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Summer Hampton Railway


ba14eagle
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  • 3 weeks later...

I recently purchased some of the new Dapol O gauge mk1 coaches, but have been disappointed to find that they need very smoothly laid track, to run well. My undulations have seen them derail consistently on one half of my circuit - not helped by my minimum radius curves (40.5"). I have started lifting a fair section of my O gauge circuit, which will be relaid with the removal of at least one setrack point and lots of packing, trying to level out the trackbed, over both length and across the track profile. Sometimes you wish your ballasting wasn't glued so well!

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It is disappointing to hear of your coaches not being as tolerant as previous generations. I think this is across the scales not just O.
It seems to me that the ever increasing demand for accuracy is leading to there being less movement in mechanisms etc. Possibly in this case to give a more realistic bogie position relative to the coach body? I don't know if that can be modified on the coaches.

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On 20/08/2021 at 19:08, Clay Mills Junction said:

It is disappointing to hear of your coaches not being as tolerant as previous generations. I think this is across the scales not just O.
It seems to me that the ever increasing demand for accuracy is leading to there being less movement in mechanisms etc. Possibly in this case to give a more realistic bogie position relative to the coach body? I don't know if that can be modified on the coaches.

My theory is the blame lies in the cam arrangement used for the couplings - they are very similar to the awful design used by Hornby on the OO class 56. There is also the problem with the travel of the buckeye coupling arm, across the bottom of the bufferbeam - something I had to rectify on my Bachmann OO coaches!

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  • 1 month later...

Blimey you have been busy this past summer Iain. I hope you're feeling and keeping well.

I haven't got round to catching up with some of your most recent videos yet but there are plenty of long dark nights looming ahead for me to be able to do that.

I was just reading your most recent comments regarding problems with couplings and yes, I know that sometimes the fault can be down to our track laying but not in every case. Couplings for me have often been a nightmare, a real headache at times. The ones you mention, Hornby class 56 and others similarly fitted, are just not fit for purpose in my view. I too have had to file down the base of the bufferbeams on my Bachmann Mk1s in order for replacement couplings to be able to move sideways as they should.

You may have read where I mentioned cancelling a number of my pre-orders and it's simply things like this, along with the many other problems I have encountered, that left me feeling disillusioned with the whole hobby for a time. I could no longer justify spending so much money to have to rectify problems in order to run certain models or to be left disappointed with what I had purchased (in the case of some poor and very expensive sound decoders!). I have two wagon types remaining on pre-order and that's it for me. There won't be anymore and I just intend to enjoy the models I already own.

Looking forward to catching up with your videos in due course.

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Phew...! I think I've caught up. I had forgotten that I'd already seen the July releases and I remember now watching them while we were through at the caravan so I only had the 3 August ones to catch up with.

I was surprised at how good the Duke sounded seeing as it's a TTS soundchip, at least it sounded okay to me on the video.

I was watching and thinking you mujst be having problems with your inner circuit and then it dawned on me that it's a loop. Do you find you don't use it that much? I ask because when I had the loop in the garden it always felt too much trouble and so I rarely even cleaned the rail tops and just ran a single line.

Pleased to hear that you've sorted the O gauge track in one direction at least. Must be very frustrating when you're unable to run it properly but I suppose that's one of the drawbacks with the larger scales in that you need an even larger space. Is it something you can sort out? Is there room to ease the curves?

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Mick - When its just me in the garden, I tend not to use the loops, but just run one OO and one O gauge train out at once - with the O gauge, that was mainly because the outer loop had a reverse curve which nothing particularly liked going around. If I'm entertaining visitors, I get ahead and use the loops, so I can keep something running, whilst changing the other train over, for something else.

Now that I have relaid the O gauge through the point and loops (at the house end of the garden) rolling stock runs much better on both lines - even the Dapol Mk1 coaches! There is still a bit of an ongoing saga though. I have 2 parcels vehicles - one, possibly, an Exley LMS 57ft full brake (a really nice model), that wouldnt go around the garden at all without falling off. Now Ive relaid some of the track, it will go around clockwise, but not anti clockwise (falls off on the left handside corner closest the house - again the curve needs lifting and packing.) The other, is a Heljan GUV, which will go around anti clockwise, but not clockwise! This derails at the far end of the loops, so next Spring, this will probably all need relaying. Its a difficult call though - I'm often reluctant to rip up trackwork that most of the stock runs ok over, incase it fixes it for one vehicle, but then causes problems to other stuff.

And there was me thinking the larger scale would be more tolerant of lumps and bumps 🙄

 

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36 minutes ago, ba14eagle said:

...And there was me thinking the larger scale would be more tolerant of lumps and bumps 🙄

In a way I imagine that the larger the scale is the finer the wheel standards will be so it probably needs just as much care with track laying, if not more, than OO gauge does. And curves especially are where we experience most problems so they really do need to be as large as possible no matter what scale we are using. I notice the difference when running up in the attic compared to out in the garden where curves are much gentler.

I've had a few problematic locos and coaches, ones that derailed over specific sections of track that every other item of stock passed over without a problem. It was always either a dip in the track or the tracks not level across so one side of the vehicle was lifting. Packing beneath the sleepers always seemed to cure it so it was all my fault for not geting the track right in the first place. My first bit of advice to anyone thinking of building a garden railway would be to ensure they get the track laid perfectly.

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yes, it isn't limited to any one scale or indoors or outdoors. My Bachmann 47712 doesn't like a lot of stuff, my Dad's 47710 is much more tolerant (47712 has less lateral movement in one bogie I can't figure out why and loosening the top screw on the bogie tower doesn't improve it).

My Dad has one corner he doesn't want to re-lay but I do. It seems the cork underneath has expanded and caused the track to cant the wrong way (things lean over like a Citroen 2CV). Yet there is only one carriage that has a problem with it.
If I re-lay it, I'd put maybe a 1/2mm cant (superelevation) the correct way.

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  • 9 months later...

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