Mike Buckner

Have you noticed any reduction in traction now that the locos do not have tyres?

A remark directed to customers, to retailers in general, and perhaps to another manufacturer.

Some OO Clockwork items on the bay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/364064295808 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/125647293117 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/255861684875

Returning to this thread after a few months, I am blown away by what you have achieved. Truly excellent!

I wonder, Is this a homebrew system designed by Gaugemaster, or, like the Prodigy, a rebadged American system.

Or just watch the Telly. It's cheaper.

Brings back memories of when I used to live in Belgium 40+ years ago! Good luck with the exhibition.

I'd be interested to know How you executed the repair. I have a similar issue on the chassis of a Lima DMU. I thought about using glue with a wooden splint. Cheers Mike

Adhesion was fine - not adversely affected. Conductivity was reduced - there was an increasing degree of stuttering (and an occasional stall) as the days wore on. I am unable to categorically scientifically state whether this was definitely caused mainly by the outer rail. The locos were by Lima, Hornby (Margate) pancake types, and Hornby early 2000's (China) pancake types (Class 29). I can vouch that the locos were not over-lubricated. I'm careful on this point, and the locos in question had not been serviced for some years. The smear looked like a very thin very fine oily deposit - I'm not stating that it WAS an oily deposit.

One weekend I conducted an experiment. Set up an oval with spotlessly clean track. Ran a number of different trains, each for several hours, over 3 days. Every train was hauled by a loco which had 2 tyres on on side, and no tyres on the other side. In every case, locos were placed so that the tyres were on the outer rail and the inner rail carried all-metal wheels. At the end of the experiment, I got out a magnifying glass to inspect the track. In fact the magnifying glass was unnecessary. I could see the difference with the naked eye. Both rails had some occasional small black spots. The outer rail had an additional feature, absent on the inner rail, which was a continuous thin smear. It looked like a very thin very fine oily deposit, and the whole outer rail was covered in it.

Many of them use Märklin 3-rail systems, where both rails carry the return current, improving rail pick-up and mitigating against the discontinuities caused by tyre deposits.

As long as there are no rubber tyres on the wheels

Have I missed something?

A High-Fidelity 4mm Broad-Gauge track system

I used to do the school run between Avonmouth and Bristol. My classmate used to come in from Portishead. If one or other train wasn't quite keeping time, we could clearly see each other's trains across the river.

I don't know if this is practical at all, but a thought that occurs: All engines that will traverse the central section to be fitted with high-capacity stay-alive. All traversals to be completed in one move - i.e. no stopping in the central section. Central section to be isolated and unpowered.

It seems to me that the red & green routes are superfluous.

It did save me a lot of money. I no longer had to pay the Butler to stand by the TV and change the channels.

Model Railways - the money/time I've wasted spent on it.

Perhaps the next DCC advance after sound, will be hologrammatic figures or lamps. When switched on, they appear. When switched off, they disappear.

Fings as wot they used to be:

Heresy, I know, but: In RMWeb's collective experience, does graphite improve current collection with rubber-tyred locos?

Ideally, a review should give details. It would say not only that it was good (or bad), but should also give reasons why. Then one can trawl through the reviews for a place, and get some idea of the plus and minus points. If any reviews mention desires or bugbears, you are in some position to judge. An example. We stayed at a wonderful hotel in Spain. We had hired a car to get there. The facilities were superb, and we had a great time. There was one potential major problem. If you didn't have a car, it was several inconvenient miles from shops or anything else, so you were somewhat trapped. This is the sort of information that a good review should mention.

The one you want is Tracksetta OOT18 Template 18" Radius, whose 457mm radius is slightly larger than Setrack Radius 2, which is 438 mm or 17.25". Peco's web page here: https://peco-uk.com/products/18-radius-template-2

Another factor adding to the confusion may be Hornby having to transfer production of ex-Lima models from one Chinese supplier to another (perhaps more than once), following the demise of Sanda Kan.