I've had been wanting to try this, but never had the opportunity of a slow enough train so as to not blow my little digital cam over. I watched it roll through town at ~20mph and decided to follow it out of the city to get some pics of it's seven units. When I caught up to it, it was rolling along at a snail's pace, so I decided to go for it. Skip to 2:30 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0NT7WQukkA Some slack action of it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRTrPuHSKY8&feature=related
Pretty cool video! Did ya notice how barely a single flange (if any) touched the rails through out the whole train!
Cool video, like what others have said, 2 things really got my attention, the flange on the rails and the rail flex. I wonder if this was exaggerated by the lens of the camera?
Neat video. Have to admit I was a little nervous for your camera though. That was pretty risky for the camera. I also noticed the things mentioned above and also noticed that the vibration caused the camera to shift slightly to the left. Wonder what would have happened if the train had decided to pick up some speed?
Thanks for the comments! The rails actually were flexing that much. At the time of the vid, MOW were in the process of "overhauling" at lest 100 miles of the line, but hadn't got to that section yet. I would like to see how much they flex with the new ties and ballast, just not sure if I want to risk my camera's life again, lol. As for the flanges, I honestly never noticed it. They are clearly not touching the rails, as there shadow can be seen on the inside of the rail. Interesting!
That was a very informative video. I also was surprised at how little contact the tread of the wheelsets had with the track itself! Thanks.
But a few do touch. Where they do appear to touch, it appears that the truck is not "square" or is not tracking properly or wheel treads are not correct. On the 3-4 I saw that did touch, the next axle flange on that side was far from the rail. I was surprised at how few did touch and how clearly 99 percent of them did not touch at all.
I think we need to get the next video on a curve to see how the flanges act then. Will they still glide along, hardly coming in contact with the rail? Will they slide along the inside rail? Will they slide along the outside rail?
