Ah - tricky question! I only have one Lionel car (an old 6034 that I bought with the intention of restoring, but owing to having a damaged plastic bodyshell it’ll either end up as a chassis/truck donor or recieve a major repair job involving a lot of filler and a respray) - Lionel equipment appears very rarely on ebay UK and is hardly ever seen in stores here. Compared to that the flanges on the Hachette stock may be a little deeper - I do know that if I put it on Peco “scale” track it hits the rail chairs. I can run a micrometer over the loco and measure the flanges if that’d be helpful?
Thanks, Matt, a micrometer would do the trick. I’ll then compare w/my own micrometer readings (which I don’t have at the moment)
Live steam has been mentioned above. I have run live steam on 0 gauge indoor tracks twice in the last week. I have eight live steam locos, of varying sizes. The one I ran yesterday was a Bowman - a big loco. Although it has no throttle it runs very well & safely, hauling a good load at fast speed, for half an hour non-stop. My track is about 080 (runs outside 072 track) so that helps. All my steam locos are quite safe if handled properly.
Clockwork, I find that about 125 feet running distance for Marx etc is usual. Best I have is a Hornby over 70 years old that runs 220 feet. Clockworks should not fly off the track at curves, even if fully wound, provided the governor is working OK. Modern Hachette don`t have governors and are useless but look nice!
Matt,
Rather hard to measure the flange depth with my calipers, as the wheels are fast-angled, but I believe it came out to something close to 148/1000 for modern toy train wheels; thereby leaving very little spike clearance.
Tintrax,
If you’re on the East Coast, I’d love to see a steam-up. Indoors…hmmmm. Cold steam? (cold steam has been done 50 years ago using electricity as the power supply).
Reg. clockwork, 125 ft would be perrfect! Hornby at 220 is pretty phenominal. One fellow scratchbuilt a clockwork fuel gauge that indicated precisely how much torque was available.
Very innovative.
Eventually, I’d like to convert all of my locomotives to r/c and possibly steam or diesel power. But that will be a looong way off.
Reg. clockwork, are any of you old enough to recall watches that you needed to wind up every couple of days? Hmmmmm.
Sorry Matt, I am a long way away - In New Zealand! So I can`t show you my live steam in operation. Unless you come here! In fact in the next month I am expecting two USA toy train fans to call & see me
. On the subject of clockwork power there was a difference between the USA & Europe. Virtually all clockwork in the USA from after WW1 was regarded as being for small boys and was cheap. In Europe certainly there were many cheap types made, but .also high quality locos at higher prices. Mechanisms for these were fine pieces of engineering.
Ok, just measured the flanges, they come out at just under 3mm which is approx 0.119in according to the micrometer (it’s one of those ones with the digital readout and a “MM/in” conversion button). Back to back gauge is 29.5mm and the flanges are 2.14mm thick.
I’m not old enough to remember windup watches in common use, but I have a couple of them - one’s the type that has to be wound daily while the other has one of those self-winding mechanisms. Both are Vostoks, made in the former USSR and bought through ebay for under £30 - not bad for something that never needs batteries!
thanks, Matt