Any suggestions for HO gradient?

If you use flex track in one metre lengths or less you'll should subtract distance between rail ends. That could easily be more than 1mm total for a lenght of 5m.

I buy my rail from Peco (UK)(code 75) and ME (USA)(code 70) so I can't lay meter lengths. ;-(

Greg.P. NZ

I was just laid off from a job in the oil industry. An oilfield "barrel" is 42 gallons. Many people probably wrongly believe it to be the same as the 55 gallon drum.

On 2/25/2009 12:41 PM Greg.Procter spake thus:

As usual you miss the point. When I'm working with these units there's no need for conversion, so no problem. You're creating a problem that doesn't exist.

On 2/25/2009 12:52 PM Greg.Procter spake thus:

First for *sustained* flight. Others got their flying machines to go a few feet, then kerplunk!

On 2/25/2009 1:15 PM Greg.Procter spake thus:

Greg: just do us all a gigantic favor and FUCK OFF.

You're modelling full size??? WOW!

I'm modelling New Zealand Railways in 1:24th scale so everything I build has to be scaled one piece at a time. Original drawings (steam era) are all in imperial measurements, my machinery is metric, tooling metric or imperial and materials are either metric or imperial depending on their source.

The point is that scale conversion is a P... in the A...! No, direct measurement from the plans isn't practical, given distortions in copying machine output.

Regards, Greg.P.

Hopefully I'll never actually need to know the size of an oilfield barrel, but thanks for the info!

Greg.P.

No, 1:87.1 or 3.5mm/ft is what NMRA defines for H0. And these two are not exactly the same, but so for all practical purposes. Incidentally, I am building French prototype to NMRA standards. But, European standards association MOROP defines in their NEM standards H0 scale to be 1:87 ... The difference is futile.

In practice the most annoying is that MOROP did not accept the NMRA wheelset dimensions in relation to switch points. NEM adheres to a back-to- back distance for wheelsets of 14.3 mm, while NMRA defines a 'check gauge G' from inside one flange to the outside of the other of 15.3 mm. That cannot easily be measured by means of a caliper, so NMRA sells a Gage for that. Although all dimensions of rail and switches, turnouts, are virtually the same, the misunderstanding about the required wheelset dimensions remain. Fortunately the RP25 is more widely used here too. Some makes, like ROCO, only give problems with Shinohara code 70. Not with handlaid code 70 or PECO code 83.

Richard Pearce flew around 2 1/2 miles from a field surrounded by 6-10' high hedges, over a 100+ deep gorge, turned 180 degrees and returned to the same field, but crashed onto the top of the field. His aim was to build a practical transport machine and he considered he had failed. He was also at that point bankrupt and therefore did not claim a "first". The Wright Bros flew 130 odd feet at a height barely above ground after a rail launch by catapault. Richard Pearse made his multiple flights at the beginning of 1903. There were others around the world who may have prior claims. Continually shouting that the Wrights made the first flight does not make it so.

Regards, Greg.P.

After you.

Regards, Greg.P.

Greg,

Get yourself a decent CAD program :-) I use AutoCAD Lite and can accept full size drawing dimensions for the drawing in Imperial or Metric, then print out in whatever scale I want. I can also dimension the drawings in whatever scale I want, metric or Imperial. In fact, you can show primary and secondary units in dimensions so that you can show both imperial and metric at the same time to suit whatever system you need at any time :-)

Jim.

No one here in seppo-land says "contra-beaut" - kun-TRIB-ute is the common pronounciation.

PS - do you guys spell it countribute, or maybe countriboutte?

Colour it how you will.

Hi Jim,

I already do that. However, I have to start, either from original blueprints, drawings, or physical field measurements and then input that data into my CAD program. (must buy Autocad LT) Original blueprints etc are already scaled to fit on the original draftsman's board, "scale drawings" here are commonly 1:64 and field measurements are best taken in the system that they were built in. (it's easier to measure a 9' wheelbase in feet than 2743.2mm in metrics)

Regards, Greg.P.

Hey, you get it right! (I retract my comment)

My point (although I chose a wrong example) is that if you don't understand your language you're going to say stupid things. The base of "contribute" is "tribute". Knowing that gives you the meaning of the prefixed word and the pronounciation.

" ... or less" as I wrote.

The check gage is indeed one of the sort of silly things to meaure as it is more valid towards what track is to be measured by. It ends up being directly the number that is needed to clear a point or other obstruction in the trackwork so it is indeed a viable number to meet. If you have a thin flange, and you do the back to back dimension, you can fail that critical check gage value in reality but still meet the specs of the standard. Thus with the NEMA standard, I'd have to pull the point back further from the stock rail to insure that I don't pick at the points while the NMRA standard tells me exactly where I can go with the spacing of the points as the wheel will never get under that 15.3mm spec. Maybe only a mm but the spacing between a point and the stock rail is already way too large compared to the relationships of the prototype.

-- Bob May

rmay at nethere.com http: slash /nav.to slash bobmay http: slash /bobmay dot astronomy.net

So you're not actually into scale modelling - fair enough, it's your hobby!

Umm, the NMRA thought that extra .1 was worth mentioning! Tell them your theory.

The distance between flange back and opposing flange face is the important dimension for wheelsets. Everything else, other than fl.depth and tread width stems from that dimension.

It's very annoying that NEM did not go straight to NMRA compatibility, but manufacturers generally wish to maintain compatibility with their past products in that customers may well have layouts using turnouts that were designed for original wheelsets. I upgrade older rolling stock wheels and operate them over a variety of modern turnouts and self laid code 70-75 turnouts. I've used code 100 track and turnouts in hidden staging areas.

Greg.P.

Point taken, my mistake.

Regards, Greg.P.