Swiss Mountain Railways

[lumpey1]

i may be getting some h0e/009 wab and spb and jb 1 piece locos made would any one be interested 

[DIW]

A couple of weeks ago I promised @Pacific231G that I would add some more information in this thread about model rack track and locomotives. Here we go…

I’ll start with H0m and some pictures of the Bemo Abt rack:

The normal rack section:

 

The transition between plain track and rack:

 

The transition section itself:

 

And a close-up of the transition end:

 

Bemo supplied these in packs,

4245 017 (rack track with code 70 rail and some rail joiners)

4245 027 (two transitions, some plain track and some rack track with code 70 rails and rail joiners)

 

 

[To be continued]

[DIW]

Continued....

 

For the rack locomotives, so far I have only found a Ferro Suisse FO GHe4/4 which has proper Abt pinions. Here’s one I found cheaply, due to the original foam in the box having destroyed the paint finish:

 

The Bemo FO HGe4/4 uses a half-Abt on each bogie, like this. Notice the flange adjacent to the pinion, to run between the rows of teeth on the rack:

 

However for the BVZ and FO HGe4/4ii and the SBB HGe4/4 (same model, different liveries) the flange is missing from the edge of the pinion:

 

For the SBB models Bemo include the option to change from the Abt gears to Riggenbach gears. This involves (on each bogie) removing the outer wheelset which carries the pinion and replacing it with a regular wheelset (also shown in the picture) which makes the bogie the same as for the RhB version of the model. Then, remove the idler gear from the centre of the bogie and replace it with the replacement idler which incorporates a pinion, also as seen in the picture. It will be observed that the bogie baseplate cut-out is shaped in the middle idler gear position to allow the pinion to protrude beyond the dimension of the idler.

As yet I have not found a sample of Bemo Riggenback rack – has anyone found any?

[DIW]

Continued.....

 

The Bemo model of the SBB Deh4/6 uses the same trick as the HGe4/4. I presume from the bogie baseplate cut-outs that it would be possible to rearrange the pinion location one suitable wheelsets and pinions have been found:

 

The HRF version of the SBB Deh4/6 uses a single pinion on each bogie, separate from the wheels’ axles. It also has dummy pinions on the central bogie, since that is where the rack drive is on the real locomotive. Here is one I obtained as a non-runner:

 

Staying with HRF, their SBB HG3/3 (another obtained cheaply; it suffered from split gears) has a pinion on the front driving axle. The other pinion seen only operates when the locomotive is on rack. It drives the motion for a second set of pistons. On the real locomotive there are separate sets of pistons for rack and for adhesion drive:

 

Finally for H0m here is the Bemo FO (BFD Brig-Furka-Disentis) HG3/4 with the pinion offset from the centre line to allow engagement in one side of the Abt rack. The flange also makes another appearance although it isn’t so easy to pick out in the picture:

[DIW]

Continued.....(final section)

 

Now a quick look at how the Gerard system works in H0n3. This is modelled on the 750mm gauge locomotives of the Schneebergbahn and the Schafbergbahn in Austria.

The track uses the separate rail-and-base method, also code 70. The rack looks to be a rather crude representation of Straub rack. However there were points available too:

 

The points don’t have any clever mechanism to provide continuous rack through the assembly though, there is a gap. This is intended to be bridged by having a pinion on both driving axles of the locomotive:

Hopefully the chassis idler gears keep everything in synchronism!

 

[Pacific231G]

Just now, DIW said:

Continued.....(final section)

 

Now a quick look at how the Gerard system works in H0n3. This is modelled on the 750mm gauge locomotives of the Schneebergbahn and the Schafbergbahn in Austria.

The track uses the separate rail-and-base method, also code 70. The rack looks to be a rather crude representation of Straub rack. However there were points available too:

 

The points don’t have any clever mechanism to provide continuous rack through the assembly though, there is a gap. This is intended to be bridged by having a pinion on both driving axles of the locomotive:

Hopefully the chassis idler gears keep everything in synchronism!

 

Thanks very mich for this thorough survey. Some years ago I wrote an article about the Abt rack railway that used to run between St. Jean and St. Just in Lyon.

The postcard misidentifies it as a a funicular.  It was just over 800 metres long with an intermediate station at Minimes and replaced an earlier and wonderfully complicated funicular (complicated by the slope on its lower half being twice that of the upper half so using "compensator wagons") but an actual rack line had a much greater capacity as it could of course have more than two trains running at once. From this and other images it's clear that the Abt system was used with a single toothed bar at the less sloped lower station but with two offset bars on the line itself. 

It was built in 1900 using equipment from SLM Winterthur and appears very much to be like a contemporary Swiss mountain railway but in a French urban setting. Like most of Lyon's funiculars it carried goods as well as pasengers so, as well as the locos and carriages, there were self propelled  goods flats. The Lyon transport authority replaced it with a conventional funicualr in the late 1950s- spoilsports! (but they do now have a partially rack Métro line so may perhaps be forgiven)

I've often thought this sysyem would make an interesting model especially as it had been planned for it to convey metre gauge tramcars between Lyon's  tramway system at the lower St. Jean end  and the rural electric Vaugneray tramway at the upper end.

Unfortunately Abt rack brakes proved too low for a roadside/embedded tramway on fairly rough roads and, without them, tramcars were too heavy for the rack locos to hold (as they discovered during trials- fortunately with damage only to the lower terminus.)

 

[DGO]

Interesting, my own plans involve a rough recreation of Wengen (WAB)  though I plan to do a meter Gauge version mainly because trying to get rack rail onto that is slightly easier at 12mm compared to 9mm gauge, I can get very accurately laser cut version of the Lamella/Von Roll rack and plan to create a hybrid rack/adhesion system, adding rack to the rails is likely to add £10 per linear meter of rail so where the rails will go below the scenery to a hidden fiddle yard I will drop the gradient and run adhesion, on the rack I hope to be able to get close to the prototype which is roughly 1:5 the old track actually managed 1:4 in places Lamella rack should make it a little easier to recreate the points 

 

Rack rail points are another odity, there seem to be quite a variety of designs the WAB itself has two very different designs one type are basically very similar to regular points with just a short section of moving rack rail , the others have far more moving parts, but are more likely to be scalable to a model railway setting 

[009 micro modeller]

On 21/07/2022 at 20:11, DIW said:

Now a quick look at how the Gerard system works in H0n3.

Does this have anything to do with the Ferro-Train system (also H0n3)?

[DIW]

4 hours ago, 009 micro modeller said:

Does this have anything to do with the Ferro-Train system (also H0n3)?

I'm given to understand that there was a link-up although I'm not at all certain whether it was a badge labelling exercise or commissioned work. I have a link to follow up for the current(ish) Ferro Train stuff; when I get round to it!

 

 

[DIW]

Following on from Friday's message;

 

Ferro Train now comes under the Halling umbrella of model brands. It seems that back in the past Halling originally made the tooling which was used by some of the model brands.

 

Ferro Train still offer various rack railways in Hon3z (that is H0n3 with zahnstange and zahnräder) which looks very much that they took over the production where Gerard left off.

 

Dave