BBC America program

[Woody Elmore]

I am an afficionado of BBC AMerica and they recently began a series with a British fellow named James May. The show is about toys. The model railroading show was great. He went to the largest train layout in the world - in Hamburg, I believe. Then he decided to put his model of the Flying Scotsman to the test. He said that it had actually never gone anywhere so he found a deserted railway line which had been made a bicycle path. The path is 10 miles long. He then recruited a whole lot of people to put down 10 miles of track and run the engine the length of the path.

Unfortunately, just as they were getting stareted the power went out here for a while so I missed the end of the program. I'll have to wait for the rerun

If you get BBC AMerica you might like this program " James Mays Toys"

I'm going to ask out British readers just who is James May? Is he a comedian? I know he's been on "Top Gear" for ages.

[rogertra]

[quote author=Woody Elmore link=topic=14031.msg113010#msg113010 date=1280755010

I'm going to ask out British readers just who is James May? Is he a comedian? I know he's been on "Top Gear" for ages.
[/quote]

Who is James May?  Google is your friend.

BTW, the 10 miles experiment failed because people stole the track.  You cannot lay 10 miles of OO track and not expect it to get stolen unless you have people every few feet.

[jettrainfan]

i thought it didn't make it because the engine broke and was lost about 3 miles away from the stop?

[Joe Satnik]

Dear Roger,

You may be correct about the track being stolen, but the first problem I saw was that "an entertainer in love with old toy trains", not a technician or engineer, was the brains behind the project. 

First, there was no power bus with power drops paralleling the track.  He actually expected the small power pack at the beginning of the line to power all 10 miles through the rails and rail connectors. 

How many sections of HO track can an average person lay before missing a rail connector,causing an intermittent or dead spot in the track?  Even perfectly connected rail has electrical resistance per foot and electrical resistance per rail connector that accumulates so quickly that it swamps the resistance of the motor, robbing it of its power to move.   

As I watched the show, I predicted that the engine/train would get about 20 feet down the line before it stopped.   

Then I saw him "tap", or "nudge" the "sticky" engine to get it to run, right next to the power pack.  So, the 40 year old engine was probably not cleaned and lubed, and it was unlikely that the cars were either.

I chuckled as I watched it get about 15 feet down the line before it stopped.

The only reason that it got any farther was that the camera crew rigged a way to feed power from their spare camera batteries to the track just behind the train.   

I'm not sure if they drained all available batteries, or if the engine(s) wore themselves out for lack of lubrication and accumulation of dirt.  I suspect the latter, and feel sorry for Mr. Mays if he wore out the first loco, his prized possession.

Hope this helps.

Sincerely,

Joe Satnik