WANTED: Brandbright steel 3-hole wagon wheels

[Traininvain]

WANTED: Brandbright steel 3-hole wagon wheels. Contact: Ian Harper. Email: ian (at) moneyvista.co.uk Tel: 07989 912186

[unklian]

Hi Ian, remind me again, what is the advantage of these wheels over the GRS steel wheels ?

[Traininvain]

The GRS ones have a plastic bush in each wheel for insulation purposes while the Brandbright ones do not.

Ian

[unklian]

Err I think I might be missing something here, but I will ask anyway. What difference does the plastic bush make then ? Apart from the obvious not causing short circuits .

[cabbage]

It would make sense if IanH is using some form of "track circuiting"... This is something I am going to have to think about soon. The locos disappear into the orchard and then (later) re-appear behind the greenhouse. It would be nice to know where they are -especially as I plan to go to dual track!!!

regards

ralph

[Traininvain]

The main reason is quite simply because my preference is for wheels where the metal wheel is a direct and very tight fit onto a metal axle. I've found that the wheels you mention with a plastic insulation insert are less accurate (in the sense that there's some degree of wobble) and less robust than the Brandbright type, especially for outdoor running. I'm sure others may disagree with this but that's my personal view.

Ralph has a point but I thought that all you would need for track circuiting is a metal wheel which momentarily bridges a gap in one of the the rails to complete a circuit - e.g. with signalling. I stand to be corrected though.

Ian

[cabbage]

With "classical" track circuiting the wheels and axles short both sides of the track. Thus by knowing the resistance of the rail, the distance of the train into a section can be worked out by a version of Ohms law. I do recall a meter calibrated not in Ohms -but in Chains!

regards

ralph

[AshleyW]

"thus" may be correct, but i think the real railway just uses sections of track circuit and knows when it is in by the previous section clearing as the last vehicle enters the next section, nothing as elaborate as that for detection, even with fibre optic cabling etc.
i'm sure if we gave perfect world a set of brandbright wheels, they could obtain some! in the same way, if ian loaned them a brake van kit, they could re produce the kits for us in g3 that want a wooden bake van kit, only thing is we'd have to stump up for apx 10 kits in advance- but i reckon we could shift em!!

[MikeWilliams]

"if ian loaned them a brake van kit, they could re produce the kits for us in g3 that want a wooden bake van kit, only thing is we'd have to stump up for apx 10 kits in advance"

And you'd probably have to stump up the fine and legal costs for the copyright infringement too.  With thousands of wagon not available in Gauge 3 why not make something new, rather than copying something already done?  If everyone did that with existing kits or parts all manufacturers would give up tomorrow.

I always try to encourage new manufacturers into our scale, not frighten them away.

Mike

[AshleyW]

does that still apply now brandbright are no longer in existence and the company is defunct

[Geoff Nicholls]

I don't know about legally, but morally yes. Having been involved in the production of a few kits, I know how much effort goes into them. And it's nice to have the recognition for that work, or if someone else takes it up and produces something from it that is wrong in some important way, you might want the ability to publicly separate yourself from it.
So you should always make reasonable efforts to get the originators agreement to what you want to do. I'm sure most would be pleased flattered even, in G3 we are mostly producing these things because we think they should be available. Any income is usually re-invested, and rarely could justify the name 'profit'

[John Candy]

does that still apply now brandbright are no longer in existence and the company is defunct

The company is not "defunct" : It may have ceased trading but that is quite different.
The Register of Companies lists it as "active".
In any case, the ownership of the intellectual property is not necessarily that of the company ; it could have been manufacturing "under licence" from the owner.

John.

[MikeWilliams]

Being more positive, if Ashley you feel your private owners wagons have been a success and you want to have a go at a break van, then that is good news for everyone.

The only Gauge 3 brake vans that have been available in the last 50 years are Slaters Midland, my GER, and the two GRS and Brandbright GWR vans.  So, I would have thought GWR was the last one to choose - what about GNR 20-ton, LBSC or, dare I say it, LNWR D17a?

And, returning to the subject of this topic, Ashley is quite right that Ian could have wheels made specially and they may not break the bank.  Personally I would not go through a third party (like Perfect World or me) but direct to the people who make them.  How many would you want Ian?  Anyone else want uninsulated disk wagon wheels?

Mike

[Jon Nazareth]

Mike
Who makes the LBSCR brake van?

Jon

[MikeWilliams]

Nobody Jon.

That's my point - there have already been two GWR brakevan kits so instead of a third I'm suggesting something different - such as an LBSC van.

Mike