I am having an intermitten derailment issue with one of my new heavyweight cars. I always assume it is my less than stellar trackwork combined with a particularly bad double crossover. But perhaps it is also the wheels.
For what it's worth, I got a box of USAT blackened wheels in 2005 or 2006, and installed them on my aristo 40 foot cars. These are the standard sprung aristo trucks. What I discovered is that the USAT wheels have a shoulder on them that pushes in to the side of the truck, creating a lot of friction. Further, the wheel itself is a smaller diameter, which allowed the brake shoes to ride the top of the track, as well. These wheels were made for the LGB and LGB copied arch bar trucks. They fit perfectly on my LGB tank cars and box cars, no issues there! And once the black plating is worn off, the brass underneath looks good!
Jim Miller hates the crossover there, though. When we operate 4 trains at once or 2 on the inner loop, it takes careful attention NOT to have head on wrecks there. However, I like the cross over, as it allows the trains to pass each other and does create visual interest.
I had those bricks left over from an old patio we took out. I need to add two or three more layers of brick to keep my ballast from washing away.
One thing I really like about the East end is that you cannot see it when you are sitting on our patio. So, you are forced to get up out of your chair and go over there to view. I think about adding a bench out there somewhere. Just to the right of that 5th shot is a huge oak tree. At the base of the oak is a baby japanese red maple, which is arching toward the tracks there. I am planning to let her grow until it makes a canopy and I can put a bench under there, too.
Thought you might like to see some pictures Luke (6) took on Sunday while we were running some trains. You can see that my track crews have been bad about letting the weeds grow. Also, Luke is not too steady with the camera, and so there's a lot of blurriness to these pictures! Oh well! Enjoy!
This last one is my favorite. It sort of reminds me of his magic marker drawings.
I think it depended on the road, their bridges, and also the kind of trains that were operated. Axle loading is the reason you have the 6 axle trucks to begin with.
That's the version I had back when they first came out. I hope you really like it! I've bought mostly freight cars from Trainz and all the stuff arrived in good shape. The one time I bought a playmobile freight depot, and what showed up was complete junk. They offered a full refund, but I split the difference with them instead, figuring I could build 'something' with the pieces. So far, that hasn't happened. Still, I'm only out $15.
I find with auctions that I put in my highest bid, and if that's where I win it, so be it.
It's kind of amazing, when you stop to consider the number of roads that had their own steam engine designs, yet all the models tend to be of one or two roads. There was a vocal minority that was lobbying for USRA models of the light / heavy pacfiic and mikado, plus 0-6-0 and 0-8-0 switchers. The argument was that all those engines could use the same 15,000 gallon tender (ARisto did eventually make it with their first run of mallet locomotives) for a 4-6-2, 4-8-2, 2-8-2, 2-10-2, 2-6-2, 0-6-0, 0-8-0, so all they'd have to make for new molds would be the locomotive itself.
Aristocraft was the company that made the heavyweight cars in large scale. They made two flavors of NYC heavyweight: two tone gray and an olive green. The Olive green sold out very quickly, the two tone gray cars were more easily obtained. However, none are available and there won't likely be more made for a while. Jim and I both grabbed a full 6 car set of heavyweights last year, and I can say that the last batch of these cars were superior to the previous releases for a few reasons. The biggest problem the older cars have is the power pick up for the lights is a bit flakey, and you get a dance party like strobe light. The last version included LED lights with voltage stabilizers and circutry to keep the lights from flickering. Also, the cars have electrical connectors so you can basically string all the lights together. Really nice. You could get a set of the Pennsy's and then repaint them. I've painted 3 of these cars, and it isn't that hard to do. Takes some patience, though.
OK, the time is coming when Piko's Reading camelback locomotive should be arriving. Any of you guys order one? With a wife starting a new job, I'm holding off on buying anything for the trains (and I need to upgrade a 2k2 board to a P8, and get another REVO steam starter kit, so no new locos for Mark). I've been hearing bad things about the drive train on the Piko x-6-x drive. Here's hoping they make continuous improvements.
Jens, a 10 coupled drive steam engine could serve as the basis for the 1924 Baldwin 2-10-0 of the Strasburg Railroad and also as the basis (maybe) for both 2-10-0 and 2-10-2T German models. However, I am not sure if the wheel base and wheel diameters are the same...
As much as I like the big old steamers, I would really like MTH or someone to make a model of our favorite local steamer. I'll take this one for freight:
Looks great on your railroad! I've been running my pacific + 6 heavyweights, but find the Pacific is a little 'slippery' on my tougher grades. Could be smoke fluid or bad track or a combination of the two.
I'd struggle to restore one of these with my own money, too! There is a lot of work that has to go in to these things to make them run again. They have to remove all the tubes from the boiler, then do a complete ultrasound survey for the thickness of the shell. That;s a time consuming and labor intensive job. Then, once you've got all that done, if there are no repairs you need to make, you have to put all new tubes in. Only a few places to procure those tubes, which also need to be machined and then rolled in to place. The good thing about this engine is it had a relatively short life as a road engine before it was retired. It'd probably take a month or two with a full time shop to rebuild this engine back when you had the people, and know how to do it. Now, it will take about 2-3 years. But I still think it will be worth it to see an engine like this running in tourist service in mountains!
I don't know if you guys saw this or not, but the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad negotiated the sale of Chesapeake and Ohio Mallet 1309 from the B&O Railroad Museum. Their plans are to return it to service and use it to pull their excursion trains up the mountains in Western Maryland.
I have never ridden the WMSR, as it is just a little on the far side for a day trip from here, but it might be a good weekend destination when this locomotive is restored. The bike path that parallels the route most of the way would be the other item of interest for the rest of my family.
Wow. Well, I suppose that twisted drive shafts and other failures are an indication that engineering is sort of a loose term, thrown around. OTOH, it could be a case of scaling down doesn't always work. In other words, there's safety factors in larger diameter shafts that won't translate in to scale size shafts. And had accucraft used a larger diameter rod or harder material, they'd have been flambayed by the would be users. Why don't we use 332 scale carbon steel rails for our outdoor railroads? Real railroads use steel, why not us? The answer is because the real rails corrode 1/8", and in our scale, that's going to be more than our rail web thickness. So we're stuck with brass, aluminum, stainless and other materials that don't fall apart. Sort of like why I don't mind oversize flanges, if they keep my trains on the tracks!
Guys, I have made all the pictures I load to this forum as viewable by 'friends'. As we are a public forum, and I may have pictures of my house or kids, etc. in the photo, I tend to keep my privacy settings a little bit higher. Not a big deal for those of you who are members, though.
I was able to get out super early Wednesday morning and get to the 4014 just after sunrise. Unfortunately, I was so early, the light is pretty bad. But I got to see the 4014 pretty close. I think I heard her whistle as I was headed away, as well. HEre's my pics:
It was cool to see this historic move in person. But, I was there for work training, so I had made this the start for a one way run. After these shots, I headed East to Las Vegas BLVD and turned right and ran the entire Vegas Strip back to my hotel, a distance just shy of 9 miles. A word to the wise: IF you run the Las Vegas strip, be prepared to climb and to descend a lot of stairs. This is particularly difficult to do at speed ( I was attempting to run a quicker pace per mile (6:00 ish pace), but barely managed a 7:15 pace due to the nasty climbs).
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Kadee Wheelsets!
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I am having an intermitten derailment issue with one of my new heavyweight cars. I always assume it is my less than stellar trackwork combined with a particularly bad double crossover. But perhaps it is also the wheels.
For what it's worth, I got a box of USAT blackened wheels in 2005 or 2006, and installed them on my aristo 40 foot cars. These are the standard sprung aristo trucks. What I discovered is that the USAT wheels have a shoulder on them that pushes in to the side of the truck, creating a lot of friction. Further, the wheel itself is a smaller diameter, which allowed the brake shoes to ride the top of the track, as well. These wheels were made for the LGB and LGB copied arch bar trucks. They fit perfectly on my LGB tank cars and box cars, no issues there! And once the black plating is worn off, the brass underneath looks good!