That was the idea - there are some good videos on YouTube that I showed to manufacturer sales people to explain what I was talking about. It was difficult to articulate the sort of flexible look that we are looking for! [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmlHgyf60uY"]YouTube - Rail Train[/ame] [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW-A-0LwWOk"]YouTube - UP 2677 rail train north #2[/ame] Research on the cars is in earnest now - so any help would be appreciated. We are fairly short of pictures of the empty decks, the rail rollers and bunkheads, and the chassis layout of brake reservoirs etc. Also, we need advice on which would be the most popular deck type, as there are a number of different styles around, as these seem to be redundant flatcars given an MoW use. Have not got a cost for this yet - we need to get the ribbon rail look right first. We will be doing this as part ot a ribbon car kit, but may sell separately if there is demand. Most of the old rail I have seen on other people's layouts is de-tied metal rail painted to look rusty. This has a better look than our ribbon, which is inevitably coarser because of its main function. Thanks for the help. Peter N Scale Kits
Rail Train I've posted some photos taken of the UP (exSP) rail train Kelly Cruise and I spotted outside of Bakersfield in January 2005 in the railfan section here: http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?p=387908&posted=1#post387908 Hope these help Peter!
Just a thought about suitable rail. Roco make a very flexible, almost limp flexible track, item 22200. It is only 730mm lomg though. http://www.modellbahn-kramm.com/E/nummern.cfm?nid=6634
Nice! I suppose we'd need to have DC and DCC compatible units for this, too. I want an NTrak recommended practice pamphlet, too. Seriously, it seems like towing ribbon rail around curves on a 1:1 road could potentially beat the aitch-ee-double-hockey-sticks out of the trackwork.
Back at the NMRA National Convention in St. Louis in 2001 a guy was running such a train on the NTRAK layout. It blew me away as I watched it snake across my modules. There is an article in the Feb 2002 Railmodel Journal about it.
I think I have some photographs I can send your way. I'll look and see. As for cars to use, I would suggest offering the just the rail and the bulkheads for use on customer supplied flatcars. I know the Frisco used a several different types of flatcars in this service... I've seen photos of 53' GSC flatcars like Walthers and Athearn have produced, and USRA style 42'6" flatcars like the Red Caboose model. Paul
Rail is progressing That would be very helpful - and thanks to all of the folks who have contributed so far. A good point - we will look at this suggestion. We have now done a number of runs of the ribbon rail prototypes - and have sent some to Alan Curtis for photographs which I hope can be posted here for comments. We will be working on this over the next month, and let people know how things go. Peter N Scale Kits www.nscalekits.com
Further progress on the welded rail train cars As a follow on from this, I forgot to post the pictures of the profile. Apologies to Alan Curtis who took the pictures some time ago - and are now shown below However, this material is a bit too 'bendy' and the rail stability could be improved, without too much of a combined spring effect of a number of lines of rail on the cars. We have managed to source another material and had a very good quote last week, which we will be exploring immediately. To look at all convincing you would need a number of lines of rail, even if all the racks were not full. Even though the plastic rail will be quite cheap per yard, costs will mount up in buying buying 100 yards. After some trialling we think that the racks will need slight modification from the 1:1 scale to have small lips on each of the rack runners, typically five to eight on each rack, to keep the plastic 'rail' in place, as the train snakes around bends. We are taking this further, and we will let people know when things are clearer. Peter Harris N Scale Kits www.nscalekits.com
I too would be interested as well... The Secret Places Sub may have a rail replacement project in the future... That, and Atlas needs to release a Trainman series 50' flat in D&RGW that I could get a dozen of....
Looking good. I just hope the market will support your efforts. I will definitely be in line when these hit the shelves.
Up in the northeast we see another use for the rail trains - REMOVING railroads. One of the most interesting things I've ever seen is watching Conrail lift the second main track of the Erie Lackawanna back in about 1990 - winding it up on the rail train, joint bars, bolts and all - 115# jointed, I think, by the quarter-mile strip. I got photos of the operation if anybody wants pictures of their equipment - it can be scanned but it won't be the resolution of what's already posted. Conrail's welding plant at Lucknow (Harrisburg) processed the used rails, cropping them, welding them, and putting them right back out again. So the point of that is that some of your welded rail won't look new, or all the same size, or even be all welded! I'll never forget being held up at a grade crossing while the TRACK went by....
Update? Has anyone heard how this project is progressing? I think a welded rail train would look great in N ...
Welded Rail progress We have tooled the rail bunks for the welded rail, and the pre production bunks look good. They are made to fit on a wide range of different flat cars, including other available flat cars, as well as our own 60' car. We are waiting the tooling for the rail itself now. We have 3 different styles of bunks so far SP/UP, BNSF and a generic. We have worked with a plastic manufacturer to get the right grade of plastic, so that is both stiff in the vertical plane and flexible around 9" radius curves without taking cars off the road through whip lash. Finally we had to get the profile right, the rail profile looks good, and will stand up on the bunks. We are about to get the tooling back, and hope to have the pre production rail by mid March. It has taken much more time than we thought [especially getting the rail material and profile right], but I will let folks know of progress here. Peter Peter Harris N Scale Kits N Scale Kits
Peter, thanks for the update! I am encouraged to hear that the project is moving forward...I feared that it would be such a challenge that it never made it past the drawing board. But it sounds like you are going to great lengths (no pun intended) to ensure that it works well in its given environs. Just think, you'll be the FIRST n-scale manufacturer to produce a flat car load that is four feet long! (or 8 1/2 feet, or whatever it ends up being) I bet Hay Bros will be jealous... :-D
Peter, Do you have any pictures of the rail bunks or are you hoping to have them back sometime this month. The rail looks really could and can't wait to get my hands on some of the rail and bunks. Are you guys also going to produce something like they have at the end of the welded rail trains, for laying out the track. Cody
