Sliding Axles – A Reprise
Following my last post on sliding axles, I put the coach through its paces last weekend when Portchullin visited the Netherlands.
We I am pleased to say we did not have any bother with road holding it at all, even on Portchullin’s famously rubbish track – as long as you wait to the end of this clip you will see the proof of this. The axle has about 1mm play on the centre axle – 1/2mm either way – and this proved to be more than enough for the 4 foot curves on the layout. We did find it would be defeated by the rather tighter curves on Horselunges which was nearby but as these were down to around 2 feet radius, I don’t feel guilty!
The one issue I encountered was that as the axle slid over, the wheel rim would touch the side of the W iron and thus electrify it. This lead to some shorting issues if it came into contact with a vehicle of different polarity (I know it shouldn’t but well it seems to do for my stock!). Thus, for the next vehicle I will look to insert a layer of very thin copper clad paxolin below the W iron to isolate it.
So even with this issue I consider that the experiment to be a definite success and for relatively short bodied 6 wheeled coaches this will be my standard approach going forward. This suits the Jones shorter 6 wheeled vehicle of which Lochgorm and Microrail have examples. I think the jury is still out on longer 6 wheeled vehicles and a further experiment is going to he required as I am still a bit concerned there may not be enough side play.
Posted on March 1, 2018, in Workbench (stock) and tagged 6 wheeled coach, Alan Gibson, Highland Railway, Model Railway. Bookmark the permalink. 1 Comment.
highland miscellany 
Well done young man. Regards Peter