Length of your various Rakes

[Rabbitaway]

Because the trains cannot be viewed in their entirety on the diagonal double track mainline straight  I seem to be able to get away with breaking the "thirds" rules.

You can also get away without following the "thirds" rule if the section of track is in open country, agreed not so good if stations are shorter than the rake or on less open scenery sections. I tend to run long rakes on the front track on my layout for this reason

[Paul B]

I always remember someone saying that it is more aesthetically pleasing to the eye for a model train rake to consist of an odd number of coaches - and, having tried it, is does for some strange reason!

However, on the Swindon Model Railway club's big N gauge layout, Fisher Bridge, I have often run 8-10 coaches behind my elderly Minitrix A4 'Sir Nigel Gresley', partly because it is great being able to run a full rake behind a good loco on a big layout, but mainly because the loco is just so good at pulling a full rake, especially up the inclines on the layout! 

[d-a-n]

I have a roundy-roundy train set which is devoid of scenery and which is biased towards train operation (playing) and hands free shunting (more playing.) I went for the longest sidings possible which have come out at around 75cm each (three lengths of Kato), plus the 6.4cm long piece of track with the magnet in. This leaves me with enough room to park up 5 mk1s, 14-15 short wagons or about 10-12 modern wagons - this train length looks alright behind a big diesel/kettle (CL47 or WD) and great behind something mid sized (CL24 or Fairburn).
I am looking forward to getting the Duchess train pack and having a rake of 8 blue grey mk1s although I'll need to put a few strategic easi-shunts in the rake to make sure it can be shunted away!

[RHEINGOLD]

I always remember someone saying that it is more aesthetically pleasing to the eye for a model train rake to consist of an odd number of coaches - and, having tried it, is does for some strange reaso

Now isn't that a strange thing to say bearing in mind my original post wherein I said that a 5 coach rake looked "just right".
I had originally put 6 behind a Flreischmann steam loco and whilst it looked good and was well within the hauling powers of the loco once I had reduced the rake to 5 it looked so much better without me being able to " put my finger" on why,it just did for some reason. Yet it is said thet the eye prefers symmetry which would suggest a preference of even over odd!
Strange but what you say is seemingly true.
Les

[oreamnos]

The length depends.  With the modular club I belong to where our normal set up is 16' x 36' give or take, I'm the only one who models British outline and the other members regularly run 15' to 25'+ long US outline freight trains.  I find myself running an HST set which has been augmented by three or four coaches, a 20 bogie Freightliner train, an 18 bogie parcel train and a 15-16 maroon Mk1 coach passenger train - a Farish A1 or Royal Scot or a Dapol A3 will all quite happily pull 16 Mk1s.  My aim is to get a ~10' long rake of anything and if I manage to, I'm happy.  I do this simply so that what I run doesn't look even more out of place than it already does on a layout which is based on the US Pacific Northwest! 

At home, my tail chaser is 78" long x 34" wide with no hidden fiddle yard (the whole oval is visible) so a 60" long train is as long as I think still looks OK.

Matt

[dodger]

You can also get away without following the "thirds" rule if the section of track is in open country, agreed not so good if stations are shorter than the rake or on less open scenery sections. I tend to run long rakes on the front track on my layout for this reason

In the UK there were many instances of passenger trains being longer than station platforms, often at peak times. Since the introduction of sliding doors this has reduced but many modern passenger units are fitted with Selective Door Opening to accommodate short platforms.

Dodger

[Greybeema]

When the 4 car Class 465 Networkers and 2 car Class 466 Networkers were introduced onto the North Kent line there was a rapid building programme to extend all platforms so that they could take a 10 car train.

I was told later that there was a wee mistake in the calculation so that a 10 coach train made up of 2 465 4 car units and a 466 2 car unit would fit.  But a train made up of 4 466 2 cars units was to lonG by two cab and coupling lengths...

Most trains, as far as I can remember, stayed at 8 cars long though..

[weave]

I always remember someone saying that it is more aesthetically pleasing to the eye for a model train rake to consist of an odd number of coaches - and, having tried it, is does for some strange reaso

Now isn't that a strange thing to say bearing in mind my original post wherein I said that a 5 coach rake looked "just right".
I had originally put 6 behind a Flreischmann steam loco and whilst it looked good and was well within the hauling powers of the loco once I had reduced the rake to 5 it looked so much better without me being able to " put my finger" on why,it just did for some reason. Yet it is said thet the eye prefers symmetry which would suggest a preference of even over odd!
Strange but what you say is seemingly true.
Les

Hi all,

I agree. I went to horticultural college and was taught to always plant more than one plant in 3s, 5s, 7s etc. (even [no pun] if in a row), think this applies in art too, as more aesthetically pleasing.

With regard to trains, on my small layout, the Spanish ones look fine with 3, 5 coaches on expresses as I've seen them, (even 1 coach), but the French ones look wrong as I've only seen the long, long ones in real life. Am talking 80's/90's here.

Probably psychological.

Cheers weave

[sparky]

Hi Weave..."80`s/90`s" French rakes....how long are French platforms to cope with these very long rakes ?   

[Dave95979]

unfortunately  my rake is based on how much money i have       i do have 18 wagons behind a class 58 which is abut my limit due to layout size

[woodbury22uk]

Hi Weave..."80`s/90`s" French rakes....how long are French platforms to cope with these very long rakes ?   

Many overnight trains ran as 14-16 x 26.4metre long coaches from Gare de Lyon. Today many TGVs leave Paris as 20 coaches 2 sets of 2+8 cars, and I have seen 24 coaches at La Rochelle on Summer Saturdays 2 sets of 2 + 10 cars. And of course the Eurostars from London to Alpine resorts, South of France etc are 2+ 18 cars standard sets.

[jivebunny]

Today many TGVs leave Paris as 20 coaches 2 sets of 2+8 cars

Indeed, and 24 vehicles in the case of TGV Atlantique units running in multiple. The walk from the concourse at Paris Montparnasse to coach 20 is a long one! 

JB

[Zakalwe]

i am fortunate enough to have a couple of 5.5m visible largely straight runs, maximum storage length on traverser is 160cm, a farish 66 and 14 silver bullets is the longest train i have at 158cm,

longer than this starts to look wrong if looking through other bits of the layout as you can see where the hidden train set curves are so as others have said it's trial and error to find what looks right and as noted before, odd numbers look better on coaches... probably breaks the symmetry if one is a buffet

[alibuchan]

It is very much dependent on the layout.

We can run full length passenger trains, including a full scotrail sleeper set (90 + 4 mk2 + 12 mk3) and it looks great due to the sweeping curves and the 18 foot scenic section, but try putting that on a 12 foot scenic and it looks wrong!

Freight is limited by the fiddle yard design so 2 86's + 8 FEA pairs (16 wagons) will fit in the longest road and 70 + 12 coal hoppers in the shortest one.

My aim for my own layout is for it not to look wrong with my 2 11 coach pendolinos passing each other on the way in to the terminus station. Which was speculativley  been pre-designed to fit them.

Alistair

[G_N_E_R]

So far the only scenic section I have that is near completion is 151.5cm over a bridge and my full length HST and 225 both look the part going over it at speed. Note the scenery is not completed yet so that may affect my final verdict whether the 9 coaches need to be shortened or not but they look god going over the current board and terrain!