The Home Machinist!

SZuiderveen:

Thank you for the link, this is what we have been looking for.

_________________
E. Bartlett HTC(SW) USN Ret.
Member Firearms Engravers Guild of America (FEGA)
Nevada Southern Railway (Nevada State Railroad Museum)
HF #981 Mill
11" South Bend/10" Champion Blower & Forge Lathe (Franken Lathe)
12" Sebastian Lathe
everett.bartlett@yahoo.com

Consider brakes on the cars, some railroads limit to a maximum of 2 passanger cars with out car brakes behind a loco, and require car brakes for longer passenger trains.

Best pratice would be to have brakes on all passanger cars for saftey. Then comes the issue of a brake system that works with all the locomotives that will be used and will it function automatically if cars become uncoupled.

There is no standard brake system for model rail roads that I am aware of, so you will have to create your own.

The lack of car brakes at some railroads hauling public is a subject of concern to many.

Rob

Check out the Houston Area Live Steamers hals.org for a look at what I believe has proven beyond a doubt what is the best and most stable car available. I have built dozens and have them around the country with nothing but the best results.

Vance Nickerson
903-374-5680

Having once been rear-ended by a train with seven cars hauling 21 adults and NO train brakes, I echo this statement! At the time, I estimated the total weight of this train at over 5000 lbs, which is more than three times the legal weight limit for hauling a trailer on the road without trailer brakes. Amazingly, the rr on which this happened has an extensive safety program yet this was a rr owned train. Go figure.

_________________
Greg Lewis
Eyeball Engineering — Home of non-interchangeable parts
Our motto: That looks about right.
Turning perfectly good metal into bits of useless scrap since 1983.

My Club (OCME) uses the T-Style riding cars, but not the depressed center type, which I think are superior due to low CG. I believe somebody could get a foot under one of our cars, but not on the depressed center cars.
We can get a situation where a very heavy passenger sits at the very back of the car and loads up only the rear truck. With only a few small kids up front, the car is "surfing" down the track, making it more susceptible to derailing. Heavy people loading up the front truck cannot occurr due to adult leg length.
The drop-center cars would hold less people but keep all passengers between the trucks for better stability.
Our cars do have a bulkhead end that keeps passenger feet from going too far forward, which is important.
I recently saw a picture of riding cars with a T-style hand-hold rising a foot or so above the seat at each end and thoufght that looked like a good idea too. They would serve as hand-hold for the first person on the car, and a kind of back-stop/limit-stop for the last passenger.

i think the best cars for the public are the drop center cars with the t bench down the middle , i have built quite a few for people , with the low center of gravity and the ability to put your feet out in the chance of a derailment where a car wants to tip over is a good safety consideration, gondolas for example are by far the most dangerous to use as in a tip over , a person can not use there feet to catch them self so they possiblely could land on there hands or even face, also very bad if a person is holding a small child , child could land face first in gravel , , this is my opinion on this, thanks, steve tune , www.tunetrains.com

hi , i just put on a pic here of one of the cars i do in the t car , it is 6 feet long , low center of gravity for safety, and i use boat seat post that are welded to a 1x3 tubing underneath a 2x6 piece of wood, the wood can have material or padding put on it, and the boat post unbolt from the car so it can also be used as a regular drop center car, this car can do 3-4 people , the 1x3 is .120 wall and i put 5 bolts though it, it is very rigid, thought this may help, thanks, steve tune, www.tunetrains.com

My first ride was on the Maricopa RR in Phx a couple weeks ago.

My wife sat on a straddle car and I was lucky and got a seat with a back rest. I have a bad back. The ride was a very long ride on their main line, which was great. However, had I been on a straddle car I would have been very uncomfortable before the ride ended.

I'm glad they had a mix of riding cars.

The Maricopa Live Steamers has a great facility and made us welcome.

_________________
Jon S
Las Vegas NV
USMC 1966-69 (Vietnam 1967)