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Product: Toy: Scale Model
T Gauge Model Bullet Train   (+6)  [vote for, against]
model bullet train in a clear tube system

Model trains are great, but most of them are depictions of a bygone age. Trains in advanced countries like Japan, China, and France now travel at close to 300mph. These speeds are now reflected in the new T Gauge Model Bullet Train. There are some model bullet trains already in existence, but they don't travel at a realistic scaled speed.

In order to properly scale the speeds, and ensure these trains stay on their tracks, they travel inside clear plastic tubes that have the tracks, and power delivery built in. This means that the tracks can be bent to a degree and laid everywhere in the average domestic setting. These 'clear tube tracks' are the real innovation that makes this model train different to all others. Each tube section terminates in a male/female connection, meaning that they snap together to form a continuous looping layout. Because the tubes are watertight, they can be sent outdoors and through any water features.

The trains will then hurtle along at realistic scale bullet train speeds. Station stops allow open inspection of the detailed models, where the trains emerge from the clear tubing. Two way tubing enables a comprehensive network to be developed. The entire system is naturally controlled from a phone app.

Deluxe version has illuminated carriages, and lighting up signals etc in the tubing making for an exciting night time display.
Ultra deluxe version comes with track munching Godzilla attack robot toy figure. (can only be used once as total destruction results)
-- xenzag, Oct 07 2019

Walschaerts valve gear https://en.wikipedi...schaerts_valve_gear
Elegance and Beauty - yet, unbelievably, from Belgium ... [8th of 7, Oct 07 2019]

T Gauge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T_gauge
[hippo, Oct 08 2019]

See (2) - James River Branch https://www.popular...ngest-model-trains/
[hippo, Oct 08 2019]

If the tube is airtight and there aren't any points, you could propel the train by pumping compressed air through it, which would let you get up to much higher speeds than with teeny electric motors.
-- mitxela, Oct 07 2019


//realistic scaled speed//

Depends how you scale the speed.

300*(1/450)miles per (1)hour = 0.666mph (about one foot per second)?

Or are you thinking 300 scale miles per scale hour?

300*(1/450)miles per (1/450)hour = 300mph.
-- pocmloc, Oct 07 2019


The former; the speed scales linearly along with the size.

Since air resistance is significant to high speed trains (note the "kingfisher" nose profile of the latest Shinkansen) the point about evacuating the tubes is important.

Curves on high-speed lines are Very Bad, so quite how this is addressed is open to discussion. For the true model railway enthusiast, the answer is simply to live in a very long, thin house.
-- 8th of 7, Oct 07 2019


//the point about evacuating the tubes is important// But not at a scale speed of 1mph.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 07 2019


Incidentally, one obvious advantage of this tiny model scale is that it allows anyone with a large living room to set up a track which is in scale for length as well as width.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 07 2019


So can someone enlighten us, how fast do the currently commercially available model bullet trains and/or T gauge trains actually travel?

I don't want to poop all over this idea, but a little bit of plastic that moves along a plastic tube at one foot per second probably wouldn't impress me particularly much.
-- pocmloc, Oct 07 2019


You have no soul, [poc].

T gauge live steam would be quite something to achieve ...

<later>

Sadly, live steam at that scale is impractical.

But what would be practical would be a minature locomotive with a tank filled with liquid hydrogen. The hydrogen would boil off and the extremely mobile, low viscosity gas could operate reciprocating pistons. The exhaust, being extremely cold, would condense atmospheric humudity as water vapour as it left the chimney giving realistic "steam".

The locomotive would, of course, have to have full Walschaerts valvegear, and be reversible. Simple Stephenson or Joy valvegear would be a cop-out.
-- 8th of 7, Oct 07 2019


//live steam at that scale is impractical. // I thought we laughed at practicality?

//Simple Stephenson or Joy valvegear would be a cop-out.// Obviously. And I wonder if a miniature Bulleid system might work.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 07 2019


I wonder what the smallest possible gauge model rail system is? - i.e. there comes a point at which engineering constraints will make the model railway impossible or just not work (e.g. small, very light trains will have a tendency to become airborne), but could you go smaller than T-Gauge?
-- hippo, Oct 08 2019


//small, very light trains will have a tendency to become airborne// Apparently, the T-guage trains have magnets to help them adhere to the track.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 08 2019


That's hardly new; some OO gauge locos have had magnetic adhesion for decades.

It does mean that the bigger, heavier ones can pull the track about on corners, though.
-- 8th of 7, Oct 08 2019


The <link> says that someone has created an entire model train layout which measures 1/8th inch by 1/5th inch...
-- hippo, Oct 08 2019


A Shinkansen bullet could be a hit signature. Travels a lot faster than 300miles per hour,though.... initially anyway.
-- wjt, Oct 11 2019


That would be useless - what good is a bullet when you can tell exactly where and when it's going to arrive ?

Too easy to dodge ...
-- 8th of 7, Oct 11 2019


Not when it's a carved Oh train model. It would take ballistic testing to know the probable path.
-- wjt, Oct 12 2019


// Walschaerts valvegear //

If this is a way to add afterburners to a steam piston engine, then [+]
-- sninctown, Oct 12 2019



random, halfbakery