2mm Peco N gauge Collet Loco

Joe's Garage

Western Thunderer
Hi, can anyone advise on the above loco produced a few years ago by Peco? Were they any good and any ideas where one may find one, none on EBay at moment. Tender or loco drive?

Thanks

Julian
 

allegheny1600

Western Thunderer
Hello Julian,
I bought one of these brand new not that long after they first came out, how many years ago now?
It’s subsequently sold, sorry.
I liked it, mine ran well and pulled reasonably well, not that I had a lot of stock at that time. I think they were all factory digitally fitted and the decoder automatically detected whether you were analog or not.
Mine was early BR black, I think you could also get GWR green and late BR black too.
I believe that more knowledgeable people than myself criticised the model for having a larger tender than usual, this was to fit the motor in, therefore - yes, it was tender drive.
I was disappointed that Peco didn’t expand the range, maybe that’s explained by the rather hefty price tag for the time, £100 or so, rings a bell.
If I were to go N gauge ever again, I would try and get another.
Hope that helps,
John
 

Grahame Hedges

Western Thunderer
The Collet was Peco's second RTR N gauge loco - the first being the Jubilee 35 years earlier. The collet model was introduced in 2006. Less than six years later they announced it would be their last and effectively withdrew from the N gauge RTR motive power market.
 

Joe's Garage

Western Thunderer
Thanks guys I may try looking for one. I suppose Peco pulled out of RTR n gauge when the late Sidney Pritchard passed on. I know he was a keen support of N.

Julian
 

Chris Veitch

Western Thunderer
I had a similar question when looking for one when pondering over a plan for a 2FS version, which led to this thread on RMWeb's 2mm forum. Peter's Spares have supplies of pretty much everything for this loco, probably enough parts to build a complete one. I believe the tender is actually correct but was only carried by a very small number of them - this thread on WT provided some very knowledgable answers to my tender question, including a list from Martin Finney of all the building lots and their original tender types.

Hope this helps,
 

Roger Pound

Western Thunderer
The Jubilee was manufactured by Rivarossi for Peco if memory serves. It had simplified valve gear and they were notorious for the driving wheels 'locking' resulting in the loco sliding gaily along with the tender drive unit working steadily away. There was no particularly obvious single cause for this in my experience but keeping the axles as clean as possible, ensuring the slide bars and rodding were aligned and free moving and minimal lubrication seemed the best remedy. The actual loco looked quite nice, but was not a hundred per cent success Sorry to hijack the 2251 thread..........:oops:

Roger,
 

Joe's Garage

Western Thunderer
No worries Roger, I remember the Jubilee well as I had one in my teens. Typical...sold it then and of course now regret that. It was at the time a very nice model.
Julian
 

GrahamMc

Western Thunderer
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Joe's Garage

Western Thunderer
Thanks for that link Andy,I will have a look. I was led to believe that SP was keen to promote N in its infancy with the track etc. So I just presumed the Collet was a legacy, very nice model though.
Interesting how TT got sidelined in the promotion of N gauge, I wouldn't want to start a debate on this one!
Cheers
Julian
 

Tim Hale

Western Thunderer
Hi,

This may not be true, but rumour has it that SP ceased support for TT3 when Tri-ang abandoned the scale, this was unfortunate as Peco was on the cusp of introducing a range of 12mm track. This also impacted on HOm enthusiasts who were anticipating the introduction of a reasonably priced and reliable RTR track system.

Only SP passed did Peco reconsider the decision to abandon 12mm track and subsequently introduced their HOm track system which (ironically) is popular with TT3 enthusiasts.

It may all be tosh but it seems plausible.





 
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