Loco springing.

[Geoff Nicholls]

I had a chance to inspect the Kingscale Britannia underframe at the London Model Engineering show. The stallholder said his engineer choose to use strong springs so the loco sat at its maximum height. that way the loco didn't rock and roll as it ran along. He demonstrated this by pressing down with his hands. It seemed to drop a good 2mm or more.
On my loco I did the opposite, the weight of the loco 'bottoms out' the springs, whose chief purpose seems to be to press the axle down to accommodate depressions in the track (the centre axle has vertical play upwards.
has anyone compared these methods and one preferable?

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Geoff

My Kingscale Brit has a proven track record of running on garden railways throughout the country. It's history is documented elsewhere on this forum. Whatever the springing mechanism performance, it is my opinion that Kingscale (& presumably Mike Pave) got it right. My loco runs & performs accordingly. Cannot fault it. As a consequence makes sense to copy success rather than go against this principle. But there again, there is so much theory swishing around & everybody has their own ideas I tend not to be surprised when other folks include their own quirks into established designs.

Dave
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