Cale Rail Society 18th Model Railway Exhibition At The Gartell Light Railway Sat/Sun 10/11 Feb 2024

The Cale Rail Society held their 18th Model Railway Exhibition as usual at the Gartell Light Railway on Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th February 2024. This was really great show with a very high standard of exhibits.
The video has been uploaded in 4k so adjust your browser to take advantage of this....

[@johnhillman232]

Nice show Pete..lots of variety,and no leaves about!!😂

[@ghostontheline]

Thanks John, no leaves but still a chance of snow. It was a good show and a mile walk away from my front door. Cheers Pete

[@schutendohkji548]

Nice English Suburban layouts n i liked those switchings/shuntting freight cars rather than
having the models going around n around like under the Xmas Tree. More interesting.
Surprised the scene got changed to an American layout at 5:23, Ingle Nook, Brooklyn, NYC.
I thought those Pennsy engine 2-8-2 (Mikado), which is a freight engine, nut passenger engine
w 27"x30" cyls generating 205psi in her boiler is actually a long distance freight engine. She
has 62"D drivers, 314,600lbs weight, 61,465 tractive effort, and 2,712HP. Years later, she was
added a stoker and up'd her horsepower to at least a 1,000 ==> 3,712HP. A monster in comparison
w any of the UK's steam loco. But here in this layout, she's doing a humble maid's work of shunting
a few cars. Yes, i'm sure this Pennsy PRR L1s class Mikado probably were deligated to shunting
duties as well when a Monster Switcher (Shunter) C1 Class 0-8-0 weren't available. The C1 had
much higher tractive effort of 76,154 than the L1 bc. all of the loco's weight was on the drivers
(no Pony and no rear truck). But Pennsy didn't like the big switchers and relied more on their
smaller switchers, like 0-6-0 and for tight city curved delivery, used 0-4-0. Unlike the UK, the American
steam loco's practice was never to use an engine w/o the pilot wheels and rear truck wheels out in
the main line. The purpose of the trucks, front n rear is to guide the chassis into and out of the
curves. These trucks were American invention after acquiring a 1st steam loco from the UK.
And, all of the Am. stm locos had equalizers (levers) to suspend the engine on 3 point system,
like a 3 legged chair. Unlike 4 legged chairs, the former always sit stable on an uneven floor.
And, the US engines were also sprung, using leaf springs, nut(not) coil springs like more expensive
brass models for the US market. Dat's unlike the British models where the chassis r just drilled and
if the maker is more kind, will add brass or even better, bronze hat bearings, never sprung. And never
equalized axles. I asked one of the modelers who came to our live steam convention in Diamondhead
Mississippi decades ago, he said we don't need equalization bc. our railroad tracks r perfect!!!
Decades later, i also figured why the UK engines r nut equalized. UK engines use solid plates for their
frames so there's no windows unlike the US's bar construction (which later were much stronger, all
casted along w the cylinders and valve gear hangers in one piece!!!). Thus, there's no place to attach
equalizer posts etc.
If u have tens of million miles of RR tracks w varying environmental conditions here in the States from
3 mile hi rugged snow capped mountain regions, gentle round old hills of the East coast, wide prairies
(steppes in Russian) in MidWest, and hot 120F desert sand of the SouthWest, u kant have straight perfect
non-undulating steel rails thru them all. The engines must b equalized, nut just sprung.

[@ghostontheline]

Thanks for watching the video and for your comments all very interesting. Cheers Pete