A TV treat for those of us who never grew up (everyone on here from what I can see). BBC2 at 8:00 tomorrow night James May makes another attempt at the world's longest model railway when he attempts to run three British and three German OO gauge trains in the ten miles from Bideford to Barnstaple in Devon.
One of the engines is a Flying Scotsman with "Realistic chuffing sound" and another is a prototype powered by a hydrogen power cell. One of the German trains is powered by sauerkraut. The Canadian GP coverage on BBC1 finishes at 8:15, and with the usual post race interviews the race itself should be over well in time to catch the whole of May's attempt so no excuses, an early dinner and set yourselves up for a great evenings TV.
And there ain't much of that these days.
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>>an early dinner and set yourselves up for a great evenings TV.
Suggestions as to how I convince SWMBO?
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Suggestions as to how I convince SWMBO?
Come on be a man and tell her your having one, Or like me buy bits of track each other week and hey presto look love what i built.!!
oo Hornby and on 6ft 3 bed of chipboard at 5ft wide just nicely fits behind sofa without touching and my lad loves it. Ho and me of course.!!
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I enjoyed his last attempt to do this despite the failure of the project
I have booked a seat on the sofa for this tomorrow and I am looking forward to it with anticipation.
Thanks for the prompt to see it.
As always
Mark
Last edited by: Mark on Sat 11 Jun 11 at 15:00
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This time he's racing the German team, who are the guys who run the world's biggest train set:-
www.miniatur-wunderland.com/exhibit/multimedia/foto/galerie/overview/
some photos from this years's event here:- caution link to model railway site ;-)
tinyurl.com/6382hxq
Last edited by: spamcan61 on Sat 11 Jun 11 at 15:06
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I had a Hornby LMS steam engine which had a 'realistic chuffing sound' - made by a little abrasive tag on an axle which scraped against the chassis every time the wheel turned round.
Simple, but effective - the faster the loco went, the quicker it chuffed.
But the best bit was Synchrosmoke.
Anyone remember that?
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I had a shunter with this. Trouble was it more than doubled the power requirements and as a result, unless the track connections were tip top, the engine kept loosing power.
Looked super when it worked, but eventually we gave up and removed the smoke generator and peripherals.
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I was going to mention that cheap but fairly effective mechanism; these days your full-on electronic sound effects add best part of a hundred quid to the cost of a model train. The synchrosmoke thing makes a comeback every few years. The Germans have of course engineered a much more effective system:-
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UX7WtOqZcTY
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A wisp or two of proper, British, stiff upper lip, we won the war Synchrosmoke in this video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SokQgu5i8Hw
Last edited by: Iffy on Sat 11 Jun 11 at 19:47
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Whatever happened to the (OO gauge?) Hornby steam engine introduced a few years ago. IIRC it had a flash boiler powered by current picked up from the rails. It drew a fair few amps from what I remember.
Our local model engineering society has a permanent set-up and give passenger carrying rides over several hundred yards of track. They've a diesel loco that's actually battery powered, electric, but it's got the best imitation sound I've ever heard. I had to ask what was driving it.
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>> Whatever happened to the (OO gauge?) Hornby steam engine introduced a few years ago. IIRC
>> it had a flash boiler powered by current picked up from the rails. It drew
>> a fair few amps from what I remember.
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I think Hornby realised that there was nowhere further to go with it in marketing terms; it did use higher current & voltage than the normal stuff, hence wasn't directly compatible with it. Fantastic achievement to actually get a complex product like that to market in the first place, particularly in this age of 'elf and safety. Should think it would be fun to operate on a decent size garden railway where it can stretch its legs.
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Still watching the damn F1 :/ I'll have to watch JM's railway on iPlayer, at least I know the result now! ;)
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He is a star that Mr. May. All took place not many miles from me.
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Just watched it - very good, very enjoyable...
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Might download it to watch in a few weeks on Rhodes on the phone. Already downloaded Hammond. Watched the F1 episode of that and I enjoyed it.
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Right now lets have a scalextric track on Silverstone.!
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James May's Railway - Part 2 - bathtub tom
