Hatfield Shed wrote: ↑Mon Feb 27, 2023 8:33 pm
....The quoted British dimensions are significantly in error. There were variations between the various private companies, but by the grouping in 1923 maximum height was generally between 13' and 13'6", maximum width 9'.
.....
Hello Hatfield Shed
Thanks for elucidating the loading gauge height and width from a practical perspective.
I always thought that around 13 feet was the limit for British trains, but how could I not quote a legitimate source.
Anyway that will add more interest and insight to the Märklin forum.
I will check the model when I have one (apparently late 2023), and will do a review keeping in mind your suggestions about the boiler dimensions and other matters.
Is it just me or is there too much space between the words 'flying' and 'scotsman' on the nameplate? At least they appear to have the unorthodox 'G' in 'flying' correct.
Hatfield Shed wrote: ↑Mon Feb 27, 2023 8:33 pm
The quoted British dimensions are significantly in error. There were variations between the various private companies, but by the grouping in 1923 maximum height was generally between 13' and 13'6", maximum width 9'.
But for being away from home until yesterday, without my usual convenient means of posting a reply, I had intended to make much the same comment. Largest UK figures I've ever heard were 13'9" extreme height on Midland main line, and permissible body widths (at carriage waist height only) of 9' 3" or so on various main lines. In many cases secondary or branch lines had tighter restrictions, and some pre-group companies such as the GER and NBR had paid only to build structures giving a bit less than the "usual" 13' x 9' overall clearance.
I'm sure that experience of continental passenger train journeys tells me that vehicles are not only taller but wider too there, so that earlier quoted narrow dimension cannot be right.
Most subjects, models and techniques covered in this thread are now listed in various categories on page1
Dec. 2018: Almost all images that disappeared from my own thread following loss of free remote hosting are now restored.
Lost track of this thread!
Width of C20th West European mainland stock is circa 10', so a 3.5mm/ft model is 35mm wide, and a little 'stretch' on the width dimension has always been considered acceptable in RTR HO, to pack in such detail as large outside cylinders with enough clearance for nearby swinging carrying wheels, enabling the models to run on vastly underscale curves. It is the head on view of large outside cylinder steam locos that 'rumbles' HO pretentions, true scale they ain't. (D+E traction was typically closer to true scale, even the lovely Swiss Krokodil model of circa 1960 was pretty good despite outside rod drive, and modern technique means all is well for post steam traction, and I believe this would be largely true for UK D+E in HO.)
The OO compromise enables the UK model to have a 36mm width, and thus HO mechanism technique would fit, for the single compromise of underscale gauge, and the small radius curves of HO could be used.
Having the benefit of continental cousins with model railways, it was always interesting to compare HO with my OO kit builds. ( It would be 2000 before I had a RTR OO model - Bachmann's WD, LNER O7 - which was of HO 'baseline standard' to be considered an acceptable model.) In the meantime cousin Kees had become enthused by P87 - true scale HO and thus equivalent to P4 - with the same requirement for scale minimum radii, in particular if an outside cylinder steam model was built true scale. This came as something of a shock...
