[modeleng] Tight bends, and steep grades

Hi there Dennis,
Had you tried using dissimilar rails to try and help with the wheel 
slipping on the bends (say steel on the outside rail and brass on the 
inside rail on the bends, so there's more grip on the steel side, and the 
wheel on the brass side can slip more easily)?

I know that some people arrange to have one wheel loose on each to 
help with going round bends - though the purist attitude to that is that 
the wheels won't track properly on the track and will rely on the 
flanges, though I'm not sure for the low speeds encounted on a line with 
tight bends you would see any difference as long as your flanges 
are nice and rounded.

I have heard of flange oiling devices on some locomotives in full (narrow 
gauge) size, but I have a sneaky feeling that for our sizes of kit, we'd 
end up with rails covered in oil, and loco's with wheels spinning, and 
going nowhere (except perhaps sliding back down your 1 in 24).

On the subject of gradient, I think there is limit for lines that operate 
for the public. We visited the Teffi Valley Railway about 7 years ago. 
They're a 2 foot gauge line near Cardigan, but had laid a 7.25" gauge line 
also. They'd fallen foul of the rules, because someone had come for an 
official inspection of something relating to the 2 foot gauge line, but 
whilst there had taken a bit too much interest in the 7.25" gauge line. 
Anyway, the long and the short of it was that they were having to relay it 
because it was considered too much of a gradient for safe operation 
(perhaps should there be a runaway vehicle?).

I know of at least one person out there who knows of a long stretch of 
7.25" gauge track that was laid to get loco's in and out of their 
establishment which might even beat your gradient Dennis, but in their 
case, they don't use it as part of the passenger hauling route - I'll 
leave them to comment (or not) incase they'd rather not draw undue 
attention to it.

Yours,

Rich.



On Wed, 17 Sep 2008, Dennis Rayner wrote:

> Hi all,
>
>    I have been modestly extending my space-challenged 5" / 7¼" gauge garden
> railway. Just completed 25 feet of 1 in 24 approached off of 180 degrees of
> 12½ feet radius curve (with 0.125" gauge widening). Rolling stock is 7¼"
> gauge bogie with 10" wheel centres apart from the 5" gauge 4 - wheel loco
> which has a a 14" wheelbase.
>
>    I have quoted all these figures because I was surprised to find the
> extent to which this modest train strained its way around the curves but
> romped away up the gradient and wondered if other members find this
> surprising? (Load was 3 adults)
>
>    I might have to try to squeeze a bit more omph out of my Sinclair C5
> motor.
>
> Regards
>
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