ge_rik wrote: ↑Mon Dec 07, 2020 3:02 pm
The problems I'm encountering are with vertical curves - more particularly dips where the centre wheels lose contact with the track.
I've tried it through the R2 reverse curves at Beeston Market and it gets through OK, though I can feel resistance from the flanges just before and after the half way point. The coach wheelbase seems just right for R2 reverse curves as one outer wheelset is leaving at the other is entering the curve.
That's interesting, as an R2 curve is approx. 2'6” radius, which scales out to 50' on a real 3' gauge railway. The minimum design radius for a quarry Hunslet was 50' and I bet the flanges were squealing on that tight a curve. Somehow I doubt a Cleminson underframe would have got around the track in Penrhyn quarry.......
If it's just dips in the track that are left as the main issue and if you aren't already using them, fitting LGB wheels with their deep flange in the centre truck would help, but calling out the track gang when the weather improves for a bit of track lifting and ballast packing would be a better way forward long term.
Last resort would be to build in more vertical play in the steering linkages and lightly springing the centre axle with coil springs which would give the longest spring travel.
ge_rik wrote: ↑Mon Dec 07, 2020 3:02 pm
Peter Paye observes (p209)
The coaches advanced in a diagonal movement when in motion and tyre wear was above average especially on the outer pairs of wheels. The wheelsets were regularly sent ...... for retyring and deep tyre turning .....
Maybe I should buy a lathe ......
That's a very interesting comment by Paye. One of the major claims by Cleminson was that his system would reduce tyre wear.
I have actually seen serious flange wear on brass wheels in HO scale after many, many hours of running. With steel wheels and brass track, I would expect to see rail wear first on my garden railway. Given how little running I do, I haven't even seen the tarnish worn off the rail so far.
A lathe is a useful thing in modelling, but one big enough to turn wheelsets costs about the same as buying 120 steel commercial wheelsets.......... That said, if you can figure out how to use a 3D printer and find a use for it, you can probably do the same with a lathe.
ge_rik wrote: ↑Mon Dec 07, 2020 3:02 pm
I did wonder whether to construct a wagon first, but figured that if I could sort out the undercarriage for the coach then modifying it for the wagon would be easier than vice versa.
Either way would work I think. The main requirement is to be stubborn enough to fight a recalcitrant project into submission.
'Nil Desperandum Carborundum'
Graeme