im looking for O guage but what engines would you recommend for pulling missouri banded chert rock i mean just in general what are good heavy haulers as far as engine specifications
The postwar F3s are pretty decent pullers-probably some of the best as postwar engines go.
The 2343 and 2344 I feel safe saying are probably the best of the best in that category(you show what appears to be a 2344, the 2343 is the same but painted for Santa Fe). These models have dual horizontal motors, which are geared lower than the later vertical motors, and have Magnetraction. They are also heavy. The earlier 2333 doesn’t have Magnetraction but is mechanically the same and still is fairly heavy, which helps with traction. Later ones had vertical motors that will run faster, but don’t give the low-end torque.
Really, though, it’s hard to output a modern engine from Lionel, K-line, Atlas, MTH, or others with dual can motors and traction tires. The can motors aren’t necessarily “better” as far as low speed torque, but tend to be a lot smoother and tend to bog down a bit more gracefully. Really, though, a lot of modern stuff tends to pull really well. I LIKE Magnetraction since it gives a bit of traction help but also allows for some protypical wheel slip if you’re too heavy handed on the throttle, but there’s no question traction tires are better for actually sticking to the track. Weight helps a lot too.
There’s nothing wrong with using multiple powered units too, provided that you have the power available to do it. Note that a lot of the Lionel F3s often came as an “AA” set-one of them is a “dummy”, or non-powered unit(there were also AB sets, where the second unit is a cabless “B” unit, and if you want to get fancy you could have an ABA set or ABBA set-I have the latter for a set of modern 2343 reproduction F3s).
I’ve not run one, so can’t say first hand, but I’d not be surprised if the early 2000s Lionel Verandah Turbine is the best puller Lionel has ever made. It’s a BIG diecast engine so weighs…well…a lot and IIRC has dual Pittman motors. The Pittmans that Lionel and others use(did use-they went away from high end stuff a few years ago) are permanent magnet DC motors, but are a big step up in quality from the typical sealed can motor. They are bigger, torquier, and smoother than really any of the other options. I mention the Verandah specifically because it’s one of the few to get two of them-I think even most of the big articulated steam engines get a single one.
As for how much you can pull with any of this stuff-you have to try for yourself and see. It’s going to depend a lot on where you’re running them(flat or inclined, diameter of curves-tight curves are harder to pull through), how freely the cars roll, and if you’re holding on to traction how much voltage you can actually get to the track. Old transformers would deliver 20V(some prewar designs like the Z went all the way to 25V) while a lot of moderns only will go to 18V or so. Long stretches of track can have voltage drops, something that can be fixed by running additional feed wires to the track. If you’re using something like a ZW to power it, you really should be running 16AWG wire to the track minimum, and consider bigger if you have any distance between the transformer and track.
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Hi, Umbreon_Of_Alton!
Are you looking for a specific roadname?
the goal is to run it the entire length of 2 sq acers of land
not really just something to keep up with the chert mine
now wd40 wont hurt stiff wheels as long as i dry it well after right
I’m still not really clear what’s going on on this thread or what you’re trying to accomplish.
What do you mean by stiff wheels? Do you mean hard to turn? What are these stiff wheels on?
on the train cars
their very hard to turn stiff
as far as the engine goes goal is to go to my chert mine 1.0 acers away from my house pick up Chert rock that has been dug out of the ground bring it back up to my house and then use a rotery dump over hoppers possibly made out of truck tool boxes not sure yet to collet the rock then shovle the rock out of a custom cut hole in the side of the tool box and transfer it into 4lb and 6lb bags and sell it on ebay
if i do this right and it sells on ebay 1 trainload of rock could buy me a new engine
i say could cause im not certain didnt do the math but itll be close enough within the ballpark
What type of cars are these? What brand and how old?
A small drop of appropriately placed oil won’t ever hurt anything, but when something’s really hard to turn it’s worth checking to make sure you don’t have an axle out of place, a bent axle, or some other big issue causing problems.
If you need to oil something, a drop(just a drop) of lightweight oil right at the end of the axle is usually all that’s needed. I use Labelle products, but really any light weight oil is usually fine-just watch for plastic compatibility. Back in the day Lionel recommended 3 in 1 oil. A lot of people use synthetic motor oil-I have a needle oiler bottle of Mobil1 5W-20 on my workbench that I use at times.
lionels and possibly post war the engine is so im assuming the cars are