record breakers

It is interesting to note that the two most viewed threads in the narrow gauge section are 'New build Lyn' and 'Last chance hotel'. Both with over 8000 viewings shows that they have been followed by quite a high percentage of those who love NG.

 

They trail a long way behind the most viewed threads...

...just click on 'views' in the header bar to re-arrange the threads in order of 'popularity' - then you'll find the following:

37,661 WHR General Discussion.

31,485 FR/WHR and WHHR relations

17,565 Lyd

11,628 WHHR trains never to be given access to WHR metals for timetabled services

and with

8,786 Ffestiniog Railway Quirks & Curiosities Weekend April 30th - May 3rd between the two threads you mention...

:wink:

 

Perhaps we should start our own forum?

 

YEY! Lyd is way up there, good news Unsuprising to see the two largest NG railways dominate the most popular threads!

 

Shame this only includes threads which still exist - i suspect at least one of the *proposed railway scheme in Shropshire* threads would have given those a run for their money...!

 

That proposed railway scheme went at such a snail's pace I believe it beached itself.....

 

On the subject of records, what was the fastest thing on narrow gauge rails?
To my knowledge the fastest thing on the 2’ gauge was, allegedly, a railcar built in 1914 for the anticipated visit of Kronprinz Wilhelm to the Otavi Railway in the former German South West Africa. It had a 6-cyl. Daimler-Benz petrol engine and apparently reached a speed of 85 mph (137 kph).
So what about steam on the 2’ gauge? There is a story (probably aprocyphal) regarding a Double Fairlie on the (old) Festiniog, which was said to have reached 60 m.p.h. on the Cob between Porthmadog and Boston Lodge. In South Africa and Namibia, 40 m.p.h. was achievable by the NG15s and NGG16s; and on the 760mm gauge railways of the former Yugoslavia the speedy Class 73 2-6-2s were said to outpace photographers chasing them in their cars.

We might exclude the 3’6” gauge, as some notably high speeds have been achieved there, but do any other speed ‘records’, official or otherwise, exist elsewhere on other gauges?

Richard

 

I could suggest No.1 Ladas when it broke away on the opening day of the Snowdon Mountain Railway.

It might seem a bit of a frivalous answer, and in the cases you have given above it may not be the case, but many of the UK steam records set rely on hills and gravity to assist. Surely the only meaningful record is self generated speed on the flat as ultimately if you had the money virtually anything could have the record if you built a long enough and steep enough track down a mountain.

In respect of steam locos, probaby the fastest in the British Isles currently running are the IoM Beyer Peacocks?

 

We do go off thread on this one. Fastest narrow guage? Any ideas for the Glasgow underground? The Lochaber narrow guage railway used wickham "speeders" and no doubt they were.
However, I saw a video of this at a museum. I think it is in the uK:
http://www.martin-baker.co.uk/Sub-Navigation/Multimedia/Video/High-Speed-Test.aspx
http://www.martin-baker.com/Services/Testing-and-Qualification.aspx
so that's 600 knots on a 30" bullhead rail - however I think only dummies are used

You could work it up into a Railway mag article.

 

When the Peel & Ramsey lines exisited the I.O.M.R. even operated ambulance trains for the TT races.

 

I would have thought a hearse would be more relevent

 

TT is quite a small scale. Difficult to see how serious injuries could result.

 

The IOM steam Loco's really do seem to rattle along. Are they not covered by the normal 25mph rule, or is the IOM different for rail just as they are with road speed limits ?

 

Rattling isn't good, you know.

 

As far as record-breaking threads is concerned, It is perhaps difficult to gauge what value to put on the number of views alone. For example, many people may be intrigued by a topic title enough to come and visit once, only to discover that it isn't in fact something of interest to them.

Of more importance may be the number of posts, or the number of individual contributors - both of which will be affected bythe length of time the thread has been in existence. Equally important may be the percentage of "on-topic" posts, or the average no. posts per contributer. Collecting such statistics would however by particularly onerous, and unlikely to be worth the effort, so far as I can see.