Model Railway Forum

What is the expected lifetime of a set of points? I assume that they must wear, both due to rolling stock traffic and continued switching. I have Hornby points in my layout, and some perform better than others, and these points have only just gone down in my layout, being newly purchased. Is it worth buying some spares?

I had points over 30 years old on my layout and they worked fine.

Some interesting stuff coming out of the discussion.
Don’t know the history of the track I’m using but I think it’s all very old and some of it’s had a very hard life.
To keep expenses down I’ve shied away from using solenoids for switching the points.
Just had a quick count and there are fifteen sets of points on the layout already, so that would be a considerable expense.
The seven points I have done with the over-centre nudge system are all working reliably so will continue down that route.

Thanks for the continued feedback, Dave.

Over centre nudge system? What’s that please?

Buffer Stop wrote: ↑Wed Sep 01, 2021 10:55 am Over centre nudge system? What’s that please?

It’s my name for a points operating system Buffer, the points are activated by a crank, the crank is moved by a bell-crank that has an Over-Centre spring. Because of the spring the bell-crank has two distinct positions. The Bell Crank only needs a Nudge to select the desired position. The control wire is just nudging the bell-crank and then the spring and point operating system take over.
It’s all made out of junk except the curtain wire that I have had to buy at great expence!

Dave.