long island jack Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 I've used code 83 insulfrog on my new layout and on one of my loft layouts, never had any problem with any of my American diesels or stock, all different makes, stock has RP25 wheels, which i think Peco code 83 is made for (may be wrong) maybe your stock doesn't have RP25 profile or similar, it's a bit like when Peco code75 arrived on the scene and early Hornby and lima wheels didn't like the frog. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
long island jack Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 Some more on flanges here, last comment maybe of interest e 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Ian Morgan Posted February 26, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 26, 2021 This is a result of not having proper finescale wheel and track standards. The check rails have to be too far from the running rails to accomodate overly thick flanges and a narrow back-to-back distance. This results in the wheel having to pass over a gap in the running rail as it passes through the 'frog'. With finescale standards (and also on the real railway) as the wheel passes through the 'frog', the tip of the V is under the wheel before it has fully left the diverging wing rail. So, with normal OO or N standards, the wheel can drop into the gap causing the wagons to tip, or bounce up if at speed, often causing derailments. To get around this, some manufacturers add plastic in the frog so the wheel runs on the flange, avoiding dipping. LGB even do this at a large scale. This does depend on all flanges being the same depth, which is not a given. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Keith Addenbrooke Posted February 27, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 27, 2021 8 hours ago, Dr Gerbil-Fritters said: Which is why I'm expending so much brain power into devising a viable alternative. So far, I've found nothing replicates the 'rest of the world' better than a hands-off return loop and staging tracks combo. The only 'fiddling' with trains I want to be doing is proper shunting in a proper station. I would make a distinction between ‘a fiddle yard’ and ‘staging loops’, with the plan you’re sharing looking more like staging to me. In a ‘fiddle yard’ hands-on time will be spent rearranging trains, and I’d agree that I’d rather not use up operating time driving a fiddle yard if there is an alternative. The earliest reference I have to ‘staging’ is in an American Kalmbach book first published in the 1940s that shows a track plan with a double-ended yard part way round the layout where trains can be paused to wait their turn in the main Station - it is a passive means of managing the problem of a mainline that has been unavoidably shortened, and the yard was in the open. That particular layout had a stub terminal off a continuous run, with a Wye to get in and out, so the problem of reversing trains to return them to the terminus did not arise. Another alternative is only to have as much rolling stock as the layout can accommodate, which is how I think our forebears could most easily avoid this issue. The reversing loop would still be needed - the staging sidings are for our ‘excess’ stock. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lacathedrale Posted February 27, 2021 Share Posted February 27, 2021 So I've recently gotten into signalling, and I think that's a great opportunity to further tame the fiddle yard - for example, if you've got four fiddle yard/staging roads which loop back around: At the head end, there's a switch panel (I can't deal with DCC controller actuated turnouts) which represents a junction box (or sequence of signal boxes, whatever) that has them marked as: Saalhausen Furstenwald branch Nuremberg (mainline north) Forbergen (mainline south) which correspond to train destinations from the terminus - I feel like having the end-to-end conception of the route would be helpful, i.e. the branch shuttle to Furstenwald is pulled off from the station and routed through the passing station and into the 'shadow station' staging road, and the return journey is similarly controlled from end to end. The mainline tracks could probably be bidirectional, but just for flavour for wayfreight/etc. one might choose to have them logically separated. Anyway, just a thought! 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talltim Posted February 27, 2021 Share Posted February 27, 2021 I really like that idea. Really it’s just a place name instead of a fiddle yard track number, but it adds to the illusion 2 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lacathedrale Posted March 1, 2021 Share Posted March 1, 2021 Thank you also @Allegheny1600 for your points around Tillig vs Roco. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium St Enodoc Posted March 1, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 1, 2021 27 minutes ago, Lacathedrale said: points ! 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lacathedrale Posted March 10, 2021 Share Posted March 10, 2021 EMDs engines in the UK? A sojourn to modern image british 00 ? 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Gerbil-Fritters Posted March 10, 2021 Author Share Posted March 10, 2021 3 hours ago, Lacathedrale said: EMDs engines in the UK? A sojourn to modern image british 00 ? Pffft a 12N-710G3B-T2 is not a decent EMD motor... the only proper ones are the class 59s and the class 57s with 16-645 motors! Having tried BR oo three times in the past 5 years I'm done with it. There's another SVR video showcasing the 69 sound ... like a gutless 66. They should have shoved a CAT in there from a 68. Now that is jolly good. Rather like a non turbo 645 at full whack. Kudos to them fitting a proper EMD pedestal in the cab though. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Railpassion Posted March 10, 2021 Share Posted March 10, 2021 A trip to the loft has resulted in finding a box of 6 unused Bachmann GP35's in various liveries. Two work OK on my DC layout. They are in grey boxes with foam inserts and yellow labels. I bought them at an auction in 2010 for £25. I shall take a look inside tomorrow to see if they are dcc ready but I think not. They have working lights and illuminated numbers. I've seen the latest sound fitted Bachmann models on youtube but they look to be re-issues of older models with few detailed features. Does anyone have recommendations for budget sound models? Would it be cheaper to install sound on a dcc model from contikits. I also found a pikestuff engine house - what on earth am I doing? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Gerbil-Fritters Posted March 11, 2021 Author Share Posted March 11, 2021 (edited) Latest DR tinkerings with AnyRail, designed to: be based on a real station manageable build utilise RocoLine track have good operating potential for one person or two support end to end, continuous run and out and back ops potential for some automation eliminate the space hogging 'blob' of the previous design minimise the duck unders have some space for scenery lower level hidden staging tracks lower level junction station, upper level branch line terminus Quite pleased so far, but no inclination/mojo to build anything yet. Still busy culling the existing rolling stock. The EU have been on the phone, they want their Toy Train Mountain back... Here's the inspiration: Edited March 11, 2021 by Dr Gerbil-Fritters 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Railpassion Posted March 11, 2021 Share Posted March 11, 2021 No return loop? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Gerbil-Fritters Posted March 11, 2021 Author Share Posted March 11, 2021 35 minutes ago, Railpassion said: No return loop? No need... branch train locos can runround at the junction station. It's more prototypical and gets rid of a blob that my small shed can't really accommdate. 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Clive Mortimore Posted March 11, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 11, 2021 (edited) 3 hours ago, Dr Gerbil-Fritters said: Latest DR tinkerings with AnyRail, designed to: be based on a real station manageable build utilise RocoLine track have good operating potential for one person or two support end to end, continuous run and out and back ops potential for some automation eliminate the space hogging 'blob' of the previous design minimise the duck unders have some space for scenery lower level hidden staging tracks lower level junction station, upper level branch line terminus Quite pleased so far, but no inclination/mojo to build anything yet. Still busy culling the existing rolling stock. The EU have been on the phone, they want their Toy Train Mountain back... Here's the inspiration: Hi Doc I am a bit confused, where any Clayton's painted red? Wasn't the LNER Tourist stock livery nice. Edited March 11, 2021 by Clive Mortimore 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted March 11, 2021 Share Posted March 11, 2021 1 hour ago, Railpassion said: No return loop? Not many double-slips, either!! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Gerbil-Fritters Posted March 11, 2021 Author Share Posted March 11, 2021 17 minutes ago, F-UnitMad said: Not many double-slips, either!! You buy 'em, I'll install 'em.... 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Gerbil-Fritters Posted March 22, 2021 Author Share Posted March 22, 2021 Disregard the AnyRail plans - I have overestimated the dimensions of my shed, so nothing planned actually fits. Idiot. 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alcanman Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 It will be the 7th anniversary of 'The Eagle has landed' on Wednesday 31st March and I've followed your procrastinations with great interest since the beginning. Hopefully, one day, the 'the Eagle will land.' 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Gerbil-Fritters Posted March 22, 2021 Author Share Posted March 22, 2021 11 minutes ago, Alcanman said: It will be the 7th anniversary of 'The Eagle has landed' on Wednesday 31st March Oh dear, not a lot to show for all that time... 1 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 7 hours ago, Dr Gerbil-Fritters said: Oh dear, not a lot to show for all that time... It's about the journey, not an end result. You have 50 pages here recording a journey through several areas of interest, and examining why something that works for one modeller - say, a US switching branch for example - might not work for someone else. I also think that although there's been a welcome focus in the hobby recently on smaller, 'one man layouts', there has also been a perception that layouts are built & finished quickly, and today's well-known modellers who are prominent on Forums & magazines are often known for building several layouts covering various prototypes, whereas prominent modellers decades ago like Rev. Denny & P.D. Hancock were associated with one 'theme', even if their layouts went through several incarnations. BUT - the point I'm getting to is, that for many of us neither situation applies; we don't have time, space or resources to rapidly build a succession of 'instant gratification' layouts, nor do we have the single-minded interest to pursue just one prototype interest with a life-long layout project. It has been good to see this alternative situation played out in this Thread in particular, and the fact most if not all of us who followed it at first as a US layout still follow it now, and didn't kick off about which section of RMweb it should be in, as opposed to which section it is actually in, says a great deal about the interest it has generated, despite there being 'not much to show for it'. Although it seems to be generally proposed and assumed that the 'successful' end result of railway modelling is supposed to be a finished, scenic & detailed layout, such is actually far from true. Just my 2p-worth.... 5 3 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Clive Mortimore Posted March 22, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 22, 2021 2 hours ago, F-UnitMad said: It's about the journey, not an end result. Very true Mr F but following Doc on this journey appears to be taking us everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Mind still worth tagging along because one day we might arrive somewhere, or anywhere. 1 1 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Gerbil-Fritters Posted March 23, 2021 Author Share Posted March 23, 2021 Well, I might be everywhere and nowhere baby, but at least I don't have a hippy hat.... 3 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TT-Pete Posted March 23, 2021 Share Posted March 23, 2021 7 hours ago, Dr Gerbil-Fritters said: Well, I might be everywhere and nowhere baby, but at least I don't have a hippy hat.... 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Gerbil-Fritters Posted March 25, 2021 Author Share Posted March 25, 2021 Crottendorf adjusted to fit the real shed... I actually need a shed of 35 feet in length to accommodate the station I would like really to model. Apparently, some people can fit an entire section of the ECML in the space I would need for a quiet German branch station... 6 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
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 accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now