John Cutler
Oh Dear!
I should follow my own advice!
I installed a pair of EMGS B6 turnouts to replace some troublesome home-made ones.
Did I check the gauges beforehand?
Following Mike Baker’s post (Thanks, Mike!), I checked these with an 18.2mm mint gauge.
Then with a Vernier gauge.
Yes, the darned things are under-gauge, by between 0.1 and 0.2mm.
This may not matter much if you use a strict (Good Luck with that!) 16.5mm Back-to-Back with the usual wheel slop of AG wheels. This 18mm gauge is not desirable where the switch rails (point blades) meet the stock rails. There is no set in the Peco stock rails. However, Peco or the EMGS designer have wisely widened the gauge here at the blades; my mint gauge freely moved through both sets of switches. This is the only part of the turnout where the mint gauge does not encounter friction.
My BB standard is 16.5-16.7mm. Coach and rolling stock wheels are left at the standard 16.5mm but locos get wheels built to an acceptable range using a 16.7mm Back-to-Back tool tightly. I find the wheels usually spring back to 16.6mm or sometimes even 16.5mm. When I used a standard 16.5mm BB jig, I discovered the wheels almost always ended up at less than 16.5mm apart; I guess the plastic in the loco wheels springs back after being set. So yes, some of my locos suffer a bit going through the EMGS/Peco B6 turnouts.
Not happy.
I will start keeping records of problems to decide on possible loco modifications or if I should rip the darned things out. It seems I might have to go back to hand-built wonky track!