Peco's website is finally getting attention and updating!


videobruce

videobruce

Tower Operator
I have tried e-mailing Peco for the past 6 to 9 months with no luck. I finally received a reply from the 2nd e-mail from three months ago. It seems they found their "spam filter(s) were the problem and many/most e-mails were getting blocked.

There was a problem with at least one code 55 template. One was not listed (small radius code 55). They had a code 80 small radius, but that is considerable 'tighter' than code 55 for some unknown reason. I didn't know this and based my choices for turnouts on these templates. I didn't choose the small radius since it looked like a 'trolley curve'. After noticing a few photos of code 55 small radius turnouts elsewhere, it then became apparent something was wrong. Code 80 & 55 "small radius" are NOT the same! Nice to find out after the fact.

Anyway, some changes have started to be made to there site starting with their templates;
http://www.peco-uk.com/page.asp?id=pointplans

This is the reply to my e-mail;
Thank you for your email and please let me apologise for the delay in our reply. I'm afraid we have been having some issues with spam filtering on our emails!
Please could you confirm which template you feel is wrong? Is it the Large printed one or the A4 PDF downloads from our website? The Website plans have recently been updated and can be found here:
http://www.peco-uk.com/page.asp?id=pointplans

We have not had any complaints about these plans before but will of course investigate this further to ensure we are not giving out bad information.

Regarding a very short radius turnout: When we launched the C55 range we carried out extensive market research which led us to the conclusion that most of the customers for this type of finer-scale product would not use a very short radius turnout such as the ST-5/6 in the C80 range. The C55 range has also been designed differently to the C80 range in that all the C55 products have a frog exit angle of 10 Degrees thus making all the items compatible for cross-overs etc.

If you have a requirement to use an ST-5 or 6 these can be used together with C55 track as the total height of the rail is only 0.003inch different and they use the same rail joiner. This can be easily blended with a small file.
If we can be of any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact us.

Kind regards,
Ben Arnold

Pritchard Patent Product Co Ltd.
PECO Model Railway Products
Click to expand...
 
Two additional e-mails produced more good news after I commented on their overall website design and lack of availability of US based support;
Dear Bruce,

Thank you for your additional comments regarding our website. We take on board these comments and will try and resolve the issues where possible. The one area that is not easy to fix (I am told) is the product listing! The system we have been left with does not seem to be user friendly and does not seem to be able to cope with the range of sub-categories we require! We know this is not good enough, but at the moment our only solution to fix this is a new website.
We are in the process of setting up a digital edition of our catalogues and hope these will be available soon.

Thank you again for taking the time to write and again if we can be of any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact us.

Kind regards,

Ben Arnold

Pritchard Patent Product Co Ltd.
PECO Model Railway Products
Click to expand...
Dear Bruce,

What I meant by "The system we have been left with.." is that we commissioned a local web design company to build the site for us and initially in our naivety it seemed to work okay, we have come to realise that it has a number of flaws!
I would agree about the waste of horizontal space.

Outside of the UK, our biggest export market is currently Australia with the USA a little way behind. I feel that the USA should be our biggest export market and we have been working with our Distributors (Walthers, Horizon, Heartland and Portman) to try and promote the PECO brand. It may be as you say we need a US based help desk to make us more accessible?
We are taking a stand at this years NMRA Train Show at Grand Rapids, MI at the beginning of August where we hope to connect with and learn from a few more US modellers.

Thank you for your thoughts.
Kind regards,

Ben
Click to expand...
 
Well good news VB. Guess your persistence is getting some attention finally. Hope you get what you need.



railfan
lonesome prairie RR
 
The dealer I got most of my Peco track from also commented on their poor web site. Another example of some 3rd party designing a web site for products they know nothing about.
 
This site might be useful too:
http://teladesign.com/british-n-scale/peco-turnouts.html

I'd take the nominal radii shown against the C55 points with a grain of salt. As Ben Arnold mentions, all the points have the same frog angle of 10 degrees, and on the small and medium points, the ends of the diverging rails are straight rather than curved. (But you probably already know that by now.)

With a bit of effort, the C55 range can be made "DCC friendly":
http://kdrail.blogspot.com.au/search/label/Turnouts

That can be an advantage whether you're using DC or DCC, as it removes their reliance on good contact between the stock and point rails for electrical conductivity.

Regards,
Ron
 
I did see that 1st link.

The other issue is the somewhat unfriendliness of Peco's 'electrofrogs' with DCC. I wonder why their 'insulfrogs' aren't made in code 55?
 
videobruce said:
I did see that 1st link.

The other issue is the somewhat unfriendliness of Peco's 'electrofrogs' with DCC.
Click to expand...

I agree. But if you're going to use Peco C55 I think it would be good idea to do this. I have several dozen of those points installed, and in my experience it takes only minute bits of material between the point blades and the stock rail to break continuity.

If Peco is really keen to increase its sales in the USA then they should look into fixing that. And while they're at it, that should correct the tie spacing too.

Regards,
Ron
 
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