08-14-2009, 07:40 AM
Hi there Tom,
You load LOOKS absolutely terrific but ( and I am sorry to nit pick here as it is not my nature... honest!) but I think the amount of steel you have in the wagons would make them way over their prototype load. Steel is very dense and most flat cars only have a few slabs of steel to keep within the weight limits of the vehicle and hence they look to the casual observer, very much underloaded.
Overloading would not only press hard on the springs but also crystallize the body of the vehicle holding it through the excess weight as I remember reading in MR many years ago. It is your railway and living in Australia as I do, I am unlikely to see it in person but in the interests of an "authentic" load that you are going to great lengths to replicate, can you consider thinning it down a bit so the vehicle is not quite so "full"?
Most of my stuff is also not "true to prototype" (containers and CPRail gondolas behind steam etc for example and my stuff is nowhere near as detailed as yours) but it is my railway as is yours so by all means feel free to ignore my comments. Check by observation (something I cannot do in person for my layout anyway with my Canadian interests) and you can verify what I have said about the loading. In my own defence, I gradually would like to have several lots of rollingstock for several different eras on the same base layout and get a bit more authentic about it but that is a few years off yet! That is my aim anyway and I may never fully get there but I am still having fun and the acquisitions are slow at the moment.
What you have shown Tom is that you are a good, no... excellent ... craftsman and what you have done captures the "feel" very effectively... any pics of the rest of your layout? Mine is <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.xdford.digitalzones.com..">www.xdford.digitalzones.com..</a><!-- w -->. I hope you do take this in the spirit that is intended,
Regards
Trevor
You load LOOKS absolutely terrific but ( and I am sorry to nit pick here as it is not my nature... honest!) but I think the amount of steel you have in the wagons would make them way over their prototype load. Steel is very dense and most flat cars only have a few slabs of steel to keep within the weight limits of the vehicle and hence they look to the casual observer, very much underloaded.
Overloading would not only press hard on the springs but also crystallize the body of the vehicle holding it through the excess weight as I remember reading in MR many years ago. It is your railway and living in Australia as I do, I am unlikely to see it in person but in the interests of an "authentic" load that you are going to great lengths to replicate, can you consider thinning it down a bit so the vehicle is not quite so "full"?
Most of my stuff is also not "true to prototype" (containers and CPRail gondolas behind steam etc for example and my stuff is nowhere near as detailed as yours) but it is my railway as is yours so by all means feel free to ignore my comments. Check by observation (something I cannot do in person for my layout anyway with my Canadian interests) and you can verify what I have said about the loading. In my own defence, I gradually would like to have several lots of rollingstock for several different eras on the same base layout and get a bit more authentic about it but that is a few years off yet! That is my aim anyway and I may never fully get there but I am still having fun and the acquisitions are slow at the moment.
What you have shown Tom is that you are a good, no... excellent ... craftsman and what you have done captures the "feel" very effectively... any pics of the rest of your layout? Mine is <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.xdford.digitalzones.com..">www.xdford.digitalzones.com..</a><!-- w -->. I hope you do take this in the spirit that is intended,
Regards
Trevor