N Scale Steam - limitations?

richhotrain · July 10, 2011, 5:57pm

Piculous???

I thought profanity was not allowed on this forum. [swg]

Rich

fwright · July 11, 2011, 5:22am

Texas Zepher:

I believe an N-scale steam locomotive could be made to run just as well as any HO on the market with technology available today. It is just a matter of how much one would be willing to pay for it. I am certain there are machine shops out there that can make the precision wheels, gears, bearings, etc needed to construct a fine running loco. But I don’t think many would be willing to pay the $3,000 - $10,000 per loco I estimate they would cost. So in my opinion the operative word is economic practicality. Manufacturers will make steam locomotives to the highest quality that people are willing to pay for, for which they can make a profit on.

It’s interesting that model railroaders will argue over how much locomotives and cars cost in N vs HO but never stop to think about the single largest cost of our hobby: space. Real estate costs big money to purchase and more every year for taxes, utilites and insurance. Since N scale requires roughly half the area of HO, an N scale layout enjoys a significant cost advantage over the larger scales. My statement is not meant to be combative or an affront to modelers in >N scale, but rather to point out that N scalers shouldn’t bellyache over paying more for their locomotives than modelers in larger scales.

This is based on my experience with small HO and HOn3 steam.

The typical shortcuts taken for model locomotives become bigger performance issues in N size steam. Things like rigid frames, lateral motion of drivers for sharper minimum radius, single piece side rods, lack of extra ele

skipgear · July 11, 2011, 8:29am

Fred,

Lot’s of good thoughts but unfortunately, most of them don’t transfer well to N scale. Belts just wouldn’t work in N, they are too stiff and would cause a lot of start up drag. As far as side rods go, ridgid side rods seem to help N, not hurt. They help keep all the drivers in time. If you have ever played with a ConCor Big Boy, you would understand why individual side rods just don’t work that well. Between the slop in the gears and the slop in the side rods, there is too much slack action in the drivetrain that causes binding and kinks in the operation.

As far as the metal boilers go, Bachmann has that licked. The last 4 releases from them have had metal boilers. They have their casting process down to the point that their metal boilers are as sharp and detailed as plastic. The most recent announcement from them the 2-10-2 Light is another with a metal boiler.

I have one brass loco, a C&O H-8 (2-6-6-6). As much as I love the loco, I will put any number of plastic loco’s up against it in both pulling power and smoothness of operation. Brass is generally not a better runner than plastic anymore.

blownout_cylinder · July 11, 2011, 9:13am

[swg]

fwright · July 11, 2011, 9:57am

Fred,

Lot’s of good thoughts but unfortunately, most of them don’t transfer well to N scale. Belts just wouldn’t work in N, they are too stiff and would cause a lot of start up drag. As far as side rods go, ridgid side rods seem to help N, not hurt. They help keep all the drivers in time. If you have ever played with a ConCor Big Boy, you would understand why individual side rods just don’t work that well. Between the slop in the gears and the slop in the side rods, there is too much slack action in the drivetrain that causes binding and kinks in the operation.

As far as the metal boilers go, Bachmann has that licked. The last 4 releases from them have had metal boilers. They have their casting process down to the point that their metal boilers are as sharp and detailed as plastic. The most recent announcement from them the 2-10-2 Light is another with a metal boiler.

I have one brass loco, a C&O H-8 (2-6-6-6). As much as I love the loco, I will put any number of plastic loco’s up against it in both pulling power and smoothness of operation. Brass is generally not a better runner than plastic anymore.

From my experience with 19th Century HOn3 - which is often smaller than large steam N - the means to better performance are known - but are not often used in mass production due to expense and/or difficulty in reproducing on a mass basis.

Of course, one needs to define good performance. My threshold of acceptability is:

smooth running at 3 scale MPH or less on normal DC (with 120 Hz ripple). Smooth means being able to push a cut of cars equipped with free-rolling trucks in delayed uncoupling mode without cars separating or lurching. Meeting this requirement is key to enjoyable switching operations.
maximum speed at 12 volts no more than 20% greater than the prototype’s capability. This requirement gives a decent c