That sounds like solid advice, but my layout doesn’t have much in the way of straight track. [:D]
LOL! I guess I did go a little too much with the oil [:$] [(-D]
A drop of oil on the end of a toothpick is usually MORE than enough. Then wipe it off. Enough will stay to do the job.
I was actually planning on lubing all my trains this week end because they are starting to get noisy.
there is a local HO club that has an operations guideline of, i believe it’s 5 cars per powered axle but i know for sure they have grades to deal with.
of course in 1:1 railroading, the longest train you run better be a tad shorter than the smallest passing siding.
It was a special case, I actually laid some temporary track through three rooms for the test. The track was around 55 foot total, and the train only had about 6-7 feet between the locomotive and the last car. It ran for about 20 minutes to see how much temperature rise there would be in the locomotive, and how hot the motors and electronics would get. I did have to replace a couple of cars because the couplers kept popping open, and finally I wired the last one closed to complete my little test.
No excessive heat was detected, I probably could have run for as long as I liked, I had less than 10C temperature rise for the motors and electronics when I checked.
I have trouble with pulling the cars right off the track with 036 curves, especially multiple curves. The 054 is more forgiving however.
The length of the train depends on the number of motors in the loco and the weight of the locomotive.
Can the motors move the cars and will the weight help the wheels stay on the tracks?
Andrew
I’m a little embarrassed to ask because I don’t have any idea, but can you have more than one powered O-scale loco in a consist?
I have them in N-scale and I’ve never heard of it in O-scale.
Yes. It’s done all the time. The biggest problem in conventional operation is keeping the e-units synchronized. One solution is to lock the locomotives into the same direction by shutting off the e-units. This is quick but makes it impossible to reverse. Another is to wire between locomotives, to power all the motors from a single e-unit.
Thanks Bob, wow that interesting. I’m still learning stuff every day. [Y]
A limit to how many cars you can pull? If you have enough tractive effort and the cars don’t stringline, you can do this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U96L1YcuI4o
I was testing the pulling power of my windup Triplex, but didn’t have enough cars or a long enough track to find its limits. One more car and the caboose was up against the pilot of the locomotive. That is the only time I ran a train that long, although I do occasionally run trains that go halfway around the track.
- James
I bought a second Legacy U28C “U-Boat” specifically to run double headed. For command operation under O-gauge, both TMCC/Legacy and DCS have extensive capability to run multiple units together. The most I’ve tried is four powered units, but I didn’t have enough track for cars to justify the motive power. [:D]
**Dave…**one thing you might try if you have not done so already is to move the heaviest cars in order of weight to the front of the consist and the lightest toward the rear. That should help things. Some of my son’s “all plastic” cars from a later model starter set are just too light.
Also, make sure all of the coupler arms and truck pivots on the cars all move freely and easily.
Jack
My biggest train was a few Christmas’s ago when we ran a 76 car train around a bid dog bone layour around two trees in the living room. I used 0-27 profile track in 72" radious at one end and 54" radious at the other. I used 5 MPC era diesel locomotives, with three on the point and two more 40 cars back. I ran it with two 1033 transformers and didn’t have any issue with derailments. The biggest problem was the knuckle’s opening on some of the cars. These were all MPC and newer cars as they pull much easier than my post war cars. I do run a 18 car unit train of Sunoco tank cars and also unit trains of the Lehigh Valley coal hoppers that is also 18 cars. I can pull them with a good 675, but you have to make sure you oil the axles of the cars or it is too hard on the locomotive. A 2046 or 2055 with Magna traction is just slightly better than the 675.
Steve
For MTH Rail King Santa Fe Northern no. 2927 (30-1465-1) the limit appears to be 10 or fewer Rail King passenger cars. While I have operated the engine with 11 Rail King passenger cars, it will not operate consistently with 11. It will shut down. It is able to easily move out and pull 11 cars. I am told that when the engine is shutting down due to the load being pulled it could harm the motor. So I am restricting it to a maximum of a 10 car Chief.
While my first generation Rail King Chesapeake and Ohio Berkshire no. 2744 can pull 11 Rail King cars without any problems and started right up after about 10 years in storage.