Deliberately Old-Fashioned 0 Scale - Chapter 1

[Simond]

If anyone has sound recordings of steam era GW hooter/klaxon and bell, I’d be very grateful for a copy

 

atb

Simon

[rockershovel]

17 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

No. As Northroader spotted straight away, it’s a contact ramp for the GWR ‘automatic train control’ system. 

 

Further details courtesy of a good old-fashioned magazine https://railwaywondersoftheworld.com/automatic-safety.html

 

Ah! I know this one ...

 

 

 

[Northroader]

[Nearholmer]

Thankfully, 0 gauge seems to have been spared bendy coaches. Bakelite doesn’t usually warp, it just snaps.

[Nearholmer]

Nearly tied the railway in knots this evening, trying to operate an intensive suburban service with a goods train and a milk train thrown in for confusion.

 

 

The ex-GWR engine seems to have learned to get on with its peers, now that it’s been nationalised.

 

 

 

Colour is still rationed at the moment, but the engines are all black anyway.

 

 

[rockershovel]

4 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Thankfully, 0 gauge seems to have been spared bendy coaches. Bakelite doesn’t usually warp, it just snaps.

 

I was actually referring to the plunger pick ups, but those coach roofs are a bit "period", aren't they?

[Nearholmer]

Merry Christmas, and best wishes for a peaceful year to come, from all at Birlstone and Paltry Circus.

 

 

[Northroader]

All the best to you, too, Kevin, very nicely posed picture.

[Annie]

And Merry Christmas from me too Kevin.

[Donw]

Merry Christmas and all the best for the new year. 

I have enjoyed following this thread.

 

 I wonder what you think of this it has an old fashioned feel with sharp curves but is on 2 rail track ( I assume). You cannot see all of it I wonder how much space it is using. I could end up with something not a mile away indoors. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yImHKfMobQ

 

Don

[Nearholmer]

Intriguing layout, isn’t it?

 

I think it’s 2-rail coarse-scale, possibly some of it being converted/detailed 1970s Lima, although there are also modern BL and Ace trains in there too. These modern items mostly have 2-3 rail switches, and a lot of modern coarse rolling-stock has insulated wheels.

 

Track? I can’t work out what has been used. Maybe it’s Lima, or well-disguised Peco SM32.

 

Coarse 2-rail is definitely a combination that hasn’t ‘come out’ ...... clearly people do use it, but it seems to get very little public airing apart from the odd garden railway featured in ‘the mags’.

 

I was looking at a Peco SM32 small radius point earlier (c2’6” radius, I think), and thinking that could be used for a coarse-0 layout for small locos - I gather that some of the bigger modern coarse-0 ones get tangled-up on them, but I don’t know why/how, maybe they can’t do the shimmy of reverse curvature at a crossover.

 

I got the radius wrong: 965mm. https://peco-uk.com/collections/sm-32-32mm/products/turnout-small-radius-left-hand

 

 

Edited December 23, 2019 by Nearholmer

[Metropolitan H]

Kevin,

 

Thank you for the seasonal picture - very good.

 

Regarding the link posted by DonW, I am very impressed. I am sure it is Peco SM-32 track and turnouts - the interesting thing is that there appear to be various wheel tyre widths etc in use - presumably with appropriate and compatible "Check gauge(s)". It all looks rather fun.

 

Regards

Chris H

[Nearholmer]

Looking at the geometry of the SM32 point, it could be made a great deal better for 0 by cutting the diverging track back, probably to 18 degrees instead of 22.5 but maybe even further, for making a crossover. People are doing that successfully with the small radius 0 points.

[Donw]

Yes these small radius turnouts usually continue the curve through the crossing and beyound. For a crossover it would be better to have the crossing straight and then when two are placed together there is a short straight section between them.

I think the Lima track ( I did have some years ago) was 700mm radius very sharp. If you want to use SM32 for 0 gauge putting sleepers between the provided ones can improve the appearance even if the are no rail fixings.  I seem to remember that originally a lot of coarse scale track had less sleepers per yard until  people realised that the fine scale looked better and putting sleepers at scale spacings made a big improvemnt to coarse scale.

 

Don

[Northroader]

Just laboriously typing out the same thing as what Don has just said. When you’re laying out track, never form a S- curve, ie with two curves of opposite hand meeting without a length of straight track to transition between the two, termed a reverse curve. The Peco setrak and SM32 points both carry the radius of the diverging point right through the length of the point, so cannot be used for crossovers.

[Nearholmer]

Straight crossings are kinder to trains on a crossover, unquestionably, but curved crossings are essential for a simple ‘set track’ system, even real ones like 2ft gauge ‘jubilee’ track, to avoid multiplication of variants.

 

Where they get troublesome is where the total arc on the diverging route is very large. Peco go to 22.5 degrees, to avoid ‘fill-in’ bits to match ‘sixteen curves to a circle’, whereas Maldon use 18 degrees to fit with ‘twenty curves to a circle’, and that small, 4.5 degree, difference is very material in terms of reducing “throwing about” as trains traverse a crossover.

 

That having been said, I will only use S-curves on crossovers that are taken at low speed ...... I try very hard to include tangent track between curves of opposite direction everywhere else.

 

Its like many things: you can get away with it, if you go at it with a bit of thought.

 

38” reverse curve in 0.

 

 

Real 2ft gauge dodgy geometry!

 

Edited December 23, 2019 by Nearholmer

[rockershovel]

Certainly the sectional 18” and 24” gauge track I’m familiar with from tunnelling work, has reverse curves as shown above. I suppose it counts as 12”-1’ coarse scale? 

[Nearholmer]

Don’t the tunnelling community call a scissors a ‘California crossing’?

[brianusa]

Although I have read the dire warnings of S curves over they years, in order to fit the UP line in, an S curve was necessary in Hornby 2' curves to achieve continuous running.  I have no problems with No.2 locos and rolling stock these last twenty years or so which is probably just as well as there was no alternative or space for a straight section.  Luckily the second S was separated by a crossover!  An old picture but not a lot has changed!

Merry Christmas to all in the senior scale!

     Brian

 

[St Enodoc]

7 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Intriguing layout, isn’t it?

 

I think it’s 2-rail coarse-scale, possibly some of it being converted/detailed 1970s Lima, although there are also modern BL and Ace trains in there too. These modern items mostly have 2-3 rail switches, and a lot of modern coarse rolling-stock has insulated wheels.

 

Track? I can’t work out what has been used. Maybe it’s Lima, or well-disguised Peco SM32.

 

Coarse 2-rail is definitely a combination that hasn’t ‘come out’ ...... clearly people do use it, but it seems to get very little public airing apart from the odd garden railway featured in ‘the mags’.

 

I was looking at a Peco SM32 small radius point earlier (c2’6” radius, I think), and thinking that could be used for a coarse-0 layout for small locos - I gather that some of the bigger modern coarse-0 ones get tangled-up on them, but I don’t know why/how, maybe they can’t do the shimmy of reverse curvature at a crossover.

 

I got the radius wrong: 965mm. https://peco-uk.com/collections/sm-32-32mm/products/turnout-small-radius-left-hand

 

 

Did I spot a Lionel Hall in there somewhere?

[Nearholmer]

Certainly a medium-sized GWR 4-6-0, but they all look the same to me, so it could be a Hall.

 

There's a County Tank too, and an LMS 2P 4-4-0, I think, both of which could be very clever Lima-fications.

 

The GWR is sneaky railway .......... I found it hiding behind a hedge, waiting to pounce, earlier today.

 

Edited December 23, 2019 by Nearholmer

[Northroader]

“Ho Ho Ho, and what do you want for Christmas?”

[Mark Carne]

8 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Intriguing layout, isn’t it?

 

I think it’s 2-rail coarse-scale, possibly some of it being converted/detailed 1970s Lima, although there are also modern BL and Ace trains in there too. These modern items mostly have 2-3 rail switches, and a lot of modern coarse rolling-stock has insulated wheels.

 

Track? I can’t work out what has been used. Maybe it’s Lima, or well-disguised Peco SM32.

 

Coarse 2-rail is definitely a combination that hasn’t ‘come out’ ...... clearly people do use it, but it seems to get very little public airing apart from the odd garden railway featured in ‘the mags’.

 

I was looking at a Peco SM32 small radius point earlier (c2’6” radius, I think), and thinking that could be used for a coarse-0 layout for small locos - I gather that some of the bigger modern coarse-0 ones get tangled-up on them, but I don’t know why/how, maybe they can’t do the shimmy of reverse curvature at a crossover.

 

I got the radius wrong: 965mm. https://peco-uk.com/collections/sm-32-32mm/products/turnout-small-radius-left-hand

 

 

My first thought about the track on the layout in the video was ETS 2 rail.

 

Mark

[rockershovel]

3 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Don’t the tunnelling community call a scissors a ‘California crossing’?

 

No, a California Crossing is a sectional crossing loop, towed behind the tunnelling machine on skids. It usually has railing ramps so that trains run up onto it from the construction track, then back down onto that track and into the back of the tunnelling machine 

 

 

 

[Donw]

It does help when stock is designed for sharp curves  and we are better off than full size where the sheer weight of a loco will try to spread the track on tight curves. Frank Roomes built and LMS 4-6-0 (possibly a Patriot) for his line which could manage a 3ft 6in curve with all wheels flanged and brake and sand gear details, he was however a skilled builder and would have made allowances here and there.

As I usually build my own track I can choose to build with straight or curved crossings as needed.  Short stock is also very helpful in dealing with S curves avoid those 70ft Dreadnaughts or them US 85 footers if you can.

 

Don