Manufacturer: The Parker Company, P.O. Box 1546, Camarillo, CA 93011 Price: Straight right- or left-hand 8 or 10 foot radius turnout $179.95 each; straight right- or left-hand 11 or 12 foot radius and curved 10 foot with 5 or 8 foot radius turnout $199.95 each; curved 11 or 12 foot with 10 or 11 foot radius turnout $219.95 each. Quantity discounts available. Shipping extra.

Appearance aside, why bother with a wide-radius turnout? Big locomotives. Aster Daylights, Big Boys, and Hudsons simply are unable to negotiate even LGB's widest radius (1600) curves and turnouts. AristoCraft's new Pacific should really run on eight or ten foot curves and turnouts. And most of the standard gauge prototype rolling stock simply looks out of place on the usual sectional track curves.

The standard length ties on Parker turnouts measure 3 1/2 inches long by 1/2 inch square. That is a little higher than LGB ties, but in ballast it is of no consequence. If you use a solid sub-roadbed, Parker offers a step-up kit to shim the sectional track up to the correct height. The ties bear only superficial resemblance to prototype ties but, to be fair, they are supposed to look more like LGB track and they do.

Parker fastens the rails with eight RAMOS stainless steel spikes per tie.

Each turnout comes fully wired and ready to run, with an electrically isolated frog. That lets you use LGB 1201 and 1203 electric switches and eliminates dead spots. The throw lever is Parker's own manual design but he can set up the turnout to accept LGB electric switch machines.

The workmanship on our sample was very good. Roger says every now and then he misses with a spike, but on our turnout his aim was perfect. The soldering at the guard rails and where the point rails meet the frog was adequate but a little lumpy. The throw rod appears to be a strip of printed circuit board. The filing and metal work around the points and the frog were crisp and clean. The turnout looks good.

What's more, it works. The most difficult test for any turnout is to creep an 0-4-0 through its frog. I tried three. Not a single stall, even at the slowest speed I could manage. I ran all makes of freight and passenger equipment through the turnout; no derailments. I backed a Delton C-16 through both the straight and curved rails. It went without a hitch. I even tried the tiny-flanged wheels from Ryan Equipment Company and had no problem.

Parker builds his turnouts the same way as real railroads do and differently from LGB. LGB builds up the frog with a plastic "platform". The deep flanges on their wheels ride on the platform to minimize wheel drop. On tight radius turnouts such as LGB's, that's not much of a problem anyway because the distance from the point rails to the frog is relatively short. On a longer, wide radius turnout such as Parker's, that distance increases and wheel drop between the point rails and the frog becomes more pronounced. Since Parker makes no attempt to copy LGB's "platform", wheel drop does occur and you can hear the wheels of virtually all rolling stock click as they drop briefly into the gap between the point rails and the frog. But the guard rails do their job well; they keep all wheels from wandering off in the wrong direction and prevent derailment.

Parker products seem to offer flawless performance and good looks. If you are in the market for LGB compatible wide radius turnouts, you might want to consider Parker's. RR