I would speculate that the taper may have to be greater than protoype because the radius is tighter proportionally. Or the distance between the rails needs to be a little greater which explains why one might want to spread the gauge a little on curves. Very interesting. Ben Trousdale
--- In [email protected], "Walter Jopke" <sscale@...> wrote: > > Very nice analysis. What this means for scale trackage, of course, is the > need for much more attention to detail to the track and wheel gauges. If we > put down the track such that the gauge is too tight (or the wheels too far > apart) - that is, that the flanges are pinched against the rail - there is > no opportunity for the wheels to ride up on the bevels (they are already > fully at the highest radius on BOTH sides) and hence the opportunity for a > de-rail. > > > > I thought about this some more before hitting "send". I have paid very > little attention to wheel profile standards. I went and looked at both a > set of American Models and S Helper Service "scale" wheels. With the naked > eye, I could see the bevel on the wheels but just barely. How do these > really compare to the prototype? Given the weights of our scale rolling > stock and motive power, I am wondering if our wheel profiles are more for > show than function and we really do depend on the flanges to keep everything > "off the ground"? > > > > An interesting experiment comes to mind. Take a set of wheels and grind the > flanges away. Run a freight car equipped with these wheels on a well gauged > piece of straight track. Will the car stay on the rail? Try the same on a > very wide radius curve (scaled down prototype mainline curve). > > > > Walt > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
