Walking the train

[FJ and G]

A term used by the 1:1 guys; often used in connection with a problem such as a broke knuckle or worse, drawbar. Conductor gets all of the nice, healthy exercise.

Not usually used w/model trains but nonetheless is a nice phrase used for modelers who enjoy walking with the train, stopping to throw switches and assist coupling and uncoupling when dropping off or picking up cars at the spurs.

DCS and TMCC allow operators to do this with ease.

Even conventional guys can do it with plug in hand-held controllers.

However, some folks still sit atop a stool and throttle up from their command central control towers.

The only time they walk is to fix a derailment or grab another cup of coffee or a cold brew.

Me? I prefer to walk the train, brew in hand. An illegal procedure on the 1:1s, but then again, I make my own rules on my railroad!

dav

[Big_Boy_4005]

My layout will have no place to "sit and watch" trains. The design is totally walk around. Hell, the layout is so big, I might even get some exercise running the trains.[swg]

[FJ and G]

Elliot,

Keep us abrest on progress; I know you want it to be a big surprise but tell us what's going on. Later, you can collect all your forum snippets and make a book.

I'm going to make some turnouts this weekend; a nice 3 day weekend for me. Will let you know if any progress was made on Tuesday and if so, will post a picture and give instructions to save you all a lot of money.

dav

[Big_Boy_4005]

Oh Dave, I wish I could say that there was some progress on the railroad. Motivation has been severely lacking. I think I've become rather obsessed with the forum of late, but perhaps today is the day I break it's grip. Have you ever watched the odometer roll over on your car??? [swg]

[FJ and G]

I know what you mean. A friend of mine just email me inviting me to accompany him to an Sn30 open house; so my plans may be changing as we speak. I never could figure out the difference between On30 and Sn30. Don't they both use HO width track?

[Big_Boy_4005]

Sn3 or Sn30? Sn3 would be 36" gauge, and that would be about right for common HO track. It can get confusing between the 3 and 30. Both are narrow compared to 4'-8 1/2" standard gauge. If we kept it all in inches it might be better. Sn36 = On30 for rail spacing. The S and the O are for train sizing. See the difference?

Are you watching my "odometer"?[swg]

[lionelsoni]

In S (64:1) scale, 16.5 millimeters (HO gauge) is 1056 millimeters, reasonably close to 1 meter, or 41.575 inches, which is a bit wide for 3 feet. In O (48:1) scale, it is 31.18 inches, which is reasonably close to 30. However, there were very few American prototypes in 2 1/2-foot gauge.

[FJ and G]

So the answer is: both S and O narrow gauge operate on HO spaced rail track?

Seems like for narrow gauge S, it would have to run on rails spaced between N and HO

[dougdagrump]

Whew, This is tooooooooo technical at 8:00 am and my first coffee. [|)]

[Anonymous]

I think what Bob was saying is that most narow gauge railroads in the US operated on 36" gauge track. Which means that while it's a bit wide for S gauge, standard HO track is just about the right size for narrow gauge S. Actually, it seems that HO track is closer to be On30 than it is to being Sn36/Sn3.

As with everything else O gauge, if you ignore the fact that there were almost no 2.5 foot narrow gauge prototypes & put the 36" stuff on your On30 track, it's good enough.

Tony