OK, I was bored, I was Defraging my hard drive and watching my trains run and got thinking about how far they have ran. I have been into trains for all most 5 years now. At one point I was running the trains 40 hours a week, that is a lot of hours. I have settled down this year and only run them around 2 hours a day. But I started to wonder how many miles my rails have on them.
4 years X 365 days = 1460 X 4 hours a day (AVG) = 5840 hours X 60 minutes = 350,400 total minutes. I timed a freight train I was running, and it went 24 feet in one minute so that is around 24 sMPH. Seems like a typical speed I run the trains.
So 350,400 minutes X 24 feet per minute = 8,409,600 feet or 1,617 miles?
No wonder I ware things out! In another 4 years I will have my code 100 wore down to code 83! [:D]
I think my mainline is about one scale mile, staging yard to staging yard. At each operating session, there’s two through trains - CDWJ and WJCD - that run over the whole layout and also take a side-trip into the yard to drop off local cars and pick up outbounds. Local LE-2 doesn’t run over the whole layout, but the extra milage by the through freights probably make up that lost distance overall. LE-1 handles local industries in Lebanon and Mascoma…probably another mile.
Overall, about 4 miles per operating session, plus whatever I run by myself just for fun and the many, many laps that some kids I know like to run their locomotives around and around…I’d say my layout has a good 100 scale miles on it since the rebuild.
Ah, the “computer is defragging or rebooting, and now what do I do 'cuz I’m bored?” shuffle. Been there.
My oldest engine, I estimate, has perhaps 4 hours total of running time. I underestimate things routinely, so lets make it 6 hours. The next three oldest were getting less use and collecting dust, so I put them away. They would each have something like 4 hours of running on them. Same for my J1 2-10-4. Others are in the 2-3 hour range. For powered-up hours, I can only guess, because they sit while I play with one or two engines. Maybe 600?
My main is about 66’ (folded loop), and must have endured 500 - 600 circuits by now. So my total scale mileage is very close to 500-600.
Well Ken, I checked your math (Hey, I have an engineering degree. It’s what I do[:)]). 24 feet per minute comes out to about 0.27 miles per hour, at 4 hours a day (a very impressive number, I must say) equals 1.08 miles a day, or 394 miles per year in round numbers. Over four years, that’s 1576 miles.
Keeping the Indy-St. Louie comparison - it’s about 250 miles along I-70, so you could make three round trips from the Circle City to the Gateway City and back, and then make another trip to Terre Haute.
But gee golly, four hours of running time a day, every day, for four years!? Now that’s a man-sized helping of layout time. I’m lucky to get one hour of running time two or three nights a week.
Jim, reason I thought of you is because most of the time I run the Mono F 3’s. Far as track time, it could be well over the 4 hours a day. I ran the trains much like people play the radio. Have it on doing something and for get it going. Tonight a lone it has been going 2.25 hours?
I read on the Atlas site the world record for longest engine run time was 52 day’s. It was a Proto 2000 BL 2, I am sure it was a Monon! [:D]
A few years back I did my infamous Great Proto 2000 Endurance Test. I ran a GP9 and GP7 for 541 hours and 35 minutes over 27 days before I broke a few axle gears in them. Do a search and it should come up. To this day those two little loco’s run just like new.
My most used locomotives haven’t seen that kind of abuse. I’ve got a few that ran start to finish for 3 day shows. 3 days x 12 hours/day = 36 hours/show x 8 shows = 288 hours. That would be my max of a single locomotive. Most of my locomotives have only been operated briefly 4-6 hours per montly operating session times a few (3-5) years each. On other hand, if one multiplies that times total locomotives it would be a fairly large number so…[D)] On the other hand (three hands?) with so many locomotives none of them get run through the whole 45 years or so that I’ve been in the hobby (45 years /number locomotives in roster vs. those simultaniously operated).
If one takes slot cars it is a different story. I think my original two Model Motoring cars (a 1965 Mustang and a Jaguar) probably have between 500 and 1000 real miles on them. Hard to measure even approximately but they move a whole lot faster than the fastest model loco. I don’t know how many brass pick up shoes / brushes they have worn out. I even had to replace the tires a couple times. They have outlasted the controllers which have been replace at least three times.
I hate to guess how many real miles my slot cars have on them. My fast one’s would cover the 300 feet of slot car track in around 29 seconds? Long straights where 19 feet and that took like 2 seconds.
great question. I have no idea how many miles are on my favourite AC4400’s, except a lot at maximum pulling ability from the engines. Reading the amount of miles on your locomotives and knowing that you also run heavy freights makes me not worry about burning out my engines.