Hi all,
Yes indeed, what keeps wheels with small flanges on the track?
Generally speaking a wheel profile that is very similar to what the prototype uses.
That should get the discussion going! I’m reasonably certain the “large flanges are a must” crowd will have one or two “but” at the ready.
BTW on some of the German fora the wheels with the large flanges are “fondly” referred to as “Pizza-Cutter” wheels. [;)][:)][:D]
If your trucks are not equalized, or even worse, twisted, you compensate with huge flanges.
If your trackwork is so atrocious cross-level-wise, you need huge flanges to compensate.
If your rolling stock does not have 3-point suspension, you need huge flanges to compensate.
Now, to throw a bee into your bonnet, later LGB US Narrow-Gauge prototype has 1) equalized trucks, and 2) they have about always had 3-point suspension, so if you have to have huge flanges, I guess your trackwork is atrocious.
No?
TOC
This issue was addressed in a few MR articles about a Proto:87 layout. When you have as small of flanges as those trucks did, you have to have excellent track work.
As far as garden equipment is concerned, I think a combination of weight and friction will keep small flanges on the track quite well.
As atrocious as my track work is: Let’s hear it for pizza cutters!
Constant TRACK Maintainance is the order of the day on my line. I float, well more like bury, the ties. But natural shifting of the earth and other soil factors require trackwork to be a verb instead of a noun.
I really have pain little attention to flange size…only the Scientific Toys stuff has provided me with issue and need to even look at the wheels.
Danke,
Capt Carrales
Pizzakuttern uber allis![:p]
Real train wheels can flex in all directions and there is tremendous weight holding them down, so they stay on the track a lot better than any model.
I recently saw a 100+ car Union Pacific loaded freight train with six engines and an empty flat as the first car in the train. Try that with a model and you’re guaranteed to pull the flat car off of the track going around a curve, especially if you’re also going up a grade.
The UP train was on a grade that ranges from 1.5 to 2.5 percent with a lot of curves, climbing out of Benson, Arizona eastward toward Dragoon. In 20 miles the elevation climbs from 3400 to over 5000 feet, with very little straight track in all this distance.
My flanges are my business and as such are a private matter and i am not prepared to discuss them with the likes of you.
So there.
rgds ian
hehehehehehehehe
Ian, you’re a trip[:D]
Nothing, If they’ve been ground down to next to nothing, then next to nothing keeps the wheels on the track.