37 - Model railroad turnouts explained and compared. Atlas, Peco, Walthers & Micro Engineering 

Great video and description of the turnouts. I use all peco's on my layout. I love the spring action and that fits in with my manual switching layout.

Having modelled for years I now only use KATO turnouts. They are completely reliable, ready ballasted and have a built in motor. They are code 83 and are easily merged realitically into a landscape with skilful ballasting. There are good videos on RU-vid on how to ballast KATO track. PECO turnouts are electrically unreliable, the motors are a pain to mount and ballasting is a nightmare. Any other code 83 track can be easily fitted to Kato track- just remove the KATO track coupler and replace it with a normal rail joiner. If you want curved turnouts or a double crossover Walthers Sinohara code 83 is the way to go.

what a tremendous video. big thumbs up!

This was such a helpful video! Thanks for sharing!

Great video and your information is very timely for me and you've got a new subscriber. I'm now working my way through all your videos. After decades of "armchair" model railroading I've finally got the time and space to get moving, and I'm planning a "crawl, walk, run" approach, first starting with a small shelf layout to practice basic skills, then a more complex yard layout for switching, finally (hopefully) incorporating that yard into a full layout. But after all my reading over the years I want to start out with the right track and switches from the start. I've already settled on Code 83 flex track but the competing Micro Engineering and Peco products, and their advocates, have kept me undecided. Your video helps a great deal and confirms what I've been concluding on Peco: good quality plus a much bigger selection of switches and complex track pieces for my big yard someday (including a diamond crossing and maybe a double slip switch). Two questions: 1. Do you have a preference for realistic flex track as well using your same criteria as here for turnouts? And 2. I am finding it very difficult to find a reliable on-line source (no good local hobby shop) for either Peco or ME track and switches...so many seem to be backordered. Since I've been "reading", not shopping, for all this time, I'm not sure if that has been the sad state of realistic high quality model RR track and switches all along, or if it is COVID-related with suppliers? Clearly demand outstrips supply right now. Thanks again and I look forward to your continuing video updates!

Excellent video, I am using the new Walthers code 83 turnouts on my new layout

Very nice video! I'm also looking forward to see how the Peco Unifrog behave, especially for slow speed shunting operation

i been told peco best for yards shunting thank you for info

Excellent video: clear explanation of polarity considerations. You have to be well heeled to afford Peco UniFrogs!

Great video!! I really like the ladder system from ME, but disponibility and price are a big problem. In my current layout I only have Atlas, but the next one I will use PECO or ME. thanks for the tips

Great, thanks from 🇧🇷

I'm in the process of replacing the Atlas turnouts with Peco (code 83 insulfrog both). I really loved the turnkey concept with Atlas, and the price, but there's just too much derailment.

Thanks for a Great video, maybe do an update in the near future, but this time include Atlas Customline Turnouts. The regular Atlas Turnouts of old are not reliable or good looking as stated by many including yourself, especially with their ugly next to turnout switch machines which I had when I was a kid. Currently I only use Atlas Customline Turnouts #8, #6, Curved turnouts, and Wye's and have never had derailment or electrical issues using them straight out of the box. All my Turnouts use Caboose Industries manual switches which are awesome and help make Atlas Turnouts reliable IMO. Actually my whole railroad uses pretty much all Atlas Code 83 rail, great stuff including the 3' flex track sections. If I had to build another model railroad would I switch brands? No, why, it works for me, your mileage may vary. LOL! Cheers! 😀

I don't mean to be confrontational but I am wondering if you mean track feeders when you refer to jumpers? I'm new to wiring and having a hard time keeping up with all the terminology.

Where the wheel flanges cross a rail, it must do so with a flangeway which means a frog. Turnouts are composed of 2 movable point rails with the throwbar, 1 frog, and the rail to connect everything. Number 2 and 2.5 turnouts along with No 3's & 4's are usually used in mining and other narrow gauge tracks. For model railroads, No 4, 5, 6, & 8 are the predominant sizes to use the least room. Full-size railroads start at about No 7 and predominantly No 8 for industry while No 10 and larger in the mainline depending on the speeds needed to be taken on the divergent side. Generally any number of 24 or 30 will have movable points for the frog nose and will not need flange guard rails but are meant for high-speed traffic. The IC had a No 5 136RE out of the mainline in Monroe, LA because it dated back to when the line was built to serve cotton warehouses and not enough room to install a larger turnout in the location. Crossings are labeled by the angle between the tracks or the angle and radii or the curve(s) and will have 4 frogs-2 point & 2 wing; the situation where all 4 frogs are the same is a 90 degree angle. Special trackwork is a mix of the two. A crossover is either a facing point or a trailing point. A crossover placed between 2 tracks and within the same length is a double crossover needing a crossing where the crossover tracks intersect(more expense and more upkeep). The last ones are single slip and double slip turnouts to be used in very tight places to provide the most variability to train movement. These are used mostly in Europe and Japan. They are used mostly in terminals in the Northeast, Chicago, and other locations with lots of trains and traffic with cramped space. They are numbered by the turnouts and the points are all within the length of the point crossing frogs. Depending on the history and speed needed, they will be No 8 to 12. Under a lot of traffic, they will be remotely controlled by a tower or interlocking within that plant. For those who model dual-gauge trackwork, sketch out on paper how the tracks are to go; whether the common rail is left or right, turnouts are facing point or trailing point, and which gauge does not diverge. When laying out a wye or loop, the common rail will switch sides just as polarity does so to alleviate the problem a "draw" can be inserted somewhere on the wye or loop to change the sides of the common rail and with no moving parts. The larger gauge is laid on-gauge or snug straight through while the smaller gauge has a point laid slightly over flangeway width away from the running rail with the opposite rail gauged wide with a flangeway guard laid snug to bring the wheels away from the common running rail. The other end of the "draw" is laid out in mirror image. The angles and gauge changes need to be carefully done to make it work well. The D&RGW had several around Antonito and Alamosa, CO when they had dual-gauge trackage there. I had drawn all of the possible combinations including the "draw" and it was in one of the old issues of LIVE STEAM years ago. I give this to try to help those interested in what is usable and where to help make the modeling a little more realistic.

When I read about the mistakes prospective model railroaders make; it is to purchase the Atlas product. There is a distinct lack of product control - inconsistent manufacturing. Specifically in what I have to contend with: the spacing of the guard rail and the frog in general. So, when the wallet permits, I will changeover to Peco.

What about Shinohara (sp?)? Cheers from eastern TN

Hi sir would be nice to see one of these videos with N scale

Hi, I am very interested in your show, so I am planning to build up a staging area in my layout HO Scale size 8X4 feet by using the DCC System to run my train . Thank you and have nice happy new year 2022.

A brand you didn't mention is Fast-tracks. There are enough people making them to order (self-included) that they can be considered a ready-built option if a modeler doesn't want to build them himself. Here are a few areas where they beat all other brands hands-down: 1. Choice; 9 sizes of straight turnout, 6 wyes, over 20 curved options and many slips & crossings. If you want to maximize your layout resign flexibility, they will give you far more options and allow you to fit more railroad into any given space than any other brand. 2. Appearance; although they lack spike detail (which is pretty much invisible at normal viewing distance), they have far better-proportioned switch rails than any of the brands you reviewed. That is far and away a bigger contributor to realism (or lack of it) than any of the finer details molded into the plastic of the commercial brands. 3. Cost; If you want a lot of turnouts the same, you can buy the jig and build them yourself at a fraction of the cost of commercial turnouts. If you need a variety for your railroad, build the common sizes and buy the odd sizes ready-built. The overall cost is likely to still be less than the same number of turnouts from any other source. 4. Durability; although at first glance, fast-tracks turnouts are easier to break than PECO or Walthers if they are handled roughly, the critical point is this. . . FT are soldered together, making them easy to repair in situ if they are damaged. All other brands are mainly plastic that cannot effectively be repaired. In most cases, if a plastic turnout is damaged, it is necessary to cut it out completely and replace the whole thing - quite a major operation if the track is already ballasted. While I don't regard Fast-tracks as the last word in turnouts by any means, there are some reasons why they should certainly be considered by model railroaders.

Frog # actually is actually only a fraction of the frog angle -- that is, a #5 frog is 5 times as long as it's diverging width. In other words, think of it as a right-triangle that's 1 unit wide, and 5 units tall. As such, frog # is not directly proportional to total turnout length nor curve radii -- both of which vary between turnout models/brands, despite being the same frog #. For example, a #8 turnout is not necessarily twice as long as a #4.

Do you find the curved turn put reliable or not? Many said that it is best to avoid them!

Why would you use electrofrog?

Is this for DC?

Late to the party but using Walthers as a measure for availability is an odd choice. I have never seen a product on that page that wasn't significantly cheaper elsewhere. My dad and grandpop got me into model railroading. They both, despite being subscribed to Model Railroader for decades, had a very narrow view on model railroading. To them Atlas was the only brand of track - and all of their layouts were plagued with issues. It's kind of sad because I am no over 30 and actually running trains was rare. Since they usually handled track building I never looked into things myself. But I eventually really got into railroading and model railroading and started looking things up because I started working on an HO layout with my dad. I tried to warn him about Atlas switches, but he shrugged them. It took my 4-6-2 derailing on every snap switch to convince him that snap switches are horrible, but the rest of the layout is still stuck with Atlas switches - though I did buy a few PECO turnouts for areas I intend to do switching in. The layout hasn't been touched in over a year though so it is very much unfinished and I'm currently spending my time on projects that I can use in future layouts.

You left out the reason for the switch's number !! Where the diverging route inner rail is one inch or unit out from the inner thru route rail, the distance out from the point of the frog to where they are one inch/unit apart is the number..I.E. If the 2 inside rails are 1 inch apart AT 8 inches out, it's a No.8 switch.. If one inch apart at 5 inches out it's a No. 5....etc, etc.. 7:27 They are 'crossings' or 'diamonds', not 'crossovers'. Crossovers are where trains 'cross over' to a parallel track via 2 switches. A 'double crossover' has 4 switches with a 'crossing' or 'diamond' in the middle. Also, 7:54, well designed frog flangeways do not, and should not lift the wheel up over a "bump" IE. The flange can roll atop the frog 'floor' but should not be lifted (unless wheel/wheels have the older style overly deep flanges). You keep saying 'track' where you should be saying 'rail'... If you're going to teach, get your RR details and nomenclature correct and complete first...

Bob Ross of model trains

I'm in N scale, and I lay my own turnouts. It's a little tedious but much cheaper.

It’s a shame you gave the Micro Engineering turnouts such a brush off. They are not only the most detailed but also are set up for DCC without any alterations. They are delicate but that’s because the dimensions are correct. I think their only drawback is that they only come in a #6. ( #5 in their ladder track arrangement.) Hopefully they will make more sizes in the future. In the mean time, I’ve taken to making my own #8s and #10s with Fast Tracks gigs. Not a cheap proposition but economical in the long run if you need lots of turnouts.

ASSUME HO