Also add in that most of the rolling stock is shorter than typical US cars - still lots of the 4 wheel wagons and even the passenger cars, at least if you aren't modeling the modern era, are not the 80+ foot monsters run here in the US. They didn't run huge long trains, either, they ran more frequent shorter trains - keep in mind the distances are much shorter and towns much closer together.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I don´t want to open a can of worms, but one notable difference in modeling is that the Brits still do an awful lot of scratchbuilding. Aside from Hornby, Bachmann (UK) and Heljan (for Diesels), there are an uncountable number of small kitchen counter businesses offereing loco and rolling stock kits. It takes quite a lot of skill and talent to assemble those kits!
British railway modellers like to share their work with others. There is hardly aweek without a model train show and layouts are built to be shown there. There are a number of inspiring videos available in the Internet - is worth risking a look!
It would seem to me that the limited space available to enthusiastic British modelers translates to more meticulous modeling.
Dan
I don't know the answer to the title question, but here are some things to consider based on my experience with the UK:
There appears to be a much higher rate per capita of train and model railroad enthusiasts in the UK, when compared to the US. I don't have hard figures but I do have some non-scientific evidence.
1) I visited a shop in South Shields England last December which had a large long wall full of magazines and periodicals for sale. I counted 37 different railroad related publications there. Here in the US, you'd be lucky to find a quarter of that many.
2) While in the UK last December I visited a modelers home - a person who used to post here and other forums fairly often, and also visited a model train club in Sunderland England. There I met many ethusiastic club members and they testified to the popularity of the hobby there, and to the much higher per capita rate. US modeling was a popular component of their club. A number of those Brits had traveled multiple times to the US to railfan and go to MR conventions as well, so they did have a basis for making their comparisons.
Of course compared to the US, people in the UK on the average have much smaller homes, so space is much more limited. The modeler I visited actually had a basement with a semi-generous amount of space - most people I visited had no basement and any spare bedroom would have been small compared to here, so space is a challenger in the UK. Despite that, model railroading seems to be much more popular than in the US.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
I wouldn´t say better, but different!
First of all, European rolling stock and locos don´t have wheels according to NMRA RP 25, but they follow NEM standards, which allows for deeper flanges. It´s not the old fashioned pizza cutter thing, but not as fine as RP 25.
Better to stay with a 30" radius for a helix!
Second, cars usually have truck-mounted couplers, which allows for negotiating tighter curves.
Third, most locos have traction tires. While this helps climbing up steeper grades, it also adds to the residue on the rails.
Some years back, a friend of mine tore down a nicely built layout, just because the helix he built using the typical European 14" (+ something) radius was too tight. While the locos came through it without any problems, the following cars always derailed at speeds just a tad higher than creeping along.
I was watching a youtube video layout tour of an OO scale (I think - maybe it's HO) Hornby based British theme layout yesterday called Everard Junction. This layout has a helix on each end of the layout that connects to a staging yard underneath. The amazing part is that each helix is triple track of Hornby raidus 2, 3, and 4. If I understand what I read at the Hornby website, that translates to 17.2, 19.88 and 22.5 inches. He says it's built with a 3" clearance.
Assuming 1/2" roadbed, a 17.2" radius yields a 6.5% grade. The trains he runs are not really long, but still respectable. I counted 7 passenger cars behind a single diesel locomotive. He does mention that steam won't get up the helix, but I'm still impressed.
What factors let him get away with substantially tighter helixes than the 30" minimum that's usually recommended here?
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