Dare you admit it?

[railsquid]

Not a railway professional of any kind, and alas here in Tokyo there's virtually nothing loco-hauled any more except for the odd freight train, but I do find myself checking train lengths and formations.

[MinZaPint]

Guilty as charged your honour! Fun isn't it 

[Komata]

johnlambert

Re: 'But photographers seem to assume no-one is interested in anything but engines...'

As you will no doubt be aware, 'The squeaky wheel always gets the most grease', and so it is with locomotives.  They make the 'most noise', and as a result they get all the attention.  The carriages / wagons are mere appendages to the 'star' of the show...

A 'visual' proverb if you will...

[Bealman]

Better not tell Annie and Clarabelle that 

[Skyline2uk]

Another one here.

A particular thing I do is count HST sets on layouts to see if they are A) Original Western Region (7 coaches), B) Elsewhere (8 coaches), C) One of those black ones (Grand Central, 5?) or D) None of the above.

In model form, D) is rather common. Of course, us in the N gauge world who have used Dapol as HST suppliers have had a valid excuse for several years....

Skyline2uk

[martyn]

There are a number of websites which now give details of 'real' train formations, especially passenger or parcel trains. Some may require a payment; I've just recently got three downloads from the GER Society giving train formations in 1956 and 1980something, and I've spent some recent modelling time remarshaling my stock to replicate either exactly or very closely the real thing. It is one beauty of N gauge; a loco+8 or 9 (or more) doesn't look out of place on a layout.
Martyn

[Bealman]

The 2016 Hornby yearbook that I recently reviewed in this parish has a good article on passenger train formations, page 86. It's written with 00 stock in mind, but is, of course, equally applicable to N gauge.

[Lankyman]

Now I know why I feel so at home on this forum ....and I was a professional railwayman too!

Ron

[austinbob]

The 2016 Hornby yearbook that I recently reviewed in this parish has a good article on passenger train formations, page 86. It's written with 00 stock in mind, but is, of course, equally applicable to N gauge.

I think you're missing the point guys and gals - it doesn't matter what the number/type of coaches are supposed to be, its what you see/count that matters. It's a compulsive disorder thing. It's imperative you see ALL the coaches whatever they are.
Must check the gas is turned of!! Back in a tick

[Newportnobby]

As others have remarked upon before, I also think an odd number of coaches looks more realistic than an even number. There is absolutely no logic behind that but it works for me

[dannyboy]

I also think an odd number of coaches looks more realistic than an even number.

Regarding the above and my OCD (?), have you ever noticed that car alloy wheels, more often than not, have an odd number of 'spokes', (quite often 5)  . My own car, on first look, appears to have 10 'spokes', but on closer looking, it is actually 2 lots of 5 'spokes'  . Go on, go and look at your and your neighbours car  . David.

[Webbo]

I am definitely not afflicted by this disorder.

Staying with my sister in Canada, I would watch the trains go by for a couple of hours a day. I counted a few of them (all freight) and they were all over 100 cars long. The smallest cars were 50' in length, but most were longer. The problem with counting the cars of this number and train length is that inevitably mistakes are made in counting so  the number obtained is indicative, but of dubious accuracy.

So, counting was an unsatisfying exercise and also meant that I could not concentrate on looking at the cars and noting whom they all belonged to, an activity which was much more interesting to me.

Webbo   

[N-Gauge-US]

Glad I'm not alone! It turns out nearly all of us do, apparently! I count every train I see in video and it makes me insane for the shot to stop 3/4 of the way through the rake! I always find myself getting antsy towards the end of a train because I start thinking the photographer will stop at any moment.

And Webbo, I agree that big North American trains can be harder to count (especially with intermodal freight), but I try to count the first few cars and then pick a point and not move my eyes from there while I'm counting. That way I don't loose my place nearly as easily and I can usually count the whole train and feel reasonably sataified that I have a correct count (not that I record it). I do admit it detracts a little from viewing and so I won't always count trains I'm interested in, but often I can get a good enough look at the freight while counting that I can do both

[Greybeema]

I'm a counter too...

See I do even number of coaches - I was brought up beside the Brighton line - EMUs in multiples  of 2 & 4 - with the one exception (BB)...

I count on N gauge layouts to work out roughly if the size of train I want to run fits into someone else's design - you might be able to plagiarise someone else's idea.

Also I have a pet peeve..  Why is it you only rarely see BoBs & WCs with a short train.  Watch modelling videos - most only have a three coach train or less I know about the ACE but they could handle longer trains...

Ducks and runs....   

[Webbo]

Yes, I am much interested in numbers, but concentrate on locomotive road numbers as they passed by at the beginning, middle and end of the trains. There is a website that allows you to key in the road number and railway and it will spit out exactly what the loco is, where it was built and when, as well as providing all sorts of photos of its travels around North America. Believe it or not a similar capability applies to North American freight cars.

Webbo