Something 'Cuda Ken posted on another thread got me to thinking. Do you track the number of running hours on your engines? If so, do you do it accurately or just, for example, add up the number of hours you spend in the train room?
Do you record the results and keep them somewhere, such as a spreadsheet?
I don’t, but I’ll venture a geuss. I’d say 100 hours or so. it seems that this could be part of the engine hostlers job on larger layouts.
I don’t keep an accurate record…I’m not quite that organized. However, I tend to rotate my locomotives, and even so I don’t use any of them more than maybe a couple of hours over three or four weeks before I put them away and bring out another pair. Not to say I have a huge roster…just 20 locomotives. But it means that none of my engines, from the oldest to the newest, has more than 6 hours of running time.
I sure hope it means that I will enjoy most of them for decades yet. Replacing them will be very costly.
Crandell
Hi,
I’m not knocking the idea, for it does have its uses. But for the average train layout it just doesn’t seem worthwhile. If I run trains for an hour every day, and given I’ve got about 10 consists, and rotate my running, each consist might get close to an hour a week, if that.
I prefer to do maintenance on a time basis, for even sitting in a closed display case the lubes can and have dried up. I don’t know this for fact, but I suspect running trains is better than letting them sit - to a point of course.
I strongly believe the “run clock” is a must for airplanes and boats, and also autos/trucks. The fact is, an idling gasoline motor does more grief to the system than one running on the highway. And of course this applies to our proto locos too. But I just don’t see it as useful for our models.
But hey, that’s just my view…
With over 200 locos i rotate everyday and it will be hard to try to figure how many hours i put on each one of them.
I operate my SP model diesels much like the prototype SP did, run the wheels off until failure, then they go in for repairs.
Yeah, that’s pretty much to way I do it. [:^)]
Yeah, that’s pretty much to way I do it. [:^)]
Although the LION is not using it yet, he did design a TRAIN REGISTER somewhat after the fashion of an actual NYCT register. I printed the trains on the register to use as a schedule, they on the other hand fill them in from scratch. Most of the NYCT towers and dispatcher’s offices are now closed, something similar is kept at the terminals.
Sadly, that’s how most people maintain their personal autos, as well. People grumbled and griped when the government forced emission controls be installed on new cars, mainly because people didn’t perform routine maintenance on them. Once a month, I’ll take a consist (on a rotating basis) out of service to perform routine maintenance; checking lube, cleaning wheels, etc.) Once every couple of years, they go in for a geartrain cleaning and relubing. What was that saying, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”? Oh, and I keep a spreadsheet so I can keep track of what’s been done to which units and when.
I don’t do enough runnign at home yet to really matter. For my club train, on a typical weekend show I’ll clean the wheels and lube the loco before the show, then it runs in stretches of maybe an hour or so before I park it and someone else runs their train. That’s abotu it as far as trackign running - mostly the limit is how long I can stay on my feet walking back and forth the length of the 100+ foot layout. For the longer shows, like where we are set up for a full week, I’ll pull the locos and clean and lube them sometime mid-week, or when the lights start to blink a little - although usually that’s dirty track and not dirty wheels. Sometimes I cheat on the wheel cleaning and follow the cleaner train aroud (which they run once a day each morning).
The equipment htat I have at home that has never made the trip to the club (so far) all has less than 10 hours on it, if that. Some I’ve only run a few laps in each direction to test run it and then away it goes, otherwise the layout would be cluttered with locos and rolling stock and I’d never get any work done (not that I am anyway). With a new loco, when I install a decoder I clean the factory lube out and put fresh in - most of the locos I have are several years old, older production runs, and the factory stuff is either applied in quanitites large enough to lube a full size loco or else has hardened with age. There are places in my inventory program to track this sort of thing but I generally do not record it. ABout the only thing Ihave recoreded besides characteristics of the locos are ones I’ve noted that have a broken or missing piece that needs to be repaired. Same with rolling stock. One fo these days I will pick up a few packages of various size metal grabs and repair all the broken plastic ones.
–Randy
I don’t log or really keep track. I do have a fairly good idea as to just how much each is used though. Some of my most dependable pieces are ones used regularly, especially for shows where hours of continous running w/o problems is imperitive. Problem locos or rolling stock don’t look too good for me or the club. I have some Stewart Fs that have run flawlessly for 15 years w/ all that hundreds of hour of running. Then there’s those finicky ones that after a few hours are back in the shop for tweaking. Some of my BB ones have so many hours aver 20 years I wouldn’t dare guess as to the time on them- they just keep going.