carl425 I can't imagine a Walthers Proto E-unit pulling 7 full sized passenger cars up a 6.5% grade on a 17.5" radius helix. The Hornby stuff is certainly different from what we have in the US.
I can't imagine a Walthers Proto E-unit pulling 7 full sized passenger cars up a 6.5% grade on a 17.5" radius helix. The Hornby stuff is certainly different from what we have in the US.
What you are describing sounds dangerously close to a cog railway - 6.5% grades!!!!
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
riogrande5761What you are describing sounds dangerously close to a cog railway - 6.5% grades!!!!
Doh! I accidentially hit the moron button. Made the old pi times radius mistake. I'm surprised nobody called me on that until now. It's actually 3.4%. Figure in the drag for the curve and the effective is 5.26%. Still very impressive.
Have a look at the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgZDGjTwL7s
I have the right to remain silent. By posting here I have given up that right and accept that anything I say can and will be used as evidence to critique me.
Is that a great layout? Of course it is.
Is it typical of British layouts? Of course not.
Hornby may be a long time British brand, but I've found it interesting that US HO railroading is extremely popular in the UK - so it's not all sharp curves and two axle freight cars etc. with buffers. When I visited England, both a club and a private individual featured more than half of their railroads were US type, and British trains were actually the minority. There are several prominant Brits modeling SP and featuring very high quality prototypical operations including SP steam and SP 70's and 80's style trains with a high degree of fidelity.
I've been buying UK model railway books, videos and magazines off and on since the 1970's. One difference I've noticed is that since UK homes rarely have basements, their layouts are usually very small - perhaps a 1' by 6' switching layout for example. However, they make up for it by superdetailing and weathering the models to make them very realistic.