The three Hornby Thomas locos we have all seem to rocket around the track at the maximum throttle speed, while my children consider the Bachmann class 24 diesel to be rather slow. So I have estimated the scale speeds being achieved:
Gordon 270km/h Percy 250km/h Thomas 190km/h
Bachmann class 24: 115 km/h
Do proper (faceless!) steam engines from Hornby or Bachmann also have such silly top speeds? What would have been realistic values for the prototypes of these engines?
Mark Thornton
WTF is a "km/h"?
A unit of speed that has been taught in schools for decades. It is the appropriate unit to use with my children (and also for me and even my long retired father). The figures in mph are:
Gordon 170 Percy 160 Thomas 120
Class24 70
Mark Thornton
Must admit to not being familiar with that particular one.
Suggest kph or mph are more universaly known and understood
On 18/12/2004 17:30, Mark Thornton wrote,
Well, I was still at school two decades ago, and not a mention was made of km/h. It does seem pretty pointless to teach it when for most kids the only speeds they'll need to know on leaving school are all in mph. Mind you, if they think road signs and speedometers should be regarded as being in km/h, then the country will be a safer place!
Anyway, to answer the original question, yes, bog standard "old generation" Hornby locos have silly top speeds. I've just been running in a Hornby Hymek, and have come back to my computer to investigate High Level Kits mechanisms to slow it down! Newer locos such as the 50 and West Country are more realistic, and I guess gradually the range will be updated. Ironically, an even older Hymek with the double worm drive runs nice and slowly!
...
Well I did guess ...
... but witut being ruder than I already have ben I have no conception of what metric speeds mean in teh real world ... that is how to apply them, the other stuff's OK, 1 meter approx = 1 yard, 1 Kg approx just over 2.2 lbs etc but speed ... you could have been talking Martian for all I know.
Thanks, FWIW I once got Hogwarts castle up to 190 ... before it nose dived of the end of the table :-(
"Universal" you have to be joking. km/h is the correct abbreviation which would be understood in the majority of the world (everywhere where the metric system is in full use).
Sticky keyboard (*) ... sorry.
(*) Hot chocolate!!!
On 18/12/2004 18:11, Chris Wilson wrote,
I'm glad you clarified that :-)
km/h is the SI standard, consistent with other units such as m/s.
How many miles/litre does your car get?
At least the Canadian government went all the way and forced conversion of speeds and distances to metric in 1977, although that puts us at odds with our 10x larger neighbour to the south. It will be interesting to see what happens when Ireland goes metric.
..
Sure :-)
Assuming they speak english there, here for example its K/T (kilometer i timme) and kilometer is pronounced shilometer, and then there's the added joy of here there is a metric Mile or Mil one swedish Mil is 10 kilometers and most people use mil rather than kilometers so 900 km is 90 mil. Beowulf
Dear Chris 30mph=50kph c50mph=90kph 60mph=100kph 70kmh=113 kph these are what I use when returning to th UK for safe driving and fast translation of my metric speedo! Beowulf
Sweden still hasn't got over the switch from driving on the left. ;-)
In a Swedish movie set in the 1950s, a Morris Minor was driving on the left, but it had left-hand drive!
Gordon 270km/h Percy 250km/h Thomas 190km/h
Bachmann class 24: 115 km/h
Do proper (faceless!) steam engines from Hornby or Bachmann also have such silly top speeds? What would have been realistic values for the prototypes of these engines?
Mark
Give us a clue in English and I could hazzard more of a guess as to what your speeds are. However, Gordon was based on the LNER A1 or A3 so Top speed would have been somewhere around 105mph depending on the driver ! (I know, some will say more, and the usual average was probably only 80-90mph)
Percy I think was based on a saddle tank like a L&Y Pug (although not one of these I fear) and Thomas on a Tank engine from Tilbury? area. Both these would probably be limited to somewhere between 30-40mph at a guess again...
A class 24 or 25 would have a top speed of approx 75 mph.
Hope this helps and I'm not too far out with the guestimations.
Andy
The UK metric conversion process is a long running farce. Have you never driven elsewhere in Europe?
Mark Thornton
No, even where English is not the native language km/h is still the correct abbreviation. I don't know what happens where a different alphabet is used or where ideographic characters are used.
No, I think you will find metres and seconds are standard, km/h is something you have chosen to derive. The SI unit of velocity is ms-1 where
-1 is superscript
These days most of us have holidays abroad, which in most cases will mean metric speed limits. We also have relatives in Italy, France, Portugal, Australia and Argentina (that I know of). Professionally I have always used the metric system; even my father did for most of his working life.
In model rail we have such bizarre mixtures as scales 4mm/ft, with rails
0.1" high spaced 16.5mm apart. In estimating the speed of the models, metres/second (m/s) was a very suitable unit.Mark Thornton
In general, BR steam locos had no formal speed limits for each class. What mattered was the line speed limit. Small shunting locos would probably travel at 15 to 20 mph maximum, although an LMS Jinty 0-6-0 tank or a GWR Pannier tank on passenger duty might reach 50 mph or more with a light load on favourable gradients. Most large freight locos would probably do no more than 45 to 50 mph, with the exception of the BR Class 9F 2-10-0's, which could do much faster - one apparently exceeded 90 mph after taking over an ECML express that had failed.
Bevan .
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