Operate points, signals etc

Link to Peco SmartSwitch video ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4nT3aO1jmU#t=65

Can be used with DCC.

Cheers, Gary.

Looks interesting, but at £65 it seems to me to be a tad expensive.  On the other hand, it will operate up to four points or signals.

Terry

From the originators website
Not Found

saw these about 4 years ago at a NMRA Convention in Australia


I guess Hattons, etc may have them later at a less price.

Nice video, until he got to the £65 bit.

Looks like it's another £25 to work under DCC and change frog polarity.

PECO Model Railways, Publications & Pecorama

Ouchexclam:

Ed

You are right Ed the sting is in the tail with the "extra" to switch polarity.

 These guys sure do their pricing carefully


Interesting Price Comparison for 4 turnouts


Peco Smartswitch       65   +   4 x 10.50  Smart Frogs    =   107                           Peco


Cobalt  Decoder         45   +   4x 15 Motors                   =   105                            Hattons


Lenz LS 150               45*  +    4 x 11   Tortoise               =     89  *                       Tonys Trains converted from US$ to GBP


Its not an absolutely precise comparison I just dashed it off out of interest……..all my turnouts/decoders are installed……and I didnt buy any locos for a  couple of years!

The Lenz decoder has 6 outputs so a strict comparison would be 30 not 45*

A number of guys I respect on another forum have switched (sorry!) to servos ……..I suspect there may be cheaper servo alternatives to the Peco solution

It certainly looked an interesting bit of kit - until I saw the prices ……….:shock::shock::shock:

Probably easier to install than slow-mo motors but I do wonder why they pitched the price so high. :roll:

I'll stick with 'wire in tube', thank you very much.  It's cheap, there's little to go wrong, and the end result is the same.

Terry

Do you think if Peco could produce and sell their item cheaper, it would bring the price down on the other competitors ?

Probably not ! The way I see the sales departments, is if one manufacturer can produce and sell an item at a certain price, other manufacturers will follow suit. Peco could possibly sell it cheaper, but why ? Especially if they are making larger profits out of the items. I guess it comes down to consumer choice (with reasonably equal pricing) and what looks easier to install/set-up. This would apply to the person out there that is entering the hobby and wishes to buy components from the one manufacturer.

In theory, I guess it is the next logical step up for Peco. They produce track, solenoids, switches and now there own slower action servo/point motor. I think Hornby may/will follow suit on this one…

I will say I'm happy with the tried and trusted Peco solenoids and momentary push buttons.

Cheers, Gary.

I wasn't suggesting Peco should undercut the opposition Gary. :roll:  As you say, why should they ?  If they can sell it at £500 but it only costs £5 to make, that's £450 in the kitty.  If, on the other hand, they can't sell it for £500, then maybe their price is too high …………

I was actually questioning why they'd pitched their prices so obviously higher than the opposition. :???:  Same price, yes - even a few quid higher but 10% higher for a brand new product doesn't seem to make much sense to me ………..:hmm  They've got 2 hurdles to jump - the first being the fact that a very similar product already is on the market and the second being that this new product is in fact, dearer than the others.

Establish the product first then, by all means, jack up the price once you've become a "must have" accessory.

I don't think Peco are actually making it, just being the distributor for it from ANEmodel.com

It's taken me a while to post in this thread - I've been looking for my flak jacket and tin 'at.

I've been along the path for a while now.  I started off looking at the cheapest offerings and one by one, rejected them.

If I'd bought quality products at the start, I'd have actually saved a lot of money (and time), which I could spend on modelling.

For what it's worth; Hornby, Bachmann, et., al., - and Peco all make entry level products.  That assumes that people entering the hobby don't want to spend much.  So they produce inferior products built to a price.

Two results occur, viz:-  1)  The newbies get disillusioned and eventually give up; or  2)  They start looking for products which perform properly.  They soon discover that the top end products cost a bit more. 

If you look at this product and compare it with others, it's priced to sell.  But it has severe limitations - not the least of which is it's frog juicer.

When I talk to neophytes about the way to go for satisfaction - about turnout motors and control, for example; I tell them to buy the ESU (not the Bachmann), SwitchPilot 51802 with the ESU SP Extension 51801 and the ESU metal geared servos 51805.

http://store.sbs4dcc.com/search.aspx?manufacturer=1

Scroll down and go past the 51800 and you'll see pictures of them.

A set of 4 servos and a SwitchPilot with Extension will set you back US$142.00 plus postage.  The postage on my last lot was US$25.00.  I think that converts to £101.73 :roll:

The ESU gear is user friendly and if you're lucky enough to have a Lokprogrammer, you can programme them and test run them on the bench.

Why would you use anything else?

Exits, stage left - donning jacket and 'at. 

[user=269]MaxSouthOz[/user] wrote: 

  I started off looking at the cheapest offerings and one by one, rejected them.

If I'd bought quality products at the start, I'd have actually saved a lot of money (and time), which I could spend on modelling.



Exits, stage left - donning jacket and 'at. 

I too went down the easy path to be able to get the D&S running reasonably quickly for myself & mates.
Hindsight is wonderful - I should have persisted in hand laid turnouts & Tortoise.

I think the YMRers who live in the UK have to pay Customs, etc on imports from USA, etc but we in Aust are lucky - we don't !

[user=606]Sol[/user] wrote:

I too went down the easy path to be able to get the D&S running reasonably quickly for myself & mates.
Hindsight is wonderful - I should have persisted in hand laid turnouts & Tortoise.

. . . or servos, even. 

I think you both have a point. :thumbs

Sol - hand made track and points are certainly much better looking but they do take time and skills that many of us don't posess, or at least, didn't when we started out.

Max, it's usually the case that one pays for quality and "top" brands should be better than the also-rans.  Unfortunately, y about railway modelling, that's not always the case today.  We could all cite cases where well known, supposed "top of the tree" manufacturers have churned out sub standard products leaving the buyer to do the testing.  I certainly know of a large organisation (not train related), in UK where several "brands" all come off the same assembly line - identical except for the badge stuck on the side - and of course, that ever important selling price.  :roll::roll::roll:

Peco produce some excellent entry level products and yes, they are probably built to a price rather than to a standard, but that's what the hobby demands.  High end stuff, good as it is, is expensive (although your point motor example would suggest not necessarily so) and I'm sure that if that was all that was on offer, there would be far less railway modellers than there are today.  Very few of us have money to burn today. :roll::roll::roll::roll: 

Just to add to the pricing quandary,

I was in my local hobby shop yesterday morning where a guy was asking for the exact same product, the new Peco one.

I could have written the response from the owner onto paper before he had answered. He said, " we are aware of them, but don't have any in stock". " however, we can order them in for you ".

Oh yeah, and add your surcharge onto what is already extortion. Don't think so. The shops don't want to stock them due to the cost of having them sitting on the shelf. The exact same as slow motors etc. they order them in on request. Where is the incentive to buy on that basis. You still have to wait for delivery ( not walk away with it the same day ) and they are significantly more expensive.

The only expensive items my local shop stocks are the loco's themselves and they are a bit limited. No point motors apart from the snap kind, limited stocks of points, limited manufactures controllers, transformers etc.

So why not buy from the box shifters. The locals want it all ways.

Sorry if I have digressed a bit but it needles me. As for the product itself, I dare say they will be good, or at least should be for the price but I won't be either changing over or mixing with what I already use.

Sorry about the rant

Toto

[user=6]Petermac[/user] wrote:

Sol - hand made track and points are certainly much better looking but they do take time and skills that many of us don't posess, or at least, didn't when we started out.

Peter, I guess we all work out what we want to do with our modelling time;  use what ever means to get trains running  as soon as possible or take our time in the build -is it the journey or arrival that is our main interest?  I was/am about 50/50 in that side of the hobby. Currently I am more interested in the journey.

Skills is something I think most of us learn by trying many times - I was fortunate that my "electrical" skills came from my training as a telephone technician. Building turnouts was something I learnt from reading the many model rail magazines & trying my hand. It also was  a help in allowing funds to be used on other aspects of this great hobby.

[user=606]Sol[/user] wrote:

……………………………………………I was/am about 50/50 in that side of the hobby. Currently I am more interested in the journey.

……………………………………

I think you speak for a lot of us there Sol. :thumbs

I "needed" to get trains running to have something to hold onto.  I'm impatient so feared that, unless I could see something tangible fairly quickly, my interest might wane.

Now, having got my "circle", I can play trains when I need to, but also enjoy the "less glamourous" aspects of  "the journey".  Other things get in the way far too often but, when I get the time, I'm really enjoying the ride.

Hmm,I suppose as Peco probably have 75% of the RTR track and point sales they probably figured they could pitch their brand name point gizmo at a higher price.
Of course they have built in a profit margin so they can discount to the big supplier,s like Hattons and still make a profit?

Derek.

[user=6]Petermac[/user] wrote:

 If they can sell it at £500 but it only costs £5 to make, that's £450 in the kitty. .

I'm pleased you aren't my accountant. 

£45.00 went to the marketing manager as a bonus…. shhh !! :mrgreen:

Cheers, Gary.