What's the worst derailment you've ever seen on an O-scale layout?
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Well it's O-Gauge, not O-Scale, but this was the worst derailment I've experienced. Some say I was "lucky" I caught it on the camera. I am only lucky in that nothing was damaged!
Why I don't like those trestle things. Fortunately the turbines are pretty well built.
They work better with "O" track!
Jon 
I hope that this works! It is a classic. :-)
Pretty easy to see why it derails Alex; on every track joint the front half of the drive wheels lift off the top of the rails. Put that on a curve and you have a recipe for instant derailments.
I agree with others, you need stiffer 0-31 on there to support die cast engine weights.
I had one, we were running one of our PW engines, I think our 2035. We were pulling maybe 6 or 7 passenger cars with it when the coupler right after the tender popped and set it flying down the straight and off of the layout. As always as these things happen, I captured it for posterity. You can here my little boy saying oh no on the video.
The front of the engine got pretty bent from the impact on the basement floor and one of the marker lights broke (which I found remarkably". I put it in the vice and "gently" bent it back to what it was supposed to be.
D&H 65 posted:Pretty easy to see why it derails Alex; on every track joint the front half of the drive wheels lift off the top of the rails. Put that on a curve and you have a recipe for instant derailments.
I agree with others, you need stiffer 0-31 on there to support die cast engine weights.
I was actually able to get by with new O-27 track, I had used stuff back from the 50's in an attempt to save some $$$ but quickly learned I should've splurged. That old track was so flexible you would've thought it was made of rubber! I would have gone with O-31 if I didn't have very limited space haha.
Zach K posted:Well it's O-Gauge, not O-Scale...
Well...not really. It actually IS O scale.
The "scale" is what determines the size of the models. "Gauge" is nothing more than the distance between rails.
The 3-rail corner of the hobby has always used the term "gauge" incorrectly.
OGR Webmaster posted:Zach K posted:Well it's O-Gauge, not O-Scale...
Well...not really. It actually IS O scale.
The "scale" is what determines the size of the models. "Gauge" is nothing more than the distance between rails.
The 3-rail corner of the hobby has always used the term "gauge" incorrectly.
Thanks for telling me my error Rich, I never knew I was using the wrong terminology!
ADCX Rob posted:
Almost as good as a Gomez Addams "derailment". Thanks, Rob.
John C. posted:I hope that this works! It is a classic. :-)
Why I HATED the Addams Family. They always blew up the trains!
Zach K posted:OGR Webmaster posted:Zach K posted:Well it's O-Gauge, not O-Scale...
Well...not really. It actually IS O scale.
The "scale" is what determines the size of the models. "Gauge" is nothing more than the distance between rails.
The 3-rail corner of the hobby has always used the term "gauge" incorrectly.
Thanks for telling me my error Rich, I never knew I was using the wrong terminology!
Actually, this needs clarification to be accurate.
The reason the toy train world has used the term O gauge instead of O scale to label the trains is that a significant part of the three-rail product line produced by Lionel and others from the prewar and postwar era wasn't O scale at all. What we now call traditional-sized trains were somewhere between S and O scales, but they all ran on the same track: three-rail O gauge. Thus it is far more accurate and inclusive to refer to the historic product lines as O gauge.
Zach's turbine crash is definitely O gauge territory. Definitely not to scale.
But I know OGR understands this already. Otherwise the mag would have been called OSR. 
Jim R. posted:But I know OGR understands this already. Otherwise the mag would have been called OSR.
LOL...
Here's the cover of Run Number 1 from June, 1969.
This magazine used the title "O Scale Railroading" through Run 108, the December 1989 issue.
The change to "O Gauge Railroading" came in run 109, the February 1990 issue.
And the rest is history...
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Now that's funny...BigRail
Zach K posted:Well it's O-Gauge, not O-Scale, but this was the worst derailment I've experienced. Some say I was "lucky" I caught it on the camera. I am only lucky in that nothing was damaged!
Looks like it sped up a lot before it fell.
Of course, the very terms "O gauge" and "O scale" are suspect at all times, as they come from the common English-speaker's habit of frequently referring to a "0" (zero) as an "O" (the letter "O"). The scale - the next one down from #1 scale - is actually properly termed "zero scale/gauge", not "O scale/gauge". The same applies to "HO", which is properly "H0".
I believe that these scale/gauge numbers were first organized by the German manufacturers, who, if I remember my college Deutsch correctly, do not have the "zero/Oh" interchange going on. So, they were clueless about the confusion they were about to unleash on the English-speaking model RR world! Germans - always a problem.
Happy Zero-Gauge (sounds calorie-free) model railroading - or "Spur 0" as they call it.
Paul Moore posted:Zach K posted:Well it's O-Gauge, not O-Scale, but this was the worst derailment I've experienced. Some say I was "lucky" I caught it on the camera. I am only lucky in that nothing was damaged!
Looks like it sped up a lot before it fell.
Paul it did speed up a lot before it fell. The whistle tender's relay was temperamental and didn't activate all the time when I pushed the whistle button on my Type S. The additional voltage the transformer put out when I pressed the button was quite literally just enough to send the engine over the edge. I have since changed out the Type S for a ZW, installed new track on the elevated loop, and fixed the relay.
D500 posted:Of course, the very terms "O gauge" and "O scale" are suspect at all times, as they come from the common English-speaker's habit of frequently referring to a "0" (zero) as an "O" (the letter "O"). The scale - the next one down from #1 scale - is actually properly termed "zero scale/gauge", not "O scale/gauge". The same applies to "HO", which is properly "H0".
I believe that these scale/gauge numbers were first organized by the German manufacturers, who, if I remember my college Deutsch correctly, do not have the "zero/Oh" interchange going on. So, they were clueless about the confusion they were about to unleash on the English-speaking model RR world! Germans - always a problem.
Happy Zero-Gauge (sounds calorie-free) model railroading - or "Spur 0" as they call it.
Technically correct, but archaic. Gauge 0 became O gauge in common usage decades ago. Language evolves (you wouldn't recognize old English), and so did scale names.
HO was never called Aitch-Zero. Never. And since the dawn of number gauges, the letter gauges have taken over -- S, HO, TT, N, Z.
You'll just have to learn to accept it.
I don't think Gomez Addams would care which term he blows up, er, uses!
Zach K posted:Well it's O-Gauge, not O-Scale, but this was the worst derailment I've experienced. Some say I was "lucky" I caught it on the camera. I am only lucky in that nothing was damaged!
Thanks, That is some rough track, like the old Milwaukee Road and Rock Island! Glad nothing was hurt.
See 1:1 scale derailment Starts about 2:40 on the clip
