Did anyone attending the Amherst/Springfield show chat to Peco? I saw on YouTube pictures of what appears to N Scale track. Any word on the North American code 55?
Yes, I have.
To bring this into perspective, at the last year's show I spoke to the PECO reps. At that time they had a prototype sample of the C55 track with North American tie spacing track on display, but silly me I forgot to take a photo. At that point they couldn't give me a date when the production will start.
I was planning to rectify that this year by taking a closeup photo of the track sample. When I visited their booth they did not have the sample on display. I had a chat with their rep Steve Haynes asking what the status was and why they did not have a sample available. I expressed a worry that they might have mothballed that project. Steve assured me that the project is still active and that he simply forgot to pack the track sample. When I asked for a production timeline he stated that with the current worldwide geopolitical uncertainty playing large role in their budget decision making, they really can't say when the track will be produced. He also said that a lot of their current N scale track tooling is getting old and worn so they will have to eventually invest in new molds. But since they will still keep on making track with non-American tie spacing for the rest of the world, I'm not sure that his assurance holds water.
I also mentioned that PECO should consider that there is large pent up demand for their indestructible C55 North American track and he acknowledged that. I also asked about possibly offering turnouts using the American tie spacing but he stated that if that happens, it will be in a distant future.
He also offered me to email some photos of the sample track. I will contact him to see what he can provide and will post the photos here.
On another note, I also met Andrew (N-possible couplers) and I had a lengthy chat with him. He is one smart and clever person. Nice guy all around. Very impressive! He did give me a demo and yes, those couplers are very easy to (manually) uncouple. He also gave me a sampling of the couplers to try out. They are really good looking, and from what I seen they work very well and are more forgiving of coupler height mismatch than I would have suspected.
