N gauge point motors

[dougieb1903]

Hi. It’s winter time again so railway project starts again. I am building a ngauge NON DCC layout and want to install point motors. I’ve looked at both surface and under table options. I like the look of the Peco surface mounted as they better reflect what happens in real life (I think !!) They also look easier to fit and wire, compared to Peco under surface or seep PM’s. As I’m new to this it would be good to hear from experience the positives / negatives of selecting Peco surface mounted PM’s. Thanks in anticipation of responses. Cheers Dougie B

[Brian]

Hi
Firstly, welcome to the forum.

Peco PL11.
Pros.
Easy to fit.
Ready wired. (May need extending)
Readily available

Cons.
Easy to pull it down to hard and cause it to bind and fail.
Needs to be fitted on the straight side of points as some items can collide with it on the curved side of the point.
Bit long when used on N gauge track.
No means of point operated switching for panel indications or signalling etc. Would need a Micro switch or a Twin coil Latching relay such as the Gaugemaster GM500.

[dougieb1903]

Thanks Brian for welcome and pros & cons

[yelrow]

I have Peco track but am using all fleischmann points and motos. Found them better and easier to operate.

[dougieb1903]

Hi Yelrow,

Thanks for your reply. Are the Fleichmann motors trackside or under layout top

[yelrow]

I have both marklin, and fleischman. Mine are both under table and surface. Surface much easier to install.

[Paul-H]

When I built my n-gauge layout I went with DCConcepts Cobolt motors, with the intention of using DCC commands to change them, but that turned out to be a pain so I went with push buttons on a more conventional control panel. I have not got too many turnouts on my layout (15) but at over £20 for each it was still quite expensive.

Had I known then what I know now, I would have just used simple servos and the MERG servo4 control boards, 1 control board and 4 SG90 servos is little more than £10, doing that with the Cobolts is close to £100.

So in case you had not guessed my vote goes to servos

Paul

[dougieb1903]

Thanks Paul. Really useful information