Quote from: renniks on October 28, 2009, 06:17:34 AM

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The 'standard' loco was a 2-6-2T; the 4-6-0Ts were built to UK War Dept. specs. who preferred this wheel configuration for some reason.
Eric UK

As I understand it the Hunslett and Baldwin 4-6-0ts were made from 1916, before the 2-6-2ts were introduced. Baldwin got into the act as Hunslett couldn't produce enough locos quickly. ALCO then produced a batch of 2-6-2ts for the British and French, and, after the USA entered the war in 1917 the 2-6-2 design was adopted as the standard design for the USA army, but not for other combatants. The USA  had the advantage of being able to learn from the experience of the earlier designs made before the USA entered the war. 

The most common German design was the  0-8-0t Brigadelok.

Irrespective of the particular design these WW1 locos are fascinating and I would love to see Bachmann make one

The photos posted by Franck are wonderful and Jacky's modelling is superb!

Hamish

Dear bach-man

Thanks for the information - I am looking forward to it

Hamish

Dear Bach-man

Thanks for the reply, I wasn't really expecting anything at this stage.

Have you had a chanve to check the length of the new side door caboose yet?

Hamish

It is not in the 2009 catalogue so I presume that it has been discontinued. Bachmann has reduced the number of ON30 train sets considerably, one 2-6-0 Christmas, one 2-6-0 non-Christmas (Roaring Ridge) and the streetcar sets were all that was in the 2009 catalogue. I would have thought that a more varied range would attract more newcomers to the ON30 part of the hobby.

Just my thoughts

Hamish

Dear Bach Man

Are there likely to be any announcements of new On30 items at iHobby? I am not asking you to reveal what they might be, I simply want to know if I should be anticipating.

I realise that these days the main time for On30 product announcements is the NMRA convention and I would not expect a brand new locomotive or other major item, given the NMRA announcements of the 2-6-6-2 and Sandy River caboose, however will anything at all, such as new versions of existing items, be announced?

Hamish

Dear Bach Man

Can you tell me the length of the new Sandy River type caboose?

Many thanks

Hamish K

Dusten

I couple of things to check.

Is the isolated section (gaps across both rails at each end, separate power feed though a double pole double throw reversing switch) in the right place?

If I have understood your layout correctly the isolating section shoud be as follows

('m' is any track recieving power from the main feed)
('lt' and 'rt' left and are right turmouts respectively, yt is a wye turnout)
('g' is a gapped rail)
('i' is part of the isolating section)


m
m
lt
mg
m  i
m   i
m    i
m      g
m        yt m
m      m     m
m     m        m
m   m           m
m m              m
mm              m     
rt                m       
m              m
m           m
m        m   
m m
     


The method shown by Joe above won't work where the tail of the wye joins up with other track to form a loop.

Are your trains longer than the isolating section? If they are that can cause shorting across the gap.

I hope this helps rather than confuses
Hamish

Are you running DC or DCC? What type of track and turnouts are you using? How are you connecting it and are how you using the isolating section/s?. A wye is like a return loop and will short without special wiring arrangements. There are several methods,  so without knowing the method you are using it is difficult to advise.

The NMRA guide might heip http://www.nmra.org/beginner/wiring.html
or there are many books on railroad wiring that cover this in detail.

Hamish

Railroad equipment, especially narrow gauge, varies considerably in size, even when running on the same gauge.  Usually a standard gauge car will be larger than a narrow gauge car, but not always, and some standard gauge cars (usually smallish ones) were converted to narrow gauge. Similarly a 3 foot gauge car will often be larger than a 30 inch gauge or 2 foot gauge car, but not necessarily.

On3 models are often of larger 3 foot gauge prototypes and thus may look big alongside On30 models, which are often of smaller prototypes.

On some railroads equipment of fairly different sizes ran together.

So what is right together depends on what you are modelling and, most importantly, whether you think it looks OK. Sticking to standard On30 products is certainly safe and can give you a lot of choices - but in some circumstances converting from another gauge or scale may give you appropriate stock not otherwise obtainable.

Hamish

On30 is 1:48 scale on 16.5mm (HO) gauge track. HO is 1:87 scale on 16.5mm track. This means that HO scale structures, bridges etc. are likely to look wrong (all aspects and details too small) even if it can accommodate the On30 loco and stock.

HO represents standard gauge prototypes (track width 4 foot eight and a half inches). OnN30 represents narrow gauge prototypes. The track width scales at about 30 inches, but it is often used to represent 3 foot gauge and 2 foot gauge prototypes as well. 

You could put On30 trucks and wheel sets on O scale cars, but note that narrow gauge equipment was usually smaller (often considerably) than standard gauge equipment, although of course there were exceptions.  Converted standard gauge cars will often look big compared to On30 locos etc.

I hope this helps

Hamish

Hamish

In Queensland, Australia the 2 foot gauge Mapleton Tramway operated 2 small Shays on its mixed passenger and freight services. The timetable allowed one and half hours for the downhill run and two and a quarter hours for the uphill journey. The distance was eleven miles each way.

Also in Queensland, Australia the 30 inch gauge Buderim Tramway had a Shay as well as a German 0-6-2 tank loco. Both were used on its mixed services. The distance was just over seven miles and the journey took 50 minutes.

This gives some idea of the speed of Shays in service. Note that as these were scheduled mixed (passenger and freight) services they are likely to have been faster than Shays in mining or timber service. To my mind the Bachmann Shay is quite fast enough!

Hamish

The Walthers site is showing the undecorated 0-4-2 Porter as arriving on the 14 September 2009.  As the 2009 Bachmann catalogue shows no On30 Porters at all (0-4-0 or 0-4-2) what is the story? Did Walthers find a cache of these locos somewhere? or has Bachmann decided to do another run after all?

I am aware that there quite a few shops with stocks of old Porters, but the Walthers site suggests that these locos are not currently in stock but arriving shortly.

Hamish

See http://www.railway-technical.com/st-clasif.shtml#TOP

In the German system a 4-6-0 would be a 2'C'. The "n" suffix means not superheated ("h" is superheated, "v" compound) and the final number is the number of cylinders. Thus a 2'C'n4 would be a 4 cylinder non-superheated 4-6-0. A 2 cylinder superheated 4-6-0 would be a 2'C'h2. A pacific is a 2'C'1, a 2'C'1h3 would be a 3 cylinder superheated 4-6-2.

Hamish

 

I, and others, have suggesting these for some time now. To me it seems strange that they are made in HO and N, but not narrow gauge when such cars are common on narrow gauge preserved lines. They were also used on some narrow gauge lines during the days of regular service.

My preference would be for the new ones, one issue with the HO Jackson and Sharpe cars is that the seats are fixed in one direction, making it unrealistic to have the loco run around the cars and run back in the opposite direction. 

Hamish

Bachmann uses the same controllers etc. for ON30 and HO, there shouldn't be a problem with other brands HO stuff.

I have seen a convertible ON30/HO layout. It had two sets of buildings with the same footprints (but different heights) - one to O scale (small prototypes) and one HO (larger prototypes. They were swapped over. Scenery was genric with little to suggest size, fields and low hills that worked in either scale. Track was HO but heavily ballasted so that the ties could not be seen.

Hamish