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Attempting a record-breaking model train
good luck on breaking the record . I would like to see this train run ( hint hint ) .
I agree. It would be neat to see this in action. About the whole long train idea, I have a hard time getting more than 30 cars to pull properly around a loop of track. How do I change that and how would a person add weight to a sealed walthers tank car? They are 23000 gallon funnel flow product #s 932-7255 and 932-7260. Help or advice would be appreciated. Thank you.
ditto - please get a video for those of us too far away.
sounds like a great day!
That would be something to see alright.
A film studies crew from our local University, UNCW, is doing a documentary of this record breaking event. They will probably post an edited video on youtube when complete. They have put a promo of the event on now at http://www.youtube.com/tealtv2010, about 3:30 into the show.
The Museum’s volunteer model railroad committee has been planning and working on this challenge for almost a year. It has been a great team building experience. We’ve done a lot of testing on our 30 x 50 foot HO layout at the museum and are nearly ready - 2 weeks to go! We’ve also had great support from Bowser and MRC.
Awesome!!! I would love to watch this thing run. Is it possible to have a video posted here on MRR? If so it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!
MRC USED TO RUN ADS SHOWING HOW MANY LOCOMOTIVES THEIR POWER PACKS COULD RUN SIMULTANEOUSLY. HOW ARE THESE 34 LOCOMOTIVES GOING TO RUN? OFF OF A SINGLE POWER PACK CONNECTION, OR THRU SMALLER BLOCKS (SAY, FIVE LOCOMOTIVES LONG) WITH EACH BLOCK POWERED BY A SINGLE POWERPACK.
Well I certainly hope someone will cature this on video for all us to watch and enjoy!!!
If you are going to do this; you must solve the “voltage drop” problem!
If you are running a loop of track on two 4X8 pieces of plywood; #16 feeders will solve all your voltage drop problems.
What size of wire will make a 1000 foot loop think it’s 16 feet long???
Actually… #4 would do it…
An electrical engineering graduate course in three minutes!
Every time you move up one wire size,(even numbers),
you:–
Cut the resistance in half.
Cut the voltage drop in half.
Double the circular mills.
Decrease the “electrical” size of the layout; you halve it.
If your loop is 1000 feet around, then it would be about 500 feet long. If you did the equivalent of three laps or a fold, to bring the length down to 200 feet…
Now…what wire size to make 200 feet seem to be 16 feet…
#14=32’ ; #12=64" ; #10=128’ ; #8=256’
Actually I would recommend #6 ground cable, (bare copper),
as it is easy to tap it.
This makes it electrically…8 feet long. this would smooth out any errors in multiple throttles…
Be really careful how you solder #6 cable to HO track…you could derail the train…
Actually, you take taps of the cable, by nicking a conductor, it’s about #14, and using a wire nut to tap it. Tape it close to the nick…
Keep the cables separated…
This will make all the locos have the same voltage, exactly the same.
Well that’s it in a nutshell…
Good luck
Addenda:—
After the record run…sell the cars and locos as collectibles.
stamp or mark them!
This would help you finance the effort…
I’d like to be there to observe I hope MRR will report
The promo video mentioned by William Bryden is the one labeled “Seahawk Central News 03-21-11 Part 1.” It is the 5th one down from the top on the right hand side list.
Iwish you all the sucsess and good luck. And I agree with Brian T, about selling the cars as a comemarate for the event. I would very pleased to own one for the P.R.V.R. Co. layout.
Brian Torch, you don’t need to solder large wire directly to the rails, you run large gauge parallel wires and solder smaller gauge feeder wires every few feed. MRR has a video or two on running feeder wires that explains the concept.
To answer questions about power, we divided the 1000 feet of track into 4 blocks. There was a pair of 20 gauge feeder wires soldered between each section of 3 foot flex track (every 6 feet). The feeder wires were connected to the 250 foot long #14 gauge bus wires (each fed in the center of their run) by IDCs (suitcase connectors). This kept the voltage at the track very uniform. The entire 31 engines were run from one MRC G 10 controller or a home built power unit. Each used to back the other up. By limiting the operating voltage we were able to keep the current draw to an acceptable level. The Bowser C-628 diesel engines that we used are quite efficient and pulled very well at this power level.
On Saturday, April 23rd we were able to run the required distance to qualify for the record. Licensed surveyors from McKim & Creed did the measuring. The train was 925.55 feet long and ran over 750 feet under its own power (over 19 scale kilometers, the requirement was to travel over 15 scale kilometers). There will be video of this run at a later date. We did sell the engines and custom cars to finance the effort. This worked well. We still have to package our witness statements, surveyors report, and the video and photographs of the event and send it all to Guinness for their certification. There are a few pictures on the Wilmington Railroad Museum’s Facebook page. One of our witnesses posted several pictures on his website at http://www.jonesanthony.com/, click on the purple banner. Also the local newspaper put a number of pictures on their web site at http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20110423/ARTICLES/110429855?Title=Wilmington-model-railroaders-set-Guinness-World-Record&tc=ar. I will let you know when a video is available.
to some of the people… its just a hobby lets not go to far in it. After all how real would it really look ?? if it had all those cars on it any ways?.