Re: Scale Weights
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Paul Hillman
So basically all model cars should weigh about the same according to length? That's why a 40 ft flatcar would weigh the same as a 40 ft boxcar? Maybe THAT's the reason that one wood, kit-built boxcar I had kept derailing regardless of changing trucks and fine-tuning all surfaces. I wasn't too closely concerned about car weights at that time.
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I would still assume though that the scaling of weight per prototype weight is not wrong, just impractical. Paul Hillman
----- Original Message -----
From: timboconnor@comcast.net<mailto:timboconnor@comcast.net> To: STMFC@yahoogroups.com<mailto:STMFC@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Thursday, August 18, 2005 11:55 AM Subject: [STMFC] Re: Scale Weights Paul, model trains do not perform like real trains. For one example, the weight of the car on the rail is distributed over an area larger by a factor of 87.1. (The surface area of contact between the wheel and rail only changes in 2 dimensions as you scale down.) Also, our curvature is usually about 10 times as sharp as you'd find on a prototype. If you put 1 oz cars with 5 oz cars in a train and run it up a 3% grade with 40 degree curves, then don't be surprised when you get "stringlining" of cars in the middle of the train. There must be a FAQ out there somewhere... try the LDSIG mailing list. Tim O'Connor Yahoo! Groups Links
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