#homework Prompted by @Kevin Appleby post earlier, here is my homework post. I agree with everything Kevin said. My own track is a mix of code 83 concrete sleepers and code 75 wooden sleeper Peco streamline. Code 83 rail is correct for modern railways laid since the 1970’s, being equivalent to UIC 60 rail (60kg/m). Code 75 is correct for earlier flat bottom rail, which was113lb/yd (56kg/m) and bullhead rail was 95lb/yd (47kg/m). I have not got any other make of track, mainly because of price. My layout is also too big to go EM or P4, not to mention re wheeling all the stock!! The difference between code 83 and 75 is 8 thou in rail height, which is easily compensated for when joining together, by slightly twisting the fishplates. However, it’s not really necessary, as trains run over the joints without derailing. I tried spacing sleepers prototypically on a couple of lengths and quickly gave up. But I did think that it was worth doing for wooden sleepers with old style chairs, but not worth doing for concrete sleepers, because if you measure the real thing the sleepers are much closer together on modern track, to cater for higher speeds and the Peco sleeper spacing is only about 1mm too close. It is also hard work and a pain to curve the track properly and keep in position. My points (turnouts?) are also a mix of Peco code 75 and 83. You can see from the photos that the code 83 points have their sleepers very close together! This is because Peco code 83 points are based on American practice. In the first photo the 3 upper points are code 75 large radius and the lower ones are code 83. I chose to use the American style points because I like the larger radius and prototypical style. In all the photos the code 75 track has the darker wooden sleepers and the code 83 track has the lighter concrete sleepers. The second photo shows the double junction, which is all code 75 large radius. The next 3 photos show a mixture of code 75 and 83 points, easily recognised by the sleeper spacing. The 3rd and 4th photos show the station throat at the southern end. The last photo shows the access to the freight sidings and depot. The very long points on the main lines are very large radius, number 8’s.

Posted by Wagons Mike at 2026-02-01 15:28:21 UTC