How to wreck a train, then fix it..

[rrinker]

Perhaps it seems to be harder than it ought to be because many still labor under the misconception that the flanges are what keeps the train on the track. Richard Hammond (Hampster on Top Gear) has his own show called Engineering Connections which may or may not be available in your area (it's a BBC show), and on the last episode of the latest series, he covers the bullet trains of Japan. In one rather telling demonstration, he has a slope of G gauge track with a 180 degree turn in it, a J shape. First go, he has s simple metal cylinder. Naturally it wobbles all over and just rolls right off the bottom. Next he rolls down a piece shaped like a pair of cones connected at their bases, with the big part in the middle. AN exaggeration of the shape of actual railroad wheels. This odd bit rolsl down the hilla dn neatly executes the turn. No flanges.

--Randy