Bit of fun .... how fast & how ?

I suspect Arnold got it wrong. The train that reached that speed was a standard Budd RDC with its transmission disabled, a streamlined fibreglass nose added and a couple of turbojets on the roof.

Turbotrain was a generic name given to different types of gas turbine multiple units, some of which were second hand Trans Europe Express.

I believe one of the CN United Aircraft Turbo Trains, as modelled by Rapido, reached 167 mph on an early test run on the Montreal-Toronto line. I assume they found a long, straight stretch with no level crossings, or else they closed off the level crossings. In passenger service, speed was limited to 95 mph because of track and wheel limitations and superelevation that had to accommodate slow freights. Maximum speed is still 95 mph with 30-year-old tilting LRC cars.

The suggestion of TGV-style high speed trains on a separate alignment raises its head every few years, but never gets off the ground. There simply isn't the market, even between Canada's two largest cities, which are 330 miles apart with no other major cities in between.

24v for a start

: >

: > Suggestions on how to make the fastest 'OO' model ? : : 24v for a start

But will it manage the 'scale mile' needed for any record attempt, or will it turn it's self into a mobile smoke/stink bomb! :~o

The fastest HO model ever was Athearn's rubber-band drive Plymouth=20 diesel, which was clocked at about 400 smph (scale miles per hour). That =

was back in the early 60s IIRC. I say "about" because it was done with a =

stop watch, not electronic gear.

Rubber band drive? The rubber band was used in place of worm gear=20 drive.... worked, sort of. ;-)

I personally have clocked Athearn RDC cars at over 200 scale mph

cheers, wolf k.

No ,I can't be the only one who fastened a Jetex Rocket motor to an item of rolling stock partly inspired by the jet powered railcar mentioned elsewhere in the thread. Nearest item was a Tri-ang Transcontinental coach that was a present from a good intentioned relative but never really went with the Princes Royal or EM2. This shifted but wasn't really supersonic due to friction of the crude axles. I had also been given a Hornby Dublo 3 rail tinplate mineral wago nWith its metal wheels and axle this had no home on a Tri-ang train set but was a good chassis for the Jetex, unlike the coach it did not melt. Went fast but even with the help of some friends we did not have enough straight track between us . Tri-ang did of course have that propellor driven thing nicknamed Stupor car by the old boy in the toy /model shop in Bideford. Obtained one sometime and did run it overvoltage but it did not last long. G.Harman

Two stories I think I've already recounted here:

- At our annual exhibition a light-hearted competition for dragster locos went on for several years. I took a Hornby 0-4-0T, the one which looked a bit Germanic, and built a mechanisim around a Mabushi high- performance slot-car motor an 3:1 slotcar gears. I tried it both with 4 wheels coupled and as an 0-2-2. over the HO scale quarter mile the 0-4-0 accelerated fastest but the top speed peaked at perhaps

2/3rds of the distance. as an 0-2-2 there was extreme wheelspin but it continued to accelerate for the full distance so it reached the end in a shorter elapsed time. (c 4 seconds. Sad to say my loco was beaten by a slot-car dragster with a pickup bogie mounted in place of the slot-car guide and foam dragster wheels running on the baseboard.

- Another year at the exhibition we had a huge dog-bone layout with circa 6' radius turnarounds and very long straights between. The German ICE had recently achieved 406km/hr and a friend brought along a Fleischmann model. I ran the model full out on the straights and eased it on the curves. We timed it around the circuit at just over

380 scale km/hr. I got quite an ear-bashing from several "experts" about ecessive/toy train speeds. We repeated the show a number of times. Each time the majority of the public ended up in front of our layout with almost no-one at the other layouts. I followed up each time with a German branch-line train at a scale 45 km/hr which sent almost the entire public back to the other layouts.

Greg.P.