Can someone please give me the length of the following HO locos, in cm and mm if possible. I need it for planning my layout. Thanks in advance.
Kato :
RS-2
RSC-2
NW2
GP35
SD45
Atlas:
GP-38 & GP-40
GP-7
S-2 & S-4
RS-1
Everything is HO scale.
Off the top of my head, my Atlas S-2 is about 5", the RS-1 about 7 1/2 - 8", and the GP-7s are about 9" (sorry, I’m not home, so I can’t measure them in cm [:)]). You can figure the Kato’s about the same for equivalent engines (i.e., the RSC is probably somewhere between the RS and the GPs), except for the SD, which is probably closer to 10".
If no one else chimes in, I’ll give you more exact answers later today.
Later: Ok, well, I don’t have a metric ruler around, but my guesses were close. The S-2 is 6", the RS-1 is 7 1/2", and the GP-7’s are 8".
I have 2 Atlas GP40’s and they are 210 mm coupler to coupler.
I allow 10.5" for most six axle locos such as SD45s…
Assume you want lengths to fit trains into confined space… e.g. a neck for releasing locos off of trains at one end of staging tracks / at the end of a wye… or a sector plate or turntable…
Don’t make life hard for yourself… take your longest loco and add an inch… or your longest loco consist and add an inch. Don’t forget, if you are using auto uncouples, you may need room to “shunt” across the magnet and draw clear. Don’t know… you may want more than an inch. If you give yourself some leeway in a dead end you can put a photo cell under the track just before the end to cut the power when anything is pushed over it…this saves thumping the end… or dropping off… helps to wire it so that you have to hold down a switch to give power to get back out… and wire it so that it will only give power for the “out” direction… Someone want to tell us how to wire this??? Don’t know what happens with DCC… Any other complications?
Well, it would be more difficult to wire a DCC block with a switch so that trains can only run one way on it, since DCC uses AC, so (other than shorts), the way the tracks are wired has no effect on loco direction. But you can use a cut-off switch on one lead to the final block of the staging track – the engine will stop when it hits that block with the switch off. When you want to move the train again, just make sure the throttle has the loco(s) going the right way, then turn the switch on.
Of course, you definitely have to make the power block big enough for your longest lash-up. Otherwise, the first engine would stop, but the rest in the consist would just keep pushing it right off the end. [B)]