Jump to content
 

Wharfeside, a lifetime's project


davefrk
 Share

Recommended Posts

Still on the topic of haulage or at least the capacity to haul, a bit of fun was had last night at the club with the Bachmann Jubilee again.

 

 

This time it was a record thirty coaches, 19 with brass axle bearings the rest with tuned axle holes and plastic compatable grease.

The Jubilee started the train no problem and only slipped slightly pulling the train round the 6ft curves at the layout ends.

The record will stand for now as I don't want to do any damage to the loco after it's detailing is finished.

 

That's an end to the silliness.

 

Wharfeside was getting some more scenic formwork done last night too and once the overbridge has had it's final weathering and is fixed in place I'll be able to blend in the top surface and add the grass.

 

Dave.

Dave,

 

I don't suppose you've considered posting this video on Wright writes ?  Might generate a little discussion!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Apologies for the rash of ratings. I’ve read through this topic a couple of times and the photos of the track work just blows me away - not that everything else isn’t as equally impressive!

 

Hi Tortuga, thanks for your comments much appreciated. Just your comment above would have done and saved yourself some time clicking buttons. :)

 

Regards,

Dave.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Dave,

 

I don't suppose you've considered posting this video on Wright writes ?  Might generate a little discussion!

 

Hi Tim, yes I did post a similar but poorer clip a few weeks ago - 19 coaches, It does amuse me that some people complain about their locos only hauling a few coaches or wagons and the advice is to add loads of weight to the loco completely ignoring the rolling stock and how free running or otherwise it is.

 

All the best,

Dave Franks

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

There is something very convincing about the movement of the trains in your videos. I think perhaps it is a combination of the very smooth running, the lovely long sweeping curve and the realistic speeds.

 

They look like real trains and they look like they have the weight and momentum of real trains. This one in particular makes me feel as though I am really there on a bridge watching a real train even though the surrounding landscape is far from finished. Because the movement is so convincing my brain happily adds the missing details including the smoke and steam.

 

 

Kit built Clan Mackintosh hauling the Waverley set, standing in for the usual Jubilee or Scot.

 

 

Edited by Sandpiper
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

Hi Tim, yes I did post a similar but poorer clip a few weeks ago - 19 coaches, It does amuse me that some people complain about their locos only hauling a few coaches or wagons and the advice is to add loads of weight to the loco completely ignoring the rolling stock and how free running or otherwise it is.

 

All the best,

Dave Franks

 

Another problem being that some people add weight willy nilly to a loco,  and then wonder why it pulls less than before, there's an art to it!

 

Mike.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Hi Tim, yes I did post a similar but poorer clip a few weeks ago - 19 coaches, It does amuse me that some people complain about their locos only hauling a few coaches or wagons and the advice is to add loads of weight to the loco completely ignoring the rolling stock and how free running or otherwise it is.

 

All the best,

Dave Franks

Presumably for true prototypical mimicry you would need nice free running but also significant inertia in the stock? Then you could achieve a degree of wheel slip on starting if you aren't gentle enough on the regulator but once things are moving all is good? Presumably having two much weight on the loco would prevent wheel slip and over play braking as well? I thought the way your loco started on the long train matched the prototype quite nicely (though with far too many coaches) .... presumably by weighting the stock a little more you could bring down the number required to cause a degree of slippage - it would be interesting to know how the train would be affected by a 1:100 gradient. 

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

Presumably for true prototypical mimicry you would need nice free running but also significant inertia in the stock?

 

How are you going to do that, then?

 

The train will be travelling at 1/76 of the prototype speed, e.g a scale mile a minute rather than an actual mile a minute.

The volume of the train, which will have a large impact of its mass, has been reduced by 1/76 in each of three dimensions.

 

Inertia is mass times the square of the velocity, but the mass is 1/(76 * 76 *76) of the original, and the square of the velocity will be 1/(76 * 76) of the original, so if the model train uses exactly the same materials as the prototype with exactly the same density, the upshot is that the inertia will be 1/76 of the “real” thing: to get a realistic level of inertia, a loaded 16t mineral wagon would have to have a mass of about a quarter of a ton! Then the rails would need to be a lot bigger to carry the weight, so goodbye to any scale fidelity that way! And no way would such a massive wagon run at all with pin-point axles running in coned bearings: like the real thing, parallel or roller bearings would be required.

 

Yes, a reasonable amount of weight in rolling stock helps, but ultimately some form of inertia simulation is required, be that via DCC settings, an electrolytic capacitor paired with a (variable) resistance, or careful and slow twisting of the control knob.

 

The thing is, you can’t scale physics: it still works in the same way, but some things are affected by a linear reduction, some by a square reduction and others by a cubic reduction. Glib statements like “significant inertia” show a lack of understanding and help no one. Mimicking the prototype requires a different approach, be that control circuitry or expert control. (Expert? I once saw a friend’s twelve year old daughter start a train on an 00 layout with every semblance of mass and inertia. When I asked if she had practiced this a lot, she said, “No. It’s just how real trains move, because they are heavy.”) Even de-coupled flywheels (Dynadrive - lovely!) can’t get near the full effect for a full train, but on-board storage (DCC) and battery power (radio control) can work well in conjunction with electronic simulation to create the right impression.

 

I’m sorry if that sounds blunt, but being reasonably widely read, I know full well how much I don’t know (and just how little I do know), and am acutely aware of the damage that can be caused by throw away remarks based on insufficient understanding. (Knowledge in this case extends to A level physics back in the days when grades were normatively marked, so quite a long while ago*, but in this instance, was covered in the 4th year - year 10, nowadays - if not earlier. Don’t get me started on “hollow” flywheels...)

 

* 1983.

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

No worries Simon,

 

Not intended as throw away ... simply asking a question .... Interested by your answer.

 

Looking at Dave's longer train, I thought it visually 'felt' like it had real weight and so 'looked' more realistic to my eyes. Simply wondered if this level of effect might be achievable by using fewer but heavier coaches (what I termed mimicing the prototype).

 

Your response would suggest not?

 

Unfortunately what I was talking about was much more 'touchy feely' than scientific and the terminology used was perhaps too specific?

 

Tim

Edited by Lecorbusier
Link to post
Share on other sites

I think in modelling terms there's an implicit consensus that we speak of physics, motion, etc. as "apparent", not absolute (since attempting to scale things goes nowhere).

Edited by mightbe
Link to post
Share on other sites

I think a lot of this inertia talk is over me head lol. The loco in the clip is a basic Bachmann Jubilee with no extra weight added, only the wheels have been changed for Gibsons and a Mashima motor fitted. At full chat it goes nicely with that load but cut the power and the train pushes the loco about 20''. Even with the usual nine coach Waverley set the loco can be pushed over 10'' so there is some inertia there. As you can see the Jub can start the 30 coaches and pull away without a slip if driven carefully but wind it up too quickly and the wheels spin. There are no gradients on Wharfeside but there are 6 foot curves at the ends which can slow an excessively long train.

The tests were to show the need for free running stock rather than weighting the loco and possibly overheating the motor trying to haul 'stiff' coaches, in my mind that is mechanical cruelty. I like to have a train running round whilst I'm working sometimes for hours and the motors do get luke warm but never hot. I got rid of all the DS10, D11 and D13s years ago.... Dreadful things.

I think 'apparent' inertia is probably more correct, it's the visual thing with a model going along at a steady realistic speed giving that look of weight.

A combination of things coming together to produce the effect is what I try to get right, doesn't always work but Hey Ho. :beee:

 

Dave Franks.

Edited by davefrk
  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

That 10" of overrun is probably representing 10 chains!

A combination of things coming together to produce the effect is what I try to get right,

Quite possibly the quintessential definition of railway modelling

 

doesn't always work but Hey Ho. :beee:

Assuming you go back and try again (eventually!), quite possibly the quintessential definition of a railway modeller...

Edited by Regularity
  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Not much to report really, scenery is ongoing with the groundwork beyond the roadbridge to hide the fiddleyard taking shape.

All the Tortoise pointmotors are now fitted with TV suppressors and the DAB radio no longer crackles when the points are changed. Something like this may also help those whose servos twitch when a loco passes near, electric motors will always have sparks at the brushes and pickups which can give interference but a suppressor will reduce the effect considerably as proved to me with the DAB radio.

Some videos were taken last week with different locos but I've yet to upload them to Youtube. :senile:

 

Dave.

  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

Have to admit that I'd long assumed modern electric motors were 'clean' enough for interference to be a thing of the past.  I would also have assumed the 'D' of DAB would have rendered them immune to such interference anyway!

We live and learn!

 

In my experience, quite the reverse. Digital TV seems much more vulnerable to interference than analogue.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

It's all very well trying to calculate a proper weight for coaches/wagons to provide inertia - but we don't have a vacuum brake to play with.

 

Going way back to the 1950s, Ken Northwood of North Devon fame, managed very long trains of short wheelbase wagons round a 2ft3in return loop. They must have been very free-running.

Edited by Joseph_Pestell
Link to post
Share on other sites

It's all very well trying to calculate a proper weight for coaches/wagons to provide inertia - but we don't have a vacuum brake to play with.

 

Going way back to the 1950s, Ken Northwood of North Devon fame, managed very long trains of short wheelbase wagons round a 2ft3in return loop. They must have been very free-running.

I believe his locomotives were heavily weighed, and had Pittman motors

Link to post
Share on other sites

Hi Dave,

 

I've been popping in to view progress over the last couple of years and pick up useful little tips (eg microswitches for Seeps) many thanks indeed.

 

Your trackwork is excellent, I find the almost continuous curves on the main line very realistic.  Am I remembering correctly that you have a ruling radius of 6ft (presumably transitioned)?  Does that apply to off-scene areas too?

 

Which leads me on to coach coupling, what do you use and how close together are the buffers on the straight?

 

The running you're achieving as shown in the videos makes all the effort on track and stock worthwhile.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...