rogerzilla

2 hours ago, F-UnitMad said:

Do they really??  Ever tried moving a lorry with one flat tyre, never mind all 14 of them* ??!!!

 

I don't think so.

 

" Assuming an Artic, 3-axle Unit (8 tyres) with a 3-axle trailer running super-singles (6 tyres).

For the Pedantic, who've probably never even ever sat in a truck, never mind driven one.

They don't drag it out by hand!  They use a recovery vehicle unless it's only mildly stuck, in which case partial deflation can grab a couple of inches and it might be able to move clear under its own power. 

Sometimes they get really, really wedged, like this lorry carrying Lynx.  That won't buff out.

https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/11306860.a-close-shave-for-deodorant-lorry-stuck-under-bridge/

They really should change the bus routes

Lorries becoming wedged under bridges is so common in Swindon (Whitehouse Bridge and Wootton Bassett Road Bridge are both low) that the police have got pretty good at dealing with it.  The first thing they do is to let all the air out of the tyres, which usually drops the vehicle by enough to drag it out.

Swindon's traffic issues, such as they are, largely stem from the limited number of railway crossings.  There are only four GWML road crossings in the town proper (the two above, plus Transfer Bridges and Rodbourne Road, both of which are somewhat taller).  And most people seem to live on one side of the line and work on the other!

Would a rail service limited to 25mph be able to compete with local roads, even if they were jammed?  25mph over 20 miles is not much faster than a decent cyclist, let alone a car.

Thanks for the replies - I'll look at all the alternatives suggested.

1 minute ago, Dunsignalling said:

But you are neglecting one aspect of the 1960s steam scene.

 

You can run steam alongside diesel and, more importantly from Hornby's standpoint, they can sell both to the same people.....

 

Big Four seems to have been in decline for a while, though, which may or may not be "demographic" and, whilst locos "as preserved" in pre-group liveries have made it into r-t-r, locos in pre-group condition are another matter.  

 

John 

 

 

Agreed, there are a lot of "late crest" layouts for this reason. 

I'm leaning towards the Gaugemaster Prodigy Advance 2, which can be had for £260, but some people report usability issues when switching from one loco to another and it's not the best-looking thing.  If it has a lifetime guarantee like the DC controllers, that's a big selling point.

Or there's a Bachmann Dynamis Ultima or a Hornby Elite.  I imagine they're not as reliable, nor guaranteed, but they look better designed.

Or I could just use a spare laptop and something like Hornby's e-Link.  My issue with this is that the software might end up unsupported for a new version of Windows, making it basically obsolete unless the laptop is totally dedicated to the layout and never connected to the Internet.

This is for a small N gauge layout with three locos and DCC point control. 

Any other recommendations?

It's all about the most minted market, the recently-retired (say those in their early 60s).  The current crop just about remember BR steam, but soon they won't, and it's blue diesels that may be the big sellers.  Blue diesel looked drab at the time (you rarely saw a shiny one) but it looks like a nice clean, unified piece of branding now.

Steam has got to a point where you might as well do pre-Grouping as Big Four because no-one currently starting a layout remembers either, but aesthetics are important and there are people like me, brought up on Rev Awdry's books, who think a Gresley A3 is what a steam engine should look like, anything earlier looks a bit gawky ("hard man" cabs and dainty little tenders) while the BR standard stuff looks spartan with the high running plates.  So Big Four will probably still sell more in the steam market.

Whitehouse Bridge in Swindon got hit again yesterday for the many-hundredth time.  A common theory is that lorry drivers buy car satnavs or use their phone for navigation (HGV satnavs, which are aware of route restrictions, are a lot more expensive).  Cheap satnav chooses car route, lorry driver is too dozy to see signs, SMACK!

I think the drivers are charged with careless driving but I doubt any lose their licences; they can just plead with the court that they'll lose their job, so the court lets them go on doing what got them into trouble in the first place

Is a Cartazzi axle really radial?  I thought it just had side play and the clever bit was that it self-centred using the weight of the loco, because there are inclined planes which the chassis has to climb in order for the axle to deflect.

Obviously from the name, this is an A3 and I can't absolutely vouch for its accuracy, but it seems to show the curves very well and is different to the photo.

20191219_164336 by rogerzilla, on Flickr

From "Introduction to the Locomotive" by H C Webster, published sometime in the 1930s (there's no date in the book).  Must be out of copyright now.    Harry Webster was LNER Top Shed manager, so probably had the drawing made from the works drawings.

Kato Unitrack is great for setting up a temporary tabletop test/running-in track and I wouldn't bother with droppers for that; the joiners are kept clean by detaching and reattaching them*.  On a permanent layout, oxidation will gradually increase the resistance at the joiners until there is a significant voltage drop furthest from the feed track.

*one trick for fixing irritating electronic problems on cars is to unplug and replug all the connectors under the bonnet, cleaning the contacts by doing so

It's not the number of axles, it's the percentage of weight on driven axles as opposed to carrying axles (and I take the point that carrying axles on steam models often only carry their own weight).  In the real 1:1 world there are complex things going on at the wheel-rail interface due to significant deflection under the weight, which mean wheel diameter has an effect.

At its simplest, an old diesel model with one power bogie will struggle for grip compared to one with two power bogies.  The latter has roughly twice the adhesion because it's using all its weight.

At least electric models don't have to cope with the varying torque from steam cylinders, which promotes slip even when the factor of adhesion is above the usual design standard of 4. 3-cylinder locos and Lord Nelson 4-cylinders are better for even torque.

They are good looking things.  I wonder if they'll ever be attractive for preservation?  I'm not sure a heritage railway would be allowed to set up 25kV catenary.

My 1970s Albert Hall was atrocious.  Must have been sent off for repair three or four times and only ever worked for a few weeks when it came back.  The only reliable loco I had back then was a Lima Western with a ringfield motor.  That never went wrong, and would pull every single piece of rolling stock I owned at once.

They are much better now.

As in the real world, having all axles driven will make the most of the tractive effort, so an 0-6-0 will do better than an 0-4-2 of the same weight, and big diesels with all axles driven will do better than big steam models.  1 in 50 is the usual rule of thumb without magnets or other tricks.

Never been convinced by really flat matt paint on models, unless weathered too.  Satin is a good compromise (I resprayed a cheap Midland red Jinty from a black satin rattle can, added straw non-shaded LMS decals, and it looks more convincing than my factory black locos).  The A4s in particular really don't suit a completely matt finish, so I like what's been done here.

Only one, A3 "Firdaussi".  Excellent model, runs sweetly and the glossier finish works a lot better for me than the usual flat Hornby matt (which looks especially bad on a garter blue A4...I should really spray that with some satin varnish).

Ancient locos like this now only perform according to how well they've been maintained or refurbished.  Class 37s are now older than Pendennis Castle was when it went to Australia, as a bona fide historical relic (HSTs are nearly as old as Flying Scotsman was when it did its filmed 1968 nonstop run to Edinburgh, in the last days of water troughs).

Class 800s are horrible.  Miss the HSTs on the WCML.

12 hours ago, Pandora said:

Is it true that the Southern looked after their class 33 locos to a high standard, such as calling them to Works for overhaul at relatively low engine hours compared with other regions and their diesel fleets?

Well, they were used to keeping Bulleid Pacifics working

The two heritage railways that spring to mind and operate between meaningfully-large towns are the SVR and the NYMR (the latter by arrangement with Network Rail).  They're rarely used as genuine transport, though.  I think the SVR does some sort of "commuter" service but, of course, it's not year-round.

The advantage of going from nowhere to nowhere is that you can usually have a large car park.  The disadvantage is that people need to make a special trip by some other means of transport to catch the train, and won't necessarily combine it with a stay in a nearby town, especially if they don't have a car. 

The Bluebell used to be the best example of a nowhere to nowhere railway but the East Grinstead extension has helped.  It still wins the "most impressive station in the middle of nowhere" award for Horsted Keynes.  Apparently it was built big in anticipation of development that never came - unusual for the South East!

Ribblehead Viaduct?

Great stories from former drivers!

On 01/12/2019 at 02:13, MidlandRed said:

The reasons for over provision were complex and many - not least Beeching - but one was not taking due account of the flexibility of diesel and electric to work continuously (if they were reliable).

They did get better at this. 22 Deltics replaced 55 Gresley A3s and A4s. 

Pig ugly though (most things designed around gangway connections weren't lookers; EE locos with a "nose" got away with it). The Class 33s are quite pretty by comparison with the 31s.