready made.

Ideally I would want to use PiKo track to match what I have at present but this does not seem an option now.

I have found that PeCo flexi track is available in packs of 6 and 914 mm long at a cost of £71. Is it possible to connect PeKo and PeCo track? I know that the track is different but has anyone any expereince of using the two makes side by side. What does it look like? Costwise this seems the best option but I am worried that it will not look right!

Any help or suggestions will be gratefully received.

Kind regards,

Dave
 
Re:Flexible track - Peco, Peko or LGB

You can get 1000 lengths of lgb and piko track individulay

peco track does have adaptors to make it fit lgb type track, but peco stuff is a bit fine and some lgb locos dont like running on it
 
Would it be possible to use R5's for the transitional bits and avoid using the flexi at all?
As to the flexi being sold as separate rail and sleepers, that is not a problem as unless your curves are very gentle indeed you have to bend each rail individually anyway (or at least I do) then slide them into the sleeper unit.
 
Unless you really want brand new track, you can usually find a number of people selling used LGB flexi lengths (complete, rail and sleeper) on eBay, so you might be able to just buy the few lengths you want and save some money too.
Another alternative is the US-made AMS track in 6 foot complete flexi lengths, sold by GRS (and possibly other dealers too) - same rail profile as LGB/Piko, same sleeper spacing, and available either in bulk boxes or single lengths.

Jon.
 
AMS track has a much finer wood grain effect than LGB but is the same colour and spacing. The sleeper width matches but the sleeper ends on AMS track is slightly more square. I have both ready to use. Aristo also makes six foot ready made track but that has black sleepers. Hope that helps :bigsmile:
 
Re:Flexible track - Peco, Peko or LGB

I mix Peco flexi with LGB on my outside layout, mainly because I use LGB R1 points, I have to because of limited space and so on. (Where I have space I use the Peco G45 points.) However, the problem with using the LGB/Peco adapter is that you can't get a smooth transition between the two. The answer would be a Peco/LGB railclamp, but that doesn't exist. Why not? I suppose that where current flow is required between the two, I could weld the join. No, that does not sound like a good idea
 
Re:Flexible track - Peco, Peko or LGB

i have a complete mixture of track, some lgb, some aristo, some piko, some unknown, some euro spacing, some american spacing, my view is i buy whats about at the time i need it, apart from some points all my track is 2nd hand.
 
Re:Flexible track - Peco, Peko or LGB

GRS also have AMS track in boxes of 12 x 36" lengths. If you go for the 6' flex then there's a much higher delivery charge. Seems delivery van drivers can't lift anything 6' long!
GRS present price is £135 a box, with delivery at about £6 no matter how much you order (I just ordered a load of track from them)
 
Re:Flexible track - Peco, Peko or LGB

I brought a 6ft length of AMS flexi track at the Stafford show to replace a S bend i had on my line made from two R3 curves found the track very easy to bend to shape by hand as i have no track bending tool . I wish now that i had brought a few more lengths .
 
Re:Flexible track - Peko

Hi
Thank you for your very helpful replies. I did a lot of soul searching and nearly went for the AMS flexi track, but in the end I decided to stick with the Peko track.
The minimum order is 20 1.5 pieces of track, so therefore you get 10 lengths of track at 1.5 per length. In addition to the track I bought the sleepers and the Peko catalogue states that each 1.5 length is made up of 3x 280 length and 2 x 320 length. Each piece of sleeper track is joined by 2 brass clips. This track is not cheap and works out at £17/18 per 1.5 length!
Other than the Piko track catalogue (http://www.gaugemaster.com/piko/Piko-G-Scale-Track.pdf) < Link To http://www.gaugemaster.co...iko-G-Scale-Track.pdf) I cannot find any instructions for using this track. The plastic sleeper tracks are the same as straight sleeper tracks so are not in the sense of the word "flexible".
I borrowed a friend's track bender and did my first 1.5 length. I found it very hard to put the "straight" sleeper plastic track on the rail but got there in the end. I have managed to maintain most of the curve but obviously the plastic part of the track is forcing the brass track to bet back to a straight length. I am wondering if I should take a piece out of each sleeper join and if I do this should it be the inside only, every one or every other one or the outside as well.
I am happy to experiment and "waste" some of the plastic sleeper track (it is £1.79 per 320 or 280 length) but there must be someone out there who has actually used this Peko flexi track.

Any suggestions please?

Kind regards,

Dave
 
Re:Flexible track - Peko

I haven't used Piko flexi but have used the LGB type. When I want to curve a piece of long (fixed) straight track, I just cut the joiners on what will be the outside of the radius. It depends how tight the radius is as to how the sleepers will look once the track radius is formed. If you cut on the inner edge only, you will have to cut a piece out of the joiners otherwise it wont be able to "squeeze up".
 
Re:Flexible track - Peko

What about cutting alternate joiners on each side, does that work?

Logic says that it should, as every other sleeper will flex apart on the outside of the curve, and bunch together on the inside - thus the exact sleeper spacing might be just a little bit out but not enough to notice, especially on large radius curves of the sort that most flexi track will be used for.

Jon.
 
Re:Flexible track - Peko

Zerogee said:
What about cutting alternate joiners on each side, does that work?

Logic says that it should, as every other sleeper will flex apart on the outside of the curve, and bunch together on the inside - thus the exact sleeper spacing might be just a little bit out but not enough to notice, especially on large radius curves of the sort that most flexi track will be used for.

Jon.
Click to expand...

That's how the LGB flexi sleeper bases are.....cut alternate sides.
 
Re:Flexible track - Peko

By the sound of it, this may be too late, but the Piko rail and the LGB rail are identical, so LGB flexi sleepers will work with Piko rails. As observed, the LGB sleeper sections really are flexible.
 
Re:Flexible track - Peko

I have a couple of box's of the LGB flex tie strips they are used but should be OK. only problem will be the postage which is not cheep from the US! but they will be a lot less expensive than new ones!! PM me if your interested.
 
Re:Flexible track - Peko

davecar said:
The Piko catalogue states that each 1.5 length is made up of 3x 280 length and 2 x 320 length.
Click to expand...
I reckon that they have just used the sleeper base from their straight track as these are the lengths they make. So you may need to cut the web on the inside curve. I have some LGB track bases and these have a web that is cut alternatively every other sleeper....

davecar said:
Each piece of sleeper track is joined by 2 brass clips. This track is not cheap and works out at £17/18 per 1.5 length!
Click to expand...
A straight LGB 10000 of 30 cm length is about £5.80 - £6 these days, so it seems quite reasonable; 5 times the length but only 3 times the price of a 'standard' straight.

I paid £18 for LGB 1.2 metre lengths before the price hikes a few years ago....
 
Re:Flexible track - Peco, Peko or LGB

I started to reply to one moron on this thread who is having difficulty joining Peco to LGB and then discovered the moron was in fact me! I know I am repeating myself but this weekend I fitted a LGB R! (it happens to be the 3-way switch) into a Peco section using Hillman 332/250 clamps. What a difference! Even with a big B-B loco. The way to go, man, the way to go
 
davecar said:
Hi,
I have a track about 24 metres long with two loops at each end fitting in with the landscape and water features etc. All curves are R1. This track is about 3 years old and is raised on a wooden platform (5 inches wide) about 9/10 inches high.

Having started in electric I am now using live steam and battery powered. After much thought I have decided to rejig the loops to more gentle curves as the R1 curves are causing me trouble especially when using long, two bogie based rolling stock.

My track is 45 PiKo. I had some friends round today and we managed (despite the heavy rain) to come up with a plan involving more gentle curves and also incorporating a steaming area for use when having visitors. We decided that we would use a mixture of flexible track to enter and depart from the loop and some R3 curves (which I had already purchased) and some straights.

Now the problem. I have surfed the internet and it seems that PeKo and LGB make flexible track, but the plastic sleeper part and the rail itself are sold separately. The rail itself appears only to be sold in packs of 20 ie PeKo track 20 x 1500mm £149 and 20 x 3000mm £280. This is not really an option due to cost and minimum number for purchase. Am I correct in assuming that the track is only sold on this basis and in packs of 20 only, and is not available ready made.

Ideally I would want to use PiKo track to match what I have at present but this does not seem an option now.

I have found that PeCo flexi track is available in packs of 6 and 914 mm long at a cost of £71. Is it possible to connect PeKo and PeCo track? I know that the track is different but has anyone any expereince of using the two makes side by side. What does it look like? Costwise this seems the best option but I am worried that it will not look right!

Any help or suggestions will be gratefully received.

Kind regards,


Dave,

you might consider getting a track setter. I purchased mine from Glendale junction some years back they have these in the usual radi and as you can lay the peco track and then insert the track setter you can fix the track in place then remove the track settet.

Hope this helps

Martin
Click to expand...
 
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