Quote from: calenelson on November 30, 2009, 02:27:59 PM
....you may notice below that this Loco is HUGE!!!!  He dwarfs a LGB Box Car, and our HLW Mack...not sure where scale will come in to play here, but if it runs as nice as it looks-Bachmann has a winner.
..
Cale

I suppose as Thomas is a standard gauge loco running on 45mm gauge track, the scale ought to be 1/32nd or 10mm to the foot?

Andy

Quote from: Alex Butner on September 21, 2009, 07:24:08 AM
Wouldn't the configuration of a British steam locomotive be similar to a Heisler?

Well, as I understand it, the cylinders on a Heisler are at right angles to the loco and in opposition to each other.

On an inside cylindered British loco, the cylinder(s) are in line with the loco ie point front to rear, parallel with the boiler, and if there are more than one, are side by side, between the loco frames.

Also on British steam locos the inside valve gear is usually of the Stephenson type, although Joy valve gear has also been used esp on the former London & NW Rly. Sir Nigel Gresley used conjugated valve gear on his V2 class 3 cylinder locos and the sole 3-cylinder 8P Class Pacific 'Duke of Gloucester' uses British Caprotti valve gear.

So plenty of variations here!

btw - there is a 'real' Thomas still extant on the Nene Valley Railway, near Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, UK. It was named by the Rev W Awdry (who I met on a couple of occasions). It is an 0-6-0 but with outside cylinders unlike the Thomas in the books and was manufactured by the Hudswell Clarke loco company in 1947.

There's a picture of the Revd naming Thomas on the nene Valley Railway's website( http://www.nvr.org.uk/thomas/):

http://www.nvr.org.uk/thomas/tbsc01.jpg

You can see the outside cylinders in this picture (below), also the cutouts under the side tanks to access various bits under the boiler, but otherwise pretty near to the 'real thing'!

http://www.nvr.org.uk/images/Thomas.jpg

Quote from: Joe Satnik on September 19, 2009, 06:20:38 PM
Dear Andy,
Nice diagram.  What program did you use to generate it?
How wide and long is the green tabletop shown?
..
Joe Satnik

Thanks Joe - I used CorelDraw! v9 using a 12mm to the foot grid .

The green area is scaled at 13' x 5' to the edges but I don't believe this would give adequate clearance to add the outer oval and stay within the 14' x 6' specified.

Hope this helps?

Andy

Just as an exercise I've had a go at drawing up possible layouts using the dimensions you've given, without cutting the curves (I reckon it is possible to construct an offset '8' figure but you may still have to cut the straights either side of the crossing to fit), see below:



Just to see how much room the standard 8 takes up I drew that first and then extended it by adding a passing siding at one end - you can purchase Bachmann turnouts separately - with the addition of some isolators you might just be able to fit two short trains on the layout and run them alternately (depends on the lengths of your locomotives and stock of course...)

Sadly, in this configuration, this doesn't give you any room to place the outer oval unless you can widen the board by say 12"?

But an interesting exercise in geometry...

Best regards

Andy

Quote from: bnsonger47 on August 12, 2009, 08:36:05 AM
You write well, model well and do a great job setting up your own photos.

Thanks, again, for sharing your experience and expertise.

Byron

Kevin

I must agree with Byron on this.  :thumbsup:

And great photos of the 4-4-0 - I had to look twice to make sure it was the same locomotive. Maybe will try a similar exercise on my SPC mogul. I had been toying with the idea of replacing the stack with a straight stovepipe but your piccie has cinched it for me - it really looks the biz!

btw I'd be interested to know what camera you use to take the photos and if any special lens to get the depth of field?

Keep up the great work!

Regards

Andy

Thanks Joe

I had a look and it is both relevant and helpful

I've also had an email from another collector who has come across this too - so I'm not alone 

Best Regards

Andy

Hope you don't mind me asking this here but I recently bought a job lot of G items, which included a box of Bachmann track.

But when I came to put it all together, I noticed that six of the curves had the fishplate/joiners on the opposite rail. 

On looking further, it seems that this track doesn't have the Bachmann wording on the underside but, apart from the opposite joiners, looks exactly the same. 

Any ideas who might have produced it?

Thanks

AndyB

Thanks Kevin - I'll go see what they got

regards

Andy

I take your point about the super low cost of the sets, Bill and the fact that the loco and trucks are available as separates (at higher individual cost of course). (you know there's a 'but' coming...)

I still think Bachmann may be missing a trick (read 'marketing opportunity') here - I'm sure I'm not the only one who would like to purchase a train set without the track or power pack- in my case because I need/desire the train but not the rest.

And living as I do in the UK and not having a G gauge supplier in town means usually buying on the internet (usually from the US) and subsequently the weight/postage/shipping charge has to be watched carefully (esp with £-$ currency exchange rates recently).

For example - Ray at 'The Favourite Spot' (where I frequently shopped) went through a phase of selling trackless sets (The Lionel O scale 'Polar Express' was an example - Loco and coaches only) - I'm sure he wouldn't have bothered if there wasn't a potential market for this.

If one already has a layout using say LGB or Aristocraft or other non-Bachmann track, who wouldn't be tempted by a sensibly priced Davenport and three truck train pack to add to the layout? (by 'sensibly priced', I mean of course a substantial discount on buying the four items together.

It doesn't have to be restricted to the Davenport of course... Thomas and Annie and Clarabel would be another example of a favourite Loco/train combi...

Any thoughts on  this Mr Bach-man?

Thanks for coming back Bill -

I think my friend was actually saying that my #14 was incorrect as a model in that the real 12":1ft Baldwin #14 actually had Walschaerts valve gear (rather than Stephensons) and so my model doesn't follow the prototype.

I suppose one way around this would be to acquire an unlettered Annie with Walschaerts and swap the chassis over

I'm assuming that the WP&YR Annies are otherwise correct as modelled, being as I understand it, ex ET&WNC locos? or were there modifications carried out after they transferred?

"material tourism" - that's a great phrase, Udo!  - but sadly it's so true ...

Thanks Bruce, had a look but it seems mine has gone AWOL

Is it something easily replaced? or perhaps substituted?

A

I managed to pick up a Pardee & Curtin Climax on ebay recently in very good little-run condition for £150 - apparently a good price for the UK? It goes very nicely with my Pardee Shay.

While looking for photos of the real thing on the Internet, I came across a reference (but no photo) to a Climax that was apparently owned by the Linville River Railway.

Is the Bachmann Climax close enough to be a passable rendering of the Linville Climax? If so can anyne tell me what colour the loco should be painted (unless black of course...  ) and what the lettering would have looked like...

also a closer look at my Climax reveals a series of 'hooks' running along the left hand footplate. Can anyone tell me what these were for? Perhaps I have a pipe or cable missing?

Thanks in anticipation,

Andy

Thanks

Kevin, where did you get the brake wheel and detailing from?

Looks really cool!

Andy

a question re the White Pass Annies - a friend of mine looked at mine (#14 from a set btw) and said it should have Walschaerts valve gear rather than the simplified (Stephenson?) type that mine has. Is this true?

Andy