Hi, Has anyone used this manufacturer, and if so, does the system work well?
- posted
17 years ago
Hi, Has anyone used this manufacturer, and if so, does the system work well?
Scoot,
GEM, and the Mercontrol system, has been around for years - probably more than sixty years :-) George E Mellor was one of the post war model railway manufacturers who supplied a wide range of products - including loco kits, rolling stock, flex track and pointwork, etc. I believe that Roy Dock - ex Model Railways editor of the 1970s - took over the running of the business after he left the editorship of the magazine.
The mercontrol system is probably the first wire in tube system for model railways and has been used by many people - me included - some time over the past half century. It works well and there's not much to go wrong.
The lever frames are a bit basic and you could get a more sophisticated product from someone like Model Signal Engineering, but you are taling quite a bit more money for something like that.
Jim.
I still have most of the 25 yards of GEM Flexitrack which I bought in about 1966. The chairs are basic but the sleeper length and spacing are more realistic than Streamline. I don't think it's available now. But I digress. The Mercontrol lever frames are fine, I bought some more just recently, but nowadays I would not use brass tube with wire. I use the plastic in plastic which is more free-running and freely available in shops selling model aircraft (the sort which fly) equipment. You have to anchor the tube at intervals to stop it moving but hot glue or epoxy does this well.
I've used the Nickel/Silver wire in PTFE tubing from Model Signal Engineering with GEM levers. It works well.
Mark Thornton
If you like the 'Narrow Gauge' look...
What's PTFE?
Polytetrafluoroethylene
Commonly abbreviated to Teflon
Teflon is DuPont's trademark, PTFE is the generic name.
The Chief on my last ship said it was 'pipe tape for engineers'
PTFE can be used in more than one application. Plumbers use PTFE tape (thin white plastic looking tape) with compression fittings such as radiator taps to get a tight seal and stop the threads crossing. It can also be extruded into tubes and rods making it ideal for boden type control cables often used in RC model aircraft and boats, but also makes an ideal point and signal control system. The only drawback is that the ones sold for RC models tend to be short for model railway use as they are often 3' - 4' in length
I found a local tube manufacture and purchased a
20m reel, and obtained some sprung steel wire also from a local supplier and the whole lot was a lot cheaper than the "commercial" offerings from the classified section in railway modeller.Malcolm
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