Super Continental passenger train

Heath

New Member
Hi all,
I happen to shoot one of the first test's of my CN Super Continental passenger train today.
YouTube - CN Super Continental
YouTube - Super Continental
I say test's as I still have some homework to do on the diaphragm's. Different manufacturer's with different heights and tension can sometimes get bound up with tension and push the other car off the track's.
A friend of mine suggested using clear styrene shaped to the contour of the diaphragm to prevent them from picking each other's corner's when going over small dip's, corner's etc...
Anyone else have this sort of problem? Think Rapido cars need some exta weight.
For those that might be interested:
  • Motive power is FA2, FB2, and a custom painted RS18, all P2K.
  • CN baggage car is a Con-Cor stripped and painted with wire grab's added.
  • CN combine car is a Athabasca brass kit with lighting.
  • 2 coaches are Rapido Trains, out of the box.
  • CN diner car, Athabasca brass kit with interior kit from Rivarossi dining car and kitchen. Dining car is lit and kitchen door is left open.
  • CN super dome car. Shoreham shop's dome car, heavily detailed and painted interior.
  • CN E class sleeper. Rapido Trains, out of the box.
  • CN I class 24 roomette sleeper. Athabasca brass kit with lighting and interior from Rivarossi 24 roomette sleeper. Roomette interior lined up well with brass kit.
All painting was done by a professional model painter who's skill is light years ahead of mine. Much gratitude is owed to him for his fine work.

Have a look at the link's at the top and hope you enjoy.
Happy railroading all.:-D
Heath
 

Nomad

Active Member
Hello Heath:wave:
I'm not into passenger stuff, but that is some great looking scenery. I swear I can see the water moving in that first video it looks so real. Is that part of your layout?

Loren
 

Heath

New Member
Hi Loren,
This is a friend of mines' layout that I help out as much as I can. I'm grateful to run my trains on it. Kind of an unofficial club.
He models almost all CPR in the mid to late 60's and I do CN from that time period. We always have fun and jab each other on the "other" railroad from each of our point of view. All in good fun and we have a great time.
I'll pass the compliment onto him. Thx.
 

myltlpny

Member
That is absolutely wonderful. I finally got my Amtrak consist finished. I have all the cars and locos, now I just need to finish the Amtrak Cascades. Waiting in the wings is a Novatech Plastics Turbotrain kit. On top of that, I'm trying to accumulate enough cars to reporduce the Canadian. I love passenger trains.:mrgreen:
 

60103

Pooh Bah
Heath: diaphragms have always been a problem. The new detailed ones look as they'd be a major problem. The old crude ones gave all sorts of problems with snagging on curves; easements were supposed to help with that but...
People used to put solid ends on them to help with the snags. One brand had little tabs so the diaphragms would stay aligned; I've never had any.
 

doctorwayne

Active Member
Neat videos, Heath.
As for diaphrams, I use the ones from American Limited, which generally work well. What does cause problems is operating diaphram-equipped cars with body-mounted couplers in the same train as cars with Talgo-style couplers, and these problems usually occur even without the diaphrams, so you know where the problem lies. :wink: Curves that are too sharp can also have a negative effect when diaphrams are installed, as when the diaphrams reach their maximum compression on the inside of a curve, and there's no more room left to "give" as the curve becomes tighter, the only thing left to "give" is the wheel-to-rail contact. :curse:
I use diaphrams on all of my passenger equipment, including baggage cars. I've found that one of the drawbacks of these diaphrams is that it's almost impossible to manually separate the cars by lifting them, as I would normally do in my staging area, when the cars need to be removed from the layout. A Kadee uncoupling magnet is a must.
Train_Brain_071.jpg


Wayne
 

Heath

New Member
Thanks Doctor Wayne,
I know the diaphragm's aren't at their max compression as I know the curves are wider than 30". Rapido's I've heard can TAKE upto 28" but will do it ugly style if you know what I mean.
I do have the American Ltd. on some cars coupled with the Rapido cars. I even had the two Rapido cars derail on a curve but the curve wasn't anything severe, hence I think they need more weight.
I love the American Ltd. dia's as they they are so easy to manipulate. I just think there is alot of stiffness to the Rapido cars. I might just open one up and see if there is anything, flashing, that might be stopping the compression on the Rapido cars.
I do have problems with my Con Cor baggage car uncoupling from the combine, 2nd car. The head end baggage car is Talgo. Should the Talgo be replace with body mounted ones? Is the Talgo moving up and down so much that it uncouples from small dips in the track?
I know that when I look at the dia's on a body mounted coupler. the coupler knuckle is a hair below the diaphragm. Could there be some interference from the diaphragm that "pop's" the knuckle open?
Thanks for all your help.
Once I get all the problems worked out I'll shoot some more video's of the Super C.
Many thanks once again all,
Heath
 

doctorwayne

Active Member
I just looked at my ConCor baggage cars to check the coupler arrangement: mine are part of a train that I'm getting rid of, so none of the cars have been equipped with diaphrams. Besides the two baggage cars, the rest of the train is made up of re-worked Rivarossi smooth-sided cars and all have Talgo-style couplers. I don't recall what the original coupler set-up was on the ConCor cars (I thought that I might discover sagging drawbars, which might explain your uncoupling problems) but mine have the Kadee 508 conversion bolsters for Kadee couplers. The other thing that has been changed (I think - not sure why I did this, as it was a while back) is that the trucks are screw-mounted. They swivel easily and have plenty of "give", so the cars track well. I've also added a bit of weight; they're about 7 1/2 oz. each.
My usual cause of passenger car derailments is baggage car and diner kitchen steps preventing adequate truck swing on curves, but since I like the look of the steps, I put up with it. I'm not sure about the tracking qualities of the Rapido cars, as I only had a couple of mister nutbar's cars here for a short time for a little weathering. I thought that they looked really good, but I wasn't impressed by the loose fit of some of the underbody details, and I felt that these particular cars were poorly assembled. I do have a Branchline coach that derailed a lot due to what I felt were some poor design engineering decisions, but the problems were easily corrected.
In general, it's better to run passenger cars with Talgo-style couplers with like-cars, and likewise for cars with body-mounted couplers. When the two types are mixed, the excess swing of the Talgo style conflicts with the more limited motion of the body-mounts, and this difference increases as the curve radius becomes smaller.
Your thoughts on the Talgo coupler arm rising and falling with fluctuations in the track might be worth investigating as the cause of the uncoupling, but I'm afraid that I don't have any other solutions to offer.

Wayne
 

Heath

New Member
Thanks for the help Wayne. Will have a closer look at the Talgo. I'll start with replacing the coupler with another coupler to see if that helps and see if the diaphragm that was installed on the Con Cor baggage car is snaging the coupler knuckle. If so, will have to make the coupler a body mount and watch the clearance.
Thanks.
Heath
 

Glen Haasdyk

Active Member
Beautiful train. the detailing is excellent. I haven't gotten brave enough to try the Athabaska kits yet but they sure have impressive results.
 

Heath

New Member
Hi Glen,
When I talked to the fellow who built my Athabasca cars he mentioned one thing that bothered him, beware of warpage of the floor when assembling. The brass is apparently easy to bend and one can end up with a slight bow that might interfere with couplings, car tracking, etc...is what he stated.
I'm looking to add a few more cars I think but will first iron out a few things first to get some reliable running of Talgo to body mount coupled cars.
Will keep you posted to progress.
Heath
 
Top