Hornby Trains

[Ric.ror]

Matt has a christmas hornby engine set but he is worried the engine won't have enough power to pull all the various carriages he has - he says Hornby haven't been helpful either
Can anyone help?

[wolf63]

I'm hoping that Matt is your grandson and not your son and heir.

Good luck with the choo choo

[Peter Pedant]

shoot the fat controller

Matt is Hancock - and the train is the NHS and the engine is the Hospital

I see allegories everywhere

[Ric.ror]

Matt is not my grandson - he is only 6 - neither is he my son and heir or my spare son (lackland)
He's my mate

[Peter Pedant]

what - you know matt hancock?

[wolf63]

My brother has a train set, he is 52.

I hope that you and Matt enjoy the train set - they are fascinating.

[aelmpvw]

he's six and he's worried the engine won't have enough power to pull all the various carriages he has?

[Ric.ror]

Oh God - No Matt is my mate
My grandson is not Matt - but my grandson is 6
I am laughing at how this thread is going - all my fault for not being clear about who is who

[Peter Pedant]

this is like "apolcalypse now!"
you know the book of the bible that refers t o the scarlet woman instead of the Bishop of Rome

can er anyone beat that ?

[Zacs-Master]

Without saying what the engine and carriages are, no one can give a meaningful answer or any help.

[mushroom25]

// instead of the Bishop of Rome //

isn't that how they describe the holy father in Narn Ireland because they can't bring themselves to say "pope"?

[alavahalf]

The Bishop of Rome .. a well known model train enthusiast ?

[Jonathan-Joe]

Does Matt have a track on which he can test a loco's pulling power? It will depend on the type of loco (diesel outline better than steam) and weight for adhesion. Sharp radius curves and gradients will limit the length of train possible. There are many model railway videos on YouTube - these may give you an idea of the pulling power of locos similar to Matt's.

[alavahalf]

Will the train pull all the carriages ? .. if he already has the engine and he already has the carriages, there is a simple solution.
Put the engine on the track and keep adding carriages until the train can pull no more. You have now reached the engines pulling capacity. Now remove a few carriages to allow the train to be controlable !

[Peter Pedant]

// The Bishop of Rome .. a well known model train enthusiast ?//

well he has an enthusiasm for something

In the bad tempered thread on Kate people warned against too much detail - then the thread was closed - so i cdnt boast
that we were so close to the Bishop that my father used to call the bedroom the confessional

perhaps too much detail

[murraymints]

oh says what is the engine ..model and engine size ? and how many carriages and sizes..what is the name of the set he has

[Ric.ror]

The size of the engine is 00 and it’s the Santa Express

[New Judge]

It would be unusual for a child's trainset to be big enough to accommodate too many carriages for the loco to pull. I have quite a large layout (about 11 feet by 6 feet). The longest train I usually run on that is four carriages, perhaps five at a push. Anything longer looks silly. Even the small locos that I have easily pull that load. The biggest problem is adhesion if there are any inclines on the track. The locos are quite light and will "slip" if insufficient adhesion exists. This is a problem on the "big railway" too. It should not present a problem on the Santa Express if the track is level.

[Ric.ror]

He’s wanting it to pull about 5-6 carriages

[New Judge]

It should be OK. The problem is the "Santa Express" loco is quite small and it only has four wheels (0-4-0). There may be an adhesion problem on starting but I don't think there will be a problem with the overall weight (provided the track is level). That said, five normal carriages will be around one metre overall length. As I understand it the standard amount of track provided with the Santa Express makes an oval of around 90x75cm. The train will certainly extend round the curves of an oval that size and there may be trouble when starting if the loco is on one of the curves. He can always take one off "under repair"!

[mushroom25]

// He can always take one off "under repair"! //

shortformed train. just like the real thing!