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http://www.youtube.com/embed/R_059JD6MIU

Forget the trains - see how many Matchbox cars you can identify! (And the hundreds that aren't.)

Being a Regular Wheel guy, the 26A without barrel and the 30B Crane sticking out of the building with a repainted black boom are my two favorites Martin. I am just amazed at the years of devotion taken in designing and building this layout. The collector value of the Superfast models has not been effected negatively, they still have their unrealistic racing mags on those large Trucks he has scattered about in the town and industrial scenes. There are some regular wheel 'commons' here and there, but did I see an unreinforced toe on both of those #7 Refuse Trucks, or perhaps a white or a black grill on them?? LOL....Just kidding.......That is a very nice watch, and a window into another branch of our hobby.
The Union Pacific 'Big Boy' he is running were produced at the Alco plant in Schenectady N.Y. where I was brought up. My Dad's last job before entering the Navy in 1944 was to grind and prepare these 'Big Boy' Locos for their black paint. The engines were so big, heavy and long, they had to send out a track crew to repair the rails as a completed Engine left the Schenectady plant. Some of the curves and roadbeds in the area were not designed for such huge brutes. These Engines were designed to haul HUGE loads of freight over the mountainous Western routes of the Union Pacific, and videos still exist of multiple Engine units doing just that. The drive wheels are so large, only one machine still exists that is big enough to reface them today. That was found in the Union Pacific shops out West, and is now being used in the National Train Museum Shops in Scranton Pennsylvania. They have one very nice 'Big Boy' on display that they plan on making run one day (if the Nation does not go broke first).........kwakers

I understand it was a Devils' own job getting the two sets of valve gear on the Big Boys to work in unison correctly, there being no leeway for any misadjustment or lost motion.
i have also read that one of the reasons why American steam locomotives got so big was that American designers never managed to get the drafting at the front end right, resulting in throttling in the exhaust passages. Their solution, rather than addressing the resultant problems of back pressure on the cylinders, was simply to make everything bigger.
In the UK we were restricted by our loading gauge and so (relying heavily on Chapilon's work) had to design our way out of the problem. Hence the outbreak of double-chimneys during the BR era.

Idris wrote:I understand it was a Devils' own job getting the two sets of valve gear on the Big Boys to work in unison correctly, there being no leeway for any misadjustment or lost motion.
i have also read that one of the reasons why American steam locomotives got so big was that American designers never managed to get the drafting at the front end right, resulting in throttling in the exhaust passages. Their solution, rather than addressing the resultant problems of back pressure on the cylinders, was simply to make everything bigger.
In the UK we were restricted by our loading gauge and so (relying heavily on Chapilon's work) had to design our way out of the problem. Hence the outbreak of double-chimneys during the BR era.

At the risk of offending some friends here, do American designers not solve everything by simply making things bigger
I will attempt to redeem my self slightly here by claiming that my favourite cars ever were British - American collaborations, probably from the Lister Chevrolet through to the Lola T70 - drool

At the risk of offending some friends here, do American designers not solve everything by simply making things bigger
I will attempt to redeem my self slightly here by claiming that my favourite cars ever were British - American collaborations, probably from the Lister Chevrolet through to the Lola T70 - drool [/quote]

Bigger louder faster...
And the problem is