British O scale cars?

[Boyd]

Just to be different, how hard would it be to take a British O scale car and put American trucks under it? Are any of the British cars like ours with 4 wheel trucks at both ends?

[chuck]

Just to be different, how hard would it be to take a British O scale car and put American trucks under it? Are any of the British cars like ours with 4 wheel trucks at both ends?

Could you be a little more specific or give us an example?  The Lionel Harry Potter set and upcoming Shakespere set have British O Gauge cars with the appropriate British 4 wheel trucks under them.  Do you mean you want to take British style freight cars and put US style trucks under them?  You would have to make modifications to the frames to create a bolster and centering pin (place where truck is attached) and the difficulty in doing this would depend on the nature of the frame of the cars in question and your skills at fabricating these parts. 

Are there four wheel trucks used on European freight cars? Yes.  Modern freight cars are longer/heavier and do use four wheel trucks.  There are similarities in appearance as they use roller bearings and the engineering requirements dictate that form follow function.  

[DMUinCT]

   Up until the1980s, Lima of Italy made a Scale "O" gauge line that included 8 wheel British Coaches designed to run on 2 rail "O" Scale Track.

  Molded in plastic, I have a set in LMS colors, beautiful!   The Coaches are 18 inches long.   Would they run on Tinplate track or the newer snap type track???   Lima also made 4 AND 8 wheel freight cars and locomotives that ran on 12 DC.

  Lima does show up at times at some larger Train Shows and on E-Bay.

[cbq9911a]

I've got a few of the Lima four wheelers.  They'll run on 3 rail track, but you need to replace the wheelsets to get non-derailing switches and insulated sections to work properly.

[daan]

British 0 gauge is 1:43 and American 0 gauge is 1:48. The english stuff will be slightly bigger. Most British 2 axle railcars are freightcars. The 4 axle railcars are mostly all passenger cars. 4 axle freight cars are fairly uncommon on the UK Island, since goods volumes are not that huge. In modern time's it could be a bit different, since there is a railtunnel to the mainland which makes railtransport for freight a lot more attractive. Only since the beginning of the 21st century 4 axle railcars are taking the lead in goods transportation, untill then smaler 2 axle railcars where used a lot more.

Railinfrastructure has been improved a lot the last 10 years. Direct and highspeed transportation routes are built from the european ports to industrial zone's, more tracks and separate goods/ passenger routes have been built, goods @ 100-125mph, passengers up to 200 mph.

This makes the train a faster alternative compared to a car and a cheaper alternative to a plane and thus increasing the amount of goods with the need for bigger, 4 axle goods railcars on the mainland and on the isles.

Until this time, UK railtransport was short-distance transport for relative small volumes, but from a huge amount of clients which all had a piece of track leading to their factory. England had a huge transportation network to get every farmers flowercoal to the nearby market and every cow from the highlands to the butchershop in town. Small volumes, but very different transportation directions. That's why they where better of with small 2 axle freightcars and you will not find much 4 axle high volume bulkcars like the US. Apart from mining companies, high capicity bulkcars were a waste of money, they would never be filled enough to pay for their place in the train.

[Jago]

If you Google GWR Crocodile you will find a suitable freight, extensively employed during the war years moving a vast amount of military equipment around the British Isles.Four wheel trucks at each end and often photographed with a Sherman tank load.

[davidwebb]

Two axle freight cars vanished about 1960, except on preserved historic steam railways. There were 4 axle cars and bigger  in use thru the 20th century and earlier, as the railways were "common carriers" up to 60s - they were obliged to transport anything, however big or small, and some were huge. Modern freight cars are not very different to US ones, smaller overall because of the smaller loading gauge.

David

 

[cnw1995]

Can anyone recommend a place to see what a modern British freight van might look like?

I've just been using (and altering) the Lionel "Thomas" freight offerings.

[chuck]

http://www.railserve.com/Rail_Photos/Europe/

[cnw1995]

Thank you, Chuck!

[davidwebb]

modern cars behind old locomotives -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPBX8fZ9Wyo&NR=1

David

 

 

[n1vets333]

I can't read what it says but looks as though these casr where running in the 70's, the caption says 64 to 77. Did the UK use steam this late in the 20th century. Not for nothing but I really like these uk locomotives, they have alot of character.

[cnw1995]

I realize I have spent lots of time musing on the post-grouping and early British Rail era. It is interesting to see how similar modern cars look the world over (except for the loading guage), bringing us back to the original ques about the trucks (which are certainly 4-wheel)

[davidwebb]

The youtube video is recent - two locos from preserved lines hauling 1700 tons of stone on a quarry railway for a day for steam fans. Sadly, I missed it. Steam hauled shuttle to the quarry as well.

Last steam other than privately owned was 1968. I think there are now about 500 privately owned steam locos in Britain.

David