Flanges

Temple Mills Eurostar Depot

Several years back I was working for a company that supplied catering equipment for the Eurostar trains, and my work involved a visit to the Eurostar Temple Mills depot.

Making conversation with my host I mentioned how strange I found it that the flanges on real rolling stock seemed so small compared with what I was used to in the OO-gauge models my father excelled in. He explained that, of course, the flange is not normally what keeps the trains on the track anyway. Strange that, until then, this wisdom had not penetrated my thick skull.

The principle is explained on many web sites: The picture below is from one of the easier to follow. Of here for a video. A consequence is that, unlike road vehicles, train wheelsets do not need, indeed must not have differentials.

I find it hard to comprehend how hundreds of tons of rolling stock travelling at around 100 mph can stay on two narrow steel rails, bends and all, just because of the wheel profile. But they do. And here's how scale fails us - with OO-gauge models I have no doubt that it is the flange primarily, and not the profile, that keeps the trains on the track. Although die hards model to P4 standard which is true to scale which makes we wonder whether they suffer frequent derailments.

I miss my father's model railway. Living in a community as I do sort of precludes building one myself - there is nowhere to put it and would be little time to enjoy it. And how would I pay for it? I still have some remnants of my father's rolling stock gathering dust in the attic, kept in case any child developed a taste, but so far that hasn't happened. How could they?

Does this bother me? Frankly not all that much. But I still love railways in any form, shape or size and am looking forward to that grand age when the Irish government will allow me to travel anywhere in Ireland for free!