The solid ramps are likely to cause issues with modern locos. Even the sprung ramps can cause modern locos with brake rodding underneath to slow down or lose traction. Some newer locos with bulges underneath to cover axle mounted gears may also have issues. In fact some of these locos even struggle over my uncoupling ramps, e.g. Hornby's Toby chassis. Problems are exacerbated if the ramps are on a gradient as one of mine is.pete12345 wrote:Mine is the later version. Do the solid ramps not interfere with the couplings then? It looks as though they'd need to stick up at least as far as a decoupler to work the treadles which would lead to derailments when locked couplings pass over them. If not, it makes building something simpler!gppsoftware wrote:The ramps were solid and not sprung and as mentioned above, there were two and they were placed off-centre in the track - one operated the 'collect' sequence and the other operated the 'drop off' sequence.
TPO- Getting It Working
Re: TPO- Getting It Working
Re: TPO- Getting It Working
Quite. That's why I liked the thought of conversion to magnetic operation:GeraldH wrote: The solid ramps are likely to cause issues with modern locos. Even the sprung ramps can cause modern locos with brake rodding underneath to slow down or lose traction. Some newer locos with bulges underneath to cover axle mounted gears may also have issues...
First prize goes to whoever can take the Bachmann mk1 TPO and install working and realistic DCC controlled pick up and set down apparatus...pete12345 wrote:...II did wonder about having some form of magnetic operation to avoid the ramps altogether, perhaps with opposite polarity magnets mounted to the levers on the coach and corresponding electromagnets buried under the ballast.
Got to add an anecdote here from a former GPO employee, mainly on the West Coast Postal Euston to Crewe and return. Pick up and set down was fine on a warm summer night, utterly miserable on a foul winter night what with the cold blast coming in and bags that could have collected a fair amount of ice or snow before collection 'arriving' and showering those working the gear.
Re: TPO- Getting It Working
Apart from the underframe and toy pick up gear, the body is not far off a number of LMS diagrams, the closest being a 60 foot lav version but truncated onto a 57 foot chassis. It's on my 'pick one up when you see one cheap enough to go on an Airfix LMS chassis' list.pete12345 wrote:It's the later one based around the standard 57' underframe. As usual, not particularly accurate but looks the part.
Portwilliam - Southwest Scotland in the 1960s, in OO - http://stuart1968.wordpress.com/