"John Turner"wrote
> I've no idea whether anyone has attempted to equal or beat that record, but
> 105 coaches takes up an awful lot of space and the opportunities to
> challenge it must be fairly limited as a result. However I suspect some of
> the new generation of diesel models would manage a similar or greater load
> with relative ease.
I have somewhere - possibly in an ancient Railway Modeller from the
early 60s - a photo of Hornby demonstrating how robust the Ringfield motor
was by building an elevated track at an exhibition on which a
Ringfield-equipped 00 loco successfully hauled several grown men sitting (no
doubt very carefully) on trailing carrying trucks.
A lot of model-scale haulage has to do with adhesive weight of the loco,
the fact that most plastic-bodied coaches are way under scale weight, and
the general frictional excellence of most items fitted with pinpoint
bearings which don't (that I know of) run hot boxes like the prototype can
do. Downsides are unfeasible curve radii and the renowned propensity of
worm-and-pinion drives not to be anywhere near effective torque
multipliers - you get speed control at the expense of sheer brute power. I'm
keen to address this anomaly in a future scratchbuild/rebuild except the
only compact right-angle spur gears easily available, are the standard
Scalextric drive set (about 4:1) in cheap plastic so I don't know what their
durability is when taking railway-size loads from a rufftuff motor. Plus
there's the worry that Branchlines, currently up for sale through Andrew
Mullins's imminent retirement and the only significant retailer of compact
spur gears for the rest of the drive chain, may yet disappear and leave us
in a hole.
Find of the day: mint boxed set of the Bachmann Esso oil tanker
three-set (item 37-366) in a Cambridge charity shop for 4.99. Just on my way
out of the shop when I spotted the distinctive Bachmann packaging livery on
the back of the box in the rear of a glass display cabinet normally loaded
with ornaments and watches.
Tomny Clarke, off to Scaleforum tomorrow despite the crapulous state of
weekend train services round here
John Turner - 29 Sep 2007 08:16 GMT
> I have somewhere - possibly in an ancient Railway Modeller from the
> early 60s - a photo of Hornby demonstrating how robust the Ringfield motor
> was by building an elevated track at an exhibition on which a
> Ringfield-equipped 00 loco successfully hauled several grown men sitting
> (no
> doubt very carefully) on trailing carrying trucks.
I think you'll find this used one of their (rather inaccurate) 'Deltic'
Co-Co diesel models and it was used to haul one small boy.
John.
Dragon Heart - 30 Sep 2007 23:13 GMT
> "John Turner"wrote
>
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> the back of the box in the rear of a glass display cabinet normally loaded
> with ornaments and watches.
We have, at last count, 8 charity shops in town ....... never even
seen a model loco or rolling stock. I visit each of them each time I
visit town, much to the annoyance of her indoors, but nothing :-(