Reply To: Pendon-style track and wheels

[Bob AllisonParticipant]

Hi Paul,

Good to hear from you again; after your post on 3rd July I feared that you might have abandoned this forum altogether.

Firstly, in fairness to you and the P4 chappies (I was one for 30 years and am still a member) I have never heard any of them claim to get anything right to a hundredth of a millimeter.  18.83 is a nominal dimension.

That said, I think most if not all would agree that the official EMGS standards are more forgiving of errors than P4.  Take back-to-back for instance: with accurately laid track and tyre profile as per official drawing, the back to back can vary between 16.25 and 16.65 without derailment (albeit with slightly rough running at the extremes).  Of course, the track will never be perfect, so this 0.4mm tolerance might better be viewed as being shared between track and wheels.  Also, EM flanges are nearly twice as deep as P4 flanges, so there is more tolerance in level.

Which leads me to a serious point – anyone contemplating “Manchester” or “Pendon” wheel profiles and track standards needs to accept that they are forfeiting most of those tolerances, and their workmanship will have to be of a higher order in consequence.  If that’s your bag, splendid, go for it!  Your track will look better than mine.  Personally, and at risk of being considered disloyal to this society, I would wonder why not go the whole hog and choose P4 (maybe with EM profile wheels – Martin Goodall on the Scalefour Forum has done exactly that, and it seems to work well for him.)

Regards,

Bob