Unusual Visitor

[brill27mcb]

Shown passing behind the yard at our East Penn Traction Club N-group get-together yesterday is an unusual visitor - a 16-car Le Shuttle train!

 

 

Rich K.

[cteno4]

Chunnel has been lengthened to Japan, right?!

 

Sorry I missed the meetup. Matthew is moving to Albuquerque and spent sat helping pack the big moving container full and then club send off party for him at my house today so way busy weekend. I swear I'll get up for one soon! Gotta get my priorities straight.

 

Jeff

[bill937ca]

Is that just a temporary set up?

[brill27mcb]

Bill, we used to do temporary weekend-long setups in a room we could sign up to use. The facility had security personnel and we could lock it up. Then our member retired from that facility, the person who let him reserve the room retired, and the building was torn down.

 

We missed it so much that one of our members made room in his townhouse basement and bought tables, so that we could replicate our past practice in a somewhat smaller space. (Naturally that space has been gradually growing! :) ) So, our present layout is not temporary. It stays up, but we treat it like a temporary tabletop layout, which has the benefit that we can, and do, constantly revise and improve the layout. Our last modification changed the two ground-based double track loops to the largest radii that Kato offers. One loop does not pass through a station, so we can now run my Channel Tunnel "Le Shuttle" train, which is almost HO-sized in loading gauge.

 

Rich K.

[serotta1972]

Shown passing behind the yard at our East Penn Traction Club N-group get-together yesterday is an unusual visitor - a 16-car Le Shuttle train!

 

IMG_2864-m.JPG

 

Rich K.

 

That thing is gigantic next to the other trains.  What exactly is it?

[Suica]

That thing is gigantic next to the other trains.  What exactly is it?

It's a special train carrying passenger and freight vehicles through the Eurotunnel. 

 

I knew that Kato produced the locos but the actual cars are new to me. Are they a custom thing?

[brill27mcb]

During the construction of the Channel Tunnel between Britain and France, there was an Exhibition Centre at the British end so visitors could see what was going on and understand how the completed project would look and operate. As part of this, they had a large layout built using N-gauge that included both the British and French loop/terminal areas, connected by a simulated tunnel under a fish tank representing the English Channel.

 

A small English model builder, CJM, was hired to create the trains. The electric locomotives use a slightly modified Kato EF81 chassis and a shell reportedly made by the Graham Farish company. CJM produced the wagons from molded styrene sides, ends, roof, floor and diaphragm pieces. They have etched brass corrugation detail inlay sheets and ride on Graham Farish bogies. CJM outfitted the entire fleet for the  demonstration model railway, and also packaged kits that were sold in the Exhibition Centre gift shop. A local model railroader was hired to run the layout and to keep it operable - he must have had his hands full!  In the aftermath, CJM also sold the leftover kits direct at discount. They are scarce today, and unfortunately they can get pricey even though they are not widely sought. The British loop end of the layout survives today in a local museum in an old railway station.

 

The 16-wagon auto/van Le Shuttle train in my photo starts with a loco, then a single-deck "half train" with loading/unloading wagons sandwiching 6 carrying wagons. The rear "half train" is similar, but with the double-deck wagon types and a loco at the other end. This is the model train size recommended by CJM, with the real train having twice the number of each type of carrying wagon (for a total of 28 wagons and 2 locos).

 

The other model made by CJM is the lorry or HGV train, with identical half-trains of long cab-on-flat loading wagons sandwiching 7 (14 on the real train) open-lattice carrying wagons, using the same locomotives. A coach for the lorry drivers is added right behind the lead locomotive. I have the coach and the loading/unloading wagons, but only a few of the HGV carrying wagons for this train.

 

Of course, the Eurostar operates through the Chunnel as well.

 

Rich K.

Edited March 27, 2017 by brill27mcb