1:42 I had literally no idea what was going on here at first. I thought the camera was behind the driver, and going through a very long tunnel! Slighter out-of-body experience when it became clearer! =D
I'am a gauge 1 live steamer and I just love to see a 5 inch gauge live steam loco run free without the giant on its back . There are not many radio controlled 3,5 and 5 inch gauge live steam loco's , why not ?
I agree and the giants are getting bigger and bigger, ugh. Soon, it won't be possible to see anything other than great lumps of arse cheeks and belly hanging over everything.
rotfai45mm I would say it is likely because most people get the larger engines specifically to drive them. It's the closest thing you can get to being an actual engineer without being on the real thing. Otherwise if your intention is simply to have the look of a real railway but smaller, I think a lot don't think it's worth the extra cost over Gauge 1. The larger scales afford more detail, certainly, but they cost the price of an economy car for decent ready to run models, and the high end ones can net you a fully loaded luxury car. You also have to scale up the costs of train cars, stations, and other detailing items. As well as the outright cost, they cost more to run and maintain as well, using a lot more fuel and oil. Further since most are coal fired they need somewhat regular poking and tweaking to the fire and water levels, which is much simpler when you're riding behind the engine. RC equipment on this scale is also more visible too, but that's trivial. So all and all, it's generally simpler and much more cost efficient to go with the smaller models, which themselves can still be quite detailed.
As said above with the larger engines its the joy and challenge of driving them. I have built several passenger hauling engines and get great enjoyment when heavy passenger hauling. A decent 0-6-0 tank will haul 750kg.
Question for you British,folks. I notice several gaurds vans spread through the trains of a couple of those longer trains. Is this normal for prototypical trains? I would think it'd be for watching a really long train better...but most other places only run one gaurds van/caboose all the way at the end...
nothing_cool the magical cat this was done in the uk with longer trains where the wagons were unfitted with brakes, this wasn't as necessary with freight that had train brakes. But in these examples it was more done to just build up a long train :)
articulatedloco The mixed gauge one (3tracks) is at Coate Water Miniature Railway in Swindon (or the north Wiltshire model engineering society). The 5" inch gauge track is at The Strawberry Line miniature railway in Keynsham, Bristol.