Ralphmp
Registered
I recently added some Trainline and Piko curved points to my layout and I thought people may be interested in some observations about the products.
Trainline
I was using these curved points to help smooth out the transition from straight track to R3 curves at one end of my layout. Whilst my original arrangement worked fine, and looked ok when running short wheel-base wagons/coaches, it did produce an unrealistic swerve when running typical RhB passenger coaches at any speed other than a complete crawl.
Original Layout
The TL curved points approximate to LGB R5 for the outer curve and LGB R3 for the inner curve. They come with an additional piece of track to aid installation and, as they were a present, I opted for the set that included the Trainline electric point motor / decoder (cheeky, I know!). The points are well made and come with mounting holes for the point motor pre-drilled in the relevant sleepers (ties for you guys across the pond). TL use screws to secure the moving point rails to the plastic bar that connects to whatever point switch device you fancy and I have had an issue with a previous set of TL R2 points where one of the screws worked loose, one of the point blades separated from the plastic bar and a derailment ensued. So worth checking these screws are attached securely before fitting.
To fit the points I removed most of the fishplates as I use rail clamps to simplify removal of points for maintenance. Unlike LGB points where it's possible to fit clamps to all rails once the fishplates have been removed, the Trainline points are quite short on the inner curve and fitting a clamp isn't feasible so I left the fishplate attached on this rail. You can see this in the next photo
This is where the short extension piece came in - see next photo
As you can see from the photos, in the end I opted to reuse the LGB point motor from the replaced R3 points (so I now have a spare brand new TL motor/decoder).
When fitting TL points I've noticed that they need to be as level as possible - even a minor variation can cause the points to stick in operation. I guess this is less of an issue if you lay your tracks on ballast of some sort but in my case where they are attached to supporting boards I found I had to fit a couple of shims to ensure smooth and easy switching.
In use the points have achieved the effect I wanted and so far there have been no mechanical issues. I've also not observed the infamous Trainline "bump" which seems to affect non-TL stock running overTL's R2 points - an added bonus!
So, overall I've been pleased with these TL curved points, especially as I managed to source a set before TL upped their prices. I accept they are a bit of a luxury item and if I hadn't had some birthday/Christmas money to spend I'd probably continued with my original arrangement.
Piko
These were installed as part of smoothing out some junctions between my inner and outer loops. I had some jolting issues over the existing points which I couldn't resolve and these curved points looked like a promising solution.
Piko's curved points are sharper radii than TL's - more akin to R3 for the outer curve and R2 for the inner.
Like the TL points the Piko ones come with an extension track to aid fitting and they also seem robustly made. This is my first experience of Piko trackwork and, apart from slightly different looking sleepers (ties) they slotted in amongst my LGB track with no issues. The points come with mounting holes for motors already drilled and I found an LGB motor slotted in fine. One aspect I'm not keen on is the metal strip that is inlaid into the frog but as the points are kind of out of the way I'm learning to live with this.
The photo below shows the points fitted - the metal strip is just about visible and you can see I've used the extension track on the inner curve to simplify fitting. The difference in sleepers from the surrounding LGB track is also apparent if you look carefully.
In use the points have so far been trouble-free - no issues with any of my locos or rolling stock running though the points in either direction. As this part of the layout is where I tend to run smaller single-motor locos, not all of which have skates, I was concerned that there might be some stalling issues but nope, they all run through fine.
Overall, I'm pleased with these Piko curved points so far and, compared to the TL ones, I thought they were very reasonably priced.
Final picture shows both sets of points installed and operational.
I hope this post proves helpful and covers the right sort of info - if not, please let me know and I'll endeavour to update it.
Cheers
Trainline
I was using these curved points to help smooth out the transition from straight track to R3 curves at one end of my layout. Whilst my original arrangement worked fine, and looked ok when running short wheel-base wagons/coaches, it did produce an unrealistic swerve when running typical RhB passenger coaches at any speed other than a complete crawl.
Original Layout
The TL curved points approximate to LGB R5 for the outer curve and LGB R3 for the inner curve. They come with an additional piece of track to aid installation and, as they were a present, I opted for the set that included the Trainline electric point motor / decoder (cheeky, I know!). The points are well made and come with mounting holes for the point motor pre-drilled in the relevant sleepers (ties for you guys across the pond). TL use screws to secure the moving point rails to the plastic bar that connects to whatever point switch device you fancy and I have had an issue with a previous set of TL R2 points where one of the screws worked loose, one of the point blades separated from the plastic bar and a derailment ensued. So worth checking these screws are attached securely before fitting.
To fit the points I removed most of the fishplates as I use rail clamps to simplify removal of points for maintenance. Unlike LGB points where it's possible to fit clamps to all rails once the fishplates have been removed, the Trainline points are quite short on the inner curve and fitting a clamp isn't feasible so I left the fishplate attached on this rail. You can see this in the next photo
This is where the short extension piece came in - see next photo
As you can see from the photos, in the end I opted to reuse the LGB point motor from the replaced R3 points (so I now have a spare brand new TL motor/decoder).
When fitting TL points I've noticed that they need to be as level as possible - even a minor variation can cause the points to stick in operation. I guess this is less of an issue if you lay your tracks on ballast of some sort but in my case where they are attached to supporting boards I found I had to fit a couple of shims to ensure smooth and easy switching.
In use the points have achieved the effect I wanted and so far there have been no mechanical issues. I've also not observed the infamous Trainline "bump" which seems to affect non-TL stock running overTL's R2 points - an added bonus!
So, overall I've been pleased with these TL curved points, especially as I managed to source a set before TL upped their prices. I accept they are a bit of a luxury item and if I hadn't had some birthday/Christmas money to spend I'd probably continued with my original arrangement.
Piko
These were installed as part of smoothing out some junctions between my inner and outer loops. I had some jolting issues over the existing points which I couldn't resolve and these curved points looked like a promising solution.
Piko's curved points are sharper radii than TL's - more akin to R3 for the outer curve and R2 for the inner.
Like the TL points the Piko ones come with an extension track to aid fitting and they also seem robustly made. This is my first experience of Piko trackwork and, apart from slightly different looking sleepers (ties) they slotted in amongst my LGB track with no issues. The points come with mounting holes for motors already drilled and I found an LGB motor slotted in fine. One aspect I'm not keen on is the metal strip that is inlaid into the frog but as the points are kind of out of the way I'm learning to live with this.
The photo below shows the points fitted - the metal strip is just about visible and you can see I've used the extension track on the inner curve to simplify fitting. The difference in sleepers from the surrounding LGB track is also apparent if you look carefully.
In use the points have so far been trouble-free - no issues with any of my locos or rolling stock running though the points in either direction. As this part of the layout is where I tend to run smaller single-motor locos, not all of which have skates, I was concerned that there might be some stalling issues but nope, they all run through fine.
Overall, I'm pleased with these Piko curved points so far and, compared to the TL ones, I thought they were very reasonably priced.
Final picture shows both sets of points installed and operational.
I hope this post proves helpful and covers the right sort of info - if not, please let me know and I'll endeavour to update it.
Cheers
