Peco n-gauge finescale setTrack - does ist really exist?

I've never heard of it, noe seen it any shops, nor seen it in the actual Peco catalogue.

The Peco website is, as ever, ****ing useless.

MBQ

Atlas offers a code55 N gauge track.

wolf k.

Is that genuine code 55 or does it use Peco's cheat of burying a larger rail section in the plastic base?

a) the rail is mounted on the tie strip (sleeper strip) (this makes it weaker than Peco's method); b) wheels must have fine flanges to run on this track.

It's nice looking stuff. If you have difficulty finding it, let me know, I can quote current prices (plus postage).

wolf k.

Thanks, but I don't have enough N-gauge equipment, just a couple of engines and stock that I particularly like. Most of my stuff is O-gauge.

Thanks for your answer - so its just vaporware.

I thought the same. Waste of bandwidth with flash-animations but no information whatsoever.

Martin.

A case of style over content. Well, it would be if it had any style!

Truly amazing is that it doesn't even offer a PDF version of the catalogue. Apparently they still expect people to buy it in shops or have it posted !

I don't think they've done a cost analysis. Eg, mailing a catalogue costs a lot more than just the postage.

I suspect that no one at Peco knows the actual cost of producing the printed catalogue, from initial update of last year's issue to pulping the last remaining unsold copies. If they did, they would be begging people to download the catalogue.

Wolf K.

The Peco catalogue is not free! It has to be paid for, but the link to buy one direct does not appear to exist.

This really made me laugh, from "About PECO", "PECO has always been a forward looking family company with a long tradition of innovative thinking". This is the company that refused to include URLs in adverts in the house rag.

MBQ

Their website terms and conditions are, to say the least, ludicrous. They include these gems:

"You may retrieve and display content from the site on a computer screen, print individual pages on paper and store such pages in electronic form on disc (but not on any server or other storage device connected to a network) for your personal and non commercial use."

Well, that's a bummer, since I have a small network at home to which my PC is attached. Guess that means I can't read the website, huh.

"You may not reproduce, modify in any way or commercially exploit any of the content".

So, if you run a shop, you can't use the website as a resource to help you sell things.

"You may not redistribute any of the content, remove the copyright or trademark from any copies of content, create a database in electronic or structured type or handwritten manual."

Given that there's virtually no content there (unlike the old version of the website, which did at least have a product list), it's not likely that anyone is going to want to - but you're not even allowed to make handwritten notes of the content!

"It is also forbidden to attach links without making a formal written request."

Oops.

Oh, I know it's not free, that's not the point. The point is that what Peco charge for the catalogue is unlikely to come anywhere near the true cost of the thing. In terms of return on investment, it would probably be better to offer the catalogue as free download.

That there's not even a mention of a catalogue is weird, but the absence of a product list is even weirder. Don't they want people to know what they offer? Or are they one of those firms that thinks that being a "household word" means they don't have to try?

Oh well, I guess I can continue to live without them. ;-)

wolf k.

Hornby and Bachmann both charge for their catalogue as well. But that's at least partly because they both have strong consumer demand for a printed catalogue, and therefore put an effort into creating one that's more than a mere product list - to a collector, the catalogues themselves are collectible items. And both of them have a full product list, complete with photos and prices, on their respective websites, so they probably feel that a downloadable catalogue would serve little purpose - the people who want a printed version are prepared to pay for it, while those who prefer electronic information will prefer a proper, HTML website over a PDF.

Dapol, having a much smaller product range (and not being so much a part of the collector market) give their catalogue away for free - both in print and via a PDF download. But they, too, have a comprehensive online product listing.

Peco's website used to have a product list. It does seem strange that it no longer exists.

Mark

PECO was always a controlling organisation. Offering the catalogue only by post is all about control - they know who the catalogue is going to. Whereas if they allowed a .pdf download, the catalogue could be going to anyone, anywhere, including PECO's competitors.

As you rightly say, there is no logic to this. It's all about control and it's all based on paranoia. For many years, PECO had a partial stranglehold on the model railway market due to the dominance of "Railway Modeller" and especially its advertising policy. The paranoia probably lingers on ...

I agree that offering a free .pdf download would be the best option for all concerned. But that is not PECO's style.

Valid point, catalogue collecting is a thriving subset of this hobby. I've found that my customers do use Walthers catalogue as a guide to what's available, but sales based on its content are small compared to sales based on new product announcements in the model press. But people do like to look at old catalogues and sigh about what used to be available. ;-)

OTOH, Atlas offer both print catalogues and downlaoadable PDFs.

Wolf K.

ROTFLMAO. Anyone who thinks they can limit competitors' access to their sales literature is, um, er, can I say "stupid" on this forum?

Agree 100%. But PECO has been like this since the 1960s and probably earlier. A family business that was started in a cottage in 1946, it has grown into something very much larger. But it has always been somewhat detached from the realities of the market, possibly because of its location in a small West Country coastal town.

It has been amusing watching PECO failing to cope with the digital age. For example, for several years, advertisers in "Railway Modeller" and "Continental Modeller" were forbidden from including URLs in their adverts!

FWIW, here is the reply to my e-mail wondering why there was no product list:

........................... Dear Sir.

Thank you for your Email. Our new website is currently being developed and will feature all PECO products in the future. We anticipate this happening by the end of 2010. In the meantime full details of all our products can be found in our printed PECO catalogue. All nominal radii are given as the actual curve of each point is a compound curve, thus we give an average measurement or the nominal radius.

Kind regards A Beard .............................

Polite, and a strong hint of increased understanding of the Power of the Web. Good!

Wolf K.

...which is good policy. Think how confusing it must be for any reader to have an URL in a printed advert, klicking it with the indexfinger and... nothing happens! :)

Martin.