Trains.com

And now for a change of pace..

6654 views
99 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    December 2008
  • From: Toronto, Canada
  • 2,560 posts
Posted by 54light15 on Monday, December 23, 2019 10:56 PM

Spiffy, indeed! I wish I had that in my garage and that's a fact! A few years ago I was on a narrow-gauge railway tour of Germany with a British-run tour. We visited an elaborate feldbahn (600 MM) railway. It was a two km oval on a big piece of property and there were a lot of locomotives and freight and passenger cars. An elaborate loco shed with everything you would need. It was kind of a club and there was a bar and restaurant on the grounds. Antique car clubs woud meet there and ride the trains. I sure wish I coud remember the name of it- I will try to find out and will post the info. 

  • Member since
    May 2019
  • 1,768 posts
Posted by MMLDelete on Monday, December 23, 2019 3:45 PM

Here's one that's a bit spiffier.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_DUZnjsfuY

  • Member since
    May 2019
  • 1,768 posts
Posted by MMLDelete on Monday, December 23, 2019 3:41 PM

Flintlock76

That thing's too cool for words!

You've got that right!

He might want to level up the track in some spots if he wants to tear around like that! One spot looked pretty dicey.

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Friday, December 20, 2019 12:07 AM

That's exactly what he does.  You can see the fuel banked up (looks like briquettes or wood pieces to me at 'phone' scale) and you see and hear the water gurgling in.  I believe quite a few live steam models even at 15" gauge are operated the same way

  • Member since
    July 2010
  • From: Louisiana
  • 2,310 posts
Posted by Paul of Covington on Thursday, December 19, 2019 11:06 PM

   I want one!

   I don't see any provisions for carrying water and fuel.  Maybe he just fills the boiler and stokes the firebox, then uses what he has.

_____________ 

  "A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner

  • Member since
    January 2019
  • From: Henrico, VA
  • 9,728 posts
Posted by Flintlock76 on Thursday, December 19, 2019 10:01 PM

That thing's too cool for words!  

Sounds like he woke up the dog around the one-minute mark, and Pup wasn't too happy at being disturbed!  

  • Member since
    September 2010
  • From: Parma Heights Ohio
  • 3,442 posts
Posted by Penny Trains on Thursday, December 19, 2019 8:54 PM

Fun toy!  Big Smile

Trains, trains, wonderful trains.  The more you get, the more you toot!  Big Smile

  • Member since
    December 2008
  • From: Toronto, Canada
  • 2,560 posts
Posted by 54light15 on Thursday, December 19, 2019 4:37 PM

OK, this isn't a monorail, but it sure looks like fun! Who needs models when you can have this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHr1zfhbL38 

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Tuesday, December 17, 2019 4:15 AM

When I was in my early teens, even on a weekday with school over at 3pm, and Dad and Mom not back from the medical office at West 29th street until 8pm, if either Mark Steele or Leonard Rodwin or both were also free that evening, and our having already caught up on homework, of course go to Coney Island via the free IND-BMT transfer at Franklin Avenue and Fulton Street, and enjoy Steeplechase and Dodgem Cars and the Parachute Jump.  Hour-and-a-half subway ride each way with two hours at C. I.  And many times we would be treated to The Little Zephyr between Fulton and Franklin and Prospect Park.  And a hot dog and french fries at Nathans to dampen hunger pangs until 8pm.   Not sure about Leonard and Mark, but of course I enjoyed the subway rides as much as the C. I. atractions.

  • Member since
    December 2008
  • From: Toronto, Canada
  • 2,560 posts
Posted by 54light15 on Monday, December 16, 2019 1:46 PM

Similar to the Amberly monorail is this one in Wales:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp4vj1rl6c4 

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Monday, December 16, 2019 11:05 AM

CSSHEGEWISCH
54light15

I've read how on the L & B monorail that if a farmer loaded a cow onto one of the cars, he would bring two sheep to balance on the other side. Unload the cow and put one sheep on either side to keep the balance on the return trip. 

Sounds similar to loading a carferry.

 
Reminds me of a certain off-color joke about why two 5-gallon buckets aren't the same thing as one ten-gallon bucket...
 
Or solving the wolves, geese, grain sort of problem by having extra items taken forward and back that aren't part of the actual problem.  
 
On a carferry you might get this if you didn't have space down the centerline, and nothing but comparatively large trucks 'at hand' any of which would heel the ferry unsafely if transported alone.  Here comes one big 18-wheeler that needed to be transported.  You drive two trucks of equal weight, each ballasted to roughly half the weight of the tractor-trailer, onto the other side of the ferry.  On the return trip, move the trucks to the opposing positions to achieve balance.  It's a pretty clever thing to see it done with different sizes of animal.
  • Member since
    March 2016
  • From: Burbank IL (near Clearing)
  • 13,540 posts
Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Monday, December 16, 2019 10:01 AM

54light15

I've read how on the L & B monorail that if a farmer loaded a cow onto one of the cars, he would bring two sheep to balance on the other side. Unload the cow and put one sheep on either side to keep the balance on the return trip. 

 
Sounds similar to loading a carferry.
The daily commute is part of everyday life but I get two rides a day out of it. Paul
  • Member since
    December 2008
  • From: Toronto, Canada
  • 2,560 posts
Posted by 54light15 on Monday, December 16, 2019 9:44 AM

Overmod- Morgans were powered by Matchless V-twin motorcycle engines, or J.A.P. (Joseph A. Prestwich) V-twins or Anzani V-twins. The last orignal ones built in the early 50s had a small Ford 4-cylinder engine. The one you see here is a Matchless- It's a jewel, isn't it? 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-6C6TfK1DI 

Recall the motorcycle in the opening of "Lawrence of Arabia?" That was J.A.P. powered. I know, too much information, but I love Morgans! 

I've read how on the L & B monorail that if a farmer loaded a cow onto one of the cars, he would bring two sheep to balance on the other side. Unload the cow and put one sheep on either side to keep the balance on the return trip. 

  • Member since
    June 2009
  • From: Dallas, TX
  • 6,952 posts
Posted by CMStPnP on Monday, December 16, 2019 9:43 AM

CSSHEGEWISCH
concrete pads in high-volume bus stops. 

Here in North Texas where a good portion of the streets are concrete.   After a rain, concrete can be as slippery as black ice when it has a heavy rubber and oil residue on it near stop lights.   Not sure how that is going to work with a bus stop.

  • Member since
    December 2017
  • From: I've been everywhere, man
  • 4,269 posts
Posted by SD70Dude on Monday, December 16, 2019 9:33 AM

Has anyone ever figured out exactly how washboard is formed on roads?

Greetings from Alberta

-an Articulate Malcontent

  • Member since
    March 2016
  • From: Burbank IL (near Clearing)
  • 13,540 posts
Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Monday, December 16, 2019 7:01 AM

blue streak 1

Bus and truck tearing up asphalt as described is ongoing.  The only real cure is to make it all concrete very thick and at least 7000# or greater making it much stronger than normal.  Ga DOT repaved a road here recently .  At a traffic light at bottom of small hill the pavement has already become wash board and getting worse.

 
I've observed that the City of Chicago has been installing what could best be described as concrete pads in high-volume bus stops.  It seems to be working so far.
The daily commute is part of everyday life but I get two rides a day out of it. Paul
  • Member since
    December 2007
  • From: Georgia USA SW of Atlanta
  • 11,919 posts
Posted by blue streak 1 on Monday, December 16, 2019 12:06 AM

Bus and truck tearing up asphalt as described is ongoing.  The only real cure is to make it all concrete very thick and at least 7000# or greater making it much stronger than normal.  Ga DOT repaved a road here recently .  At a traffic light at bottom of small hill the pavement has already become wash board and getting worse.

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Sunday, December 15, 2019 11:22 PM

It certainly does.  Operationally it's much like the Listowel and Ballybunion principle (see the lateral stabilizing wheels) without the need for 'pannier' balance, and running on what is a nonsymmetrical-vertical=section I beam instead of a raised set of rails attached to frames.

Note the somewhat ad hoc leveling arrangements for the track, reminiscent of some forms of scaffolding.  That is probably a legacy of the system's design as a construction-site tramway (for relatively even traversal of what may be extremely rutted and unstabilized ground via tracks easily taken up and repositioned).

Note that this kind of track is also tailor-made for an entirely-above-the-rail Brennan system, and indeed in the first part of the video I thought there was going to be some counterrotating gyroscope setup in that black 'box' on the vehicle chassis...

Hey, isn't the motor in that Bugs-Bunny-like shooting-gallery rig the same thing that would power a three-wheel Morgan? 

  • Member since
    December 2008
  • From: Toronto, Canada
  • 2,560 posts
Posted by 54light15 on Sunday, December 15, 2019 10:37 PM

I guess this qualifies as a monorail:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_Jnn2NaBMQ 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSp9xvE_H_Y&t=239s 

I've been to the Amberly museum several times. It's a former chalk mine and has a 24 inch gauge railway throughout the grounds. Open-cab steam locomotives and such. There's a lot of stuff to see like trench locomotives from the first world war. It's not far from London out of Waterloo station and is a "grand day out" as Wallace and Gromit would say. 

  • Member since
    December 2008
  • From: Toronto, Canada
  • 2,560 posts
Posted by 54light15 on Sunday, December 15, 2019 10:27 PM

It doesn't pay to mix road transport and rail transport. Streetcars run on tracks, buses run on roads. I see it here on roads served only by buses, the asphalt builds up into a big curved lump as they turn in and out at the bus stops and the term here is "bus knuckle." The road surface can get quite distorted from buses turning in at the exact same spots many times in the course of a day. But I guess that would happen anywhere.

There was a bus stop on Eglinton Avenue as I recall where the asphalt was pushed over into the curb and rose higher than the curb eventually. That made the newspapers and the TTC was pressured to sort it out, which they did. 

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Sunday, December 15, 2019 8:53 PM

54light15
Somewhere in France was a fairly new streetcar system that had one guide rail, pantographs and the vehicles ran on rubber tires on the streets.

I think you are talking about the Bombardier GLT (guided light transit) system in Caen, which is supposedly being rebuilt as dual-rail.  It was apparently called the Twisto system.  The guide rail doubled as the return for electric overhead, but wasn't used as a load-bearing (or friction-reducing) element.  One of the problems is that the engineers didn't figure out the need for slow jitter in the steering, so the vehicles ran exactly in the same track, over and over, until the pavement began to deteriorate in the 'ruts'.  That took the bloom off the rose; apparently either the Caen management or Bombardier couldn't figure out the simple solutions to this, and now it's being rebuilt to more conventional rail-bearing configuration.

There is another system operating in Nancy that is interesting for a different reason.  Their buses are both electric and diesel.  Apparently they do not use the single rail as a return, as in Caen, but operate about 60% of the route steered by the rail.  Away from it (or the double overhead) they run on diesel and are steered with a conventional wheel.  Here is an early story with some of the 'complications' and details of the system.  (TVR is the French acronym for the GLT system).

Translohr is the other system that does this sort of thing.  They apparently can't figure out slow-speed jitter or periodic offset adjustment either.  

 

  • Member since
    September 2010
  • From: Parma Heights Ohio
  • 3,442 posts
Posted by Penny Trains on Sunday, December 15, 2019 6:53 PM

NKP guy

 

 
Penny Trains
It's just not Christmas without Lionel and a 50's layout isn't complete without a HoJo's by the Turnpike! 

 

   Thank you Penny Trains!  I genuflect before your beautiful layout.

   And I think I can smell the fried clams and hot dogs from here!

 

Thanks!

I'll give you the silent teaser for the really big layout!  Wink

Trains, trains, wonderful trains.  The more you get, the more you toot!  Big Smile

  • Member since
    December 2008
  • From: Toronto, Canada
  • 2,560 posts
Posted by 54light15 on Sunday, December 15, 2019 10:20 AM

Somewhere in France was a fairly new streetcar system that had one guide rail, pantographs and the vehicles ran on rubber tires on the streets. I've heard that there were so many problems with it, they gave up and made it run on two rails. Can't recall the name of the town. 

 

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • 1,530 posts
Posted by NKP guy on Saturday, December 14, 2019 8:32 PM

Penny Trains
It's just not Christmas without Lionel and a 50's layout isn't complete without a HoJo's by the Turnpike! 

   Thank you Penny Trains!  I genuflect before your beautiful layout.

   And I think I can smell the fried clams and hot dogs from here!

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Saturday, December 14, 2019 7:23 PM

Penny Trains
Wow!    One rail and a balancing wheel!  That's a new one by me! 

It actually makes much better sense when the British do it.  This is Thorold's idea from just after the Civil War when British road going powered vehicles were anathema.

The idea is to have one rail, and it can be fairly heavy, with a double-flanged wheel running on it to center, as the curb of a road.  No curving resistance to speak of, and you could use a pipe rail or even logs if you wanted.

The offside wheel has only about 5% of the weight, just enough to preclude tipping over due to 'centrifugal force' or unbalanced load, and of course it runs on the road pavement.  With that kind of loading even dirt or gravel would work, and pneumatic or rubber tires were known and might provide enough relatively damped suspension compliance to give quiet road running.  (I'd use a long spring and rubber block isolators).

The Patiala system is taken from W.J. Ewing's adaptation, which is more like a narrow-gauge railway with only one side 'railed'.  Only the center rail needs anything like precise lining and surface, which in the telephoto video it kind of isn't getting.  Ewing puts the rail centered and uses a very narrow 'towpath' to the side as pictured for a dedicated ROW.

There is no reason why this would not work for electric streetcars, with one rail in the street perhaps close to the curb as the electrical return.  Penny could try this out when she builds the Boynton Bicycle train for around the top of her tree...

  • Member since
    January 2019
  • From: Henrico, VA
  • 9,728 posts
Posted by Flintlock76 on Saturday, December 14, 2019 6:51 PM

Becky, that's a great kitbash of the Plasticville school and motel!

My complements!    Bow

And it goes without saying your Christmas layout's a stunner!

  • Member since
    September 2010
  • From: Parma Heights Ohio
  • 3,442 posts
Posted by Penny Trains on Saturday, December 14, 2019 6:26 PM

NKP guy
Since Howard Johnson's name was mentioned:

It's just not Christmas without Lionel and a 50's layout isn't complete without a HoJo's by the Turnpike!  Big Smile

Trains, trains, wonderful trains.  The more you get, the more you toot!  Big Smile

  • Member since
    September 2010
  • From: Parma Heights Ohio
  • 3,442 posts
Posted by Penny Trains on Saturday, December 14, 2019 6:18 PM

54light15

Here's another change of pace; I've heard of this one, I didn't think it still ran.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4nForKnnNk 

 

Wow!  Tongue Tied  One rail and a balancing wheel!  That's a new one by me!  Bow

Trains, trains, wonderful trains.  The more you get, the more you toot!  Big Smile

  • Member since
    January 2019
  • From: Henrico, VA
  • 9,728 posts
Posted by Flintlock76 on Saturday, December 14, 2019 2:37 PM

Paul of Covington

   If anyone around here says soda pop, soda or pop we usually assume they're not locals.  Usually it's soft drink, but sometimes Coke is used to mean any kind of soft drink.

   "What kinda coke ya want?"

   "Gimme an orange."

 

Now that's what I've heard, get to certain places down South and the word "Coke" is a generic term for any  soft drink.  

Make sense.  "Coca-Cola" has been called "Southern Holy Water."   Angel

Join our Community!

Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.

Search the Community

Newsletter Sign-Up

By signing up you may also receive occasional reader surveys and special offers from Trains magazine.Please view our privacy policy