I have set up an area in my basement where I am performing a lifetime test of two DC locomotives hauling unprotected real loads of Nova Scotia rock, minerals, ores, scrap metal, and ocean driftwood. I add new materials as I discover them to be of interest to my planned layout. The trains have been run every day for four months now. There have been a few load spills - all caused by my hand or arm touching a moving train by accident. There has been no noticeable performance degradation following these spills. I will use this thread to show the loads and provide updates.
This is the lifetime testbed. Two trains hauling real hopper/gondola loads, and an assortment of other cars, are run every day. The trial started in January 2017 and will continue indefinitely with the same two locomotives. After my field trip today, I’ll describe the experiment in detail, including information on the locomotives, cars, loads, and tracks.
What’s the purpose of the tests? Lots of us use live loads. The only tests I run are to see how many cars each locomotive or combination of locomotives can handle on the many grades and curves of my layout. This allows me to assign tonnage ratings.
Wayne
If your checking for locomotive life, my local hobby shop (now closed) had a HO locomotive running on his display layout 8 hours six days a week (at about 20 MPH scale) for close to 25 years and it was still running great when he closed his store.
I have several HO locomotives with well over a thousand hours of run time. Many are forty to fifty years old.
Mel
Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951
My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/
Bakersfield, California
I’m beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
In several of my online posts here and in other places, I am receiving advice not to use real loads of magnetite (iron), coal (carbon), pyrite (sulphur), scrap metal (iron), ocean driftwood (salt) and more. Basically, the claim is that I will ruin my trains, turnouts, electronics, etc. This lifetime testbed is designed to quell those (valid) concerns with experimental facts. I set the testbed up in January 2017 so this is the fourth month of R&D. So, when I get similar concerns in future, I’ll be able to point folks to this thread.
I am not testing the lifetime of locomotives themselves - of course there is no need. I am testing the locomotives running in a layout environment that uses real iron, sulphur, carbon, salt and powders made from various rocks, minerals, and other natural materials.
On the outside oval track I am using a good quality Kato locomotive as shown in this photo. This train uses Kadee couplers and runs on Atlas track. It has run smoothly since day one of the lifetime testing.
On the inside oval Atlas track I am using a quality Atlas locomotive as shown in the picture. This train uses horn-hook couplers. There is also a turnout on this oval. Both ovals have a straight terminal track. This locomotive has also run smoothly since the lifetime trial began.
(1) Gypsum Gypsum is found almost everywhere in my real Nova Scotia layout area. There are white cliffs along the St. Croix River, a closed mine near Windsor, outcrops on the beaches of Cheverie, abandonned hoppers and ocean loading terminal in Hantsport, and quarries in Walton and Kempt Shore. This sample in my hand is commercial quality gypsum off the gypsum hoppers in Hantsport.
Preparing a load of gypsum for an HO-scale hopper starts with crushing gypsum outside to minimize the amount of fine powder that gets into the air and all over nearby household objects. I wear safety glasses and a mask.
I use store-bought and home-made sifters to separate desireable particle sizes.
In this case I am crushing to obtain gypsum for an HO hopper. The powder and fine particles are sifted out and the desired gypsum washed thoroughly.
The powder and fine particles that didn’t blow away are saved for fillers, ground cover, concrete, and several other applications on the layout.
The gypsum for hopper loads is air dried or blow dried.
A roll of strong ceramic magnets is passed through the gypsum to remove any iron-based particles. In this case there were none!
A load of clean gypsum was placed in a hopper and is running on the inside test track (the horn-hook coupler train).
Another load of clean gypsum was placed in another hopper on the outside track (Kadee coupler train). Fourth month and no problems. That’s it for gypsum.
Respectfully I’m not sure I understand. Based on the photo above, I would not be interested in using this material. Regardless of other concerns, the size of the pieces is way too large to represent most anything carried in open hoppers.
Please explain if I am misunderstanding?
Personally, after 40 years in this hobby, I have found no need to use live loads. The only live load operation I have ever seen that was effective is at the Severna Park Model Railroad Club. They have a coal mine tipple that loads hoppers, and a rotary dump that empties them into a ship.
Short of that sort of display, what is the value in live loads?
Sheldon
I have used this size so you can see it clearly. I can make any size, in fact, I have made gypsum as track ballast at HO scale. All my building foundations are made of ‘concrete’ - gypsum+binder.
First advantage, it’s free. I do not have to spend a penny. Second advantage, it’s real. I will have an operational (animated) gypsum mine and quarry in my layout using real gypsum. I had a personal tour of the National Gypsum open pit mine in Milford a year or so ago. I will even make HO scale explosives that work - got to see that on my tour. Third advantage, it’s my personal preference as a retired phyisicist with one of my daughters and her husband being geologists in Calgary. Fourth advantage, the theme of my layout is Nova Scotia geology. Fifth advantage, it’s fun. Sixth advantage … there are more.
It’s 1:00 am here in Nova Scotia but I had to get up to take a picture just for you. Is this better? I can even get smaller particle sizes if you like.
All white particles here are gypsum. I can even go smaller than what you see in this picture. The gypsum powder in the test tubes (earlier photo) also contain very fine particles. For example, all I have to do is wash away or sift away the powder and I will be left with tiny grains that look like beach sand. There is also real Nova Scotia coal, sandstone, and shale in this sorter.
