I’m a big fan of Proto locomotives and have over 30 in my collection right now. I’m always hearing from some people that they have had nothing but problems with theirs while others have had great luck. I picked up a couple on Ebay, one GP7 and one GP9. Both are older models in CN’s “noodle” paint scheme, the ones people usually complain about with cracked gears and poor running. What I have decided to do with these is run them for 10 hours a day until they blow up. I installed Digitrax DH163L0 decoders in both of them last night, checked over everything and broke them in. As of right now they have been running for 6 hours straight pulling 10 cars each with no problems. I’ve always wanted to do this, something like the Kato test that was done. When they hit the 20 hour mark I’m going to pull them off the track and check them over again, I’ll do this after every 20 hours of running. I’m curious to see how long they will last. [:)]
Cool. If they still run after 20 hours, why not pull as many cars as you can without slipping?
Proto is very very good. I hope they dont blow up.
Victor
Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]
While this might be interesting to do, you might be in for a longer, harder project than you imagine. As I recall in 1992, the Proto-2000 FA-2 locomotive set the world’s record for longest non-stop run by an model locomotive. I don’t remember how many hours, but it seems like it was thousands (anyone have a Guinness Book to check?) And that was with no rests every 20 hours. The test finally ended when an electrical wire connecting the wheels to the motor broke or melted.
Dave,
Interesting idea! I can’t wait to see the results… maybe some guys with other brands that they don’t need anymore could try the same… (I’m too attached to my locos to try it[:I])
If it doesn’t quit, how long will you run it before you quit?
I think you’re in for a long haul.
Hey, just had a thought. You could consider them way freights or extras and try running your layout around them.
sounds like a walthers tv commercial
did you see there prices wow…
zowy
I ran two sd 50 protos with 135 cars for 8 hours and they never even got warm
Should we take bets on how long they will last. Providing that the gears have already been replaced, I feel they should run for at least 40 days- 400hrs.
Day 2. I got home from work last night at 11:30 and started them back up so they could run all night. I just checked on them and both are running great so, so far so good. Once they hit the 20 hour mark I’m going to check them out for wear and broken gears. I’m on holidays next week and I’m going to plan a few 24 hour non stop runs. My wife thinks I’ve gone crazy, lol.
Day 2 update: Well I finished taking them apart and looked for any obvious signs of wear and found nothing so far. I took a magnifiying glass to the area around all the gears and found no signs of cracks. I put them in the engine house for a rest, tonight after work they got a long journey ahead of them, lol.
I think the Proto gear problem is caused by inactivity or storage. That has been my experience.
I did this a couple years ago with an Athearn engine. I got a CSX Operation Redblock GP38-2 and just saw how long it would run. It took about two weeks for it to die when the driveshaft wore out. After the test I totally dissassembled the engine, replaced the driveshaft, and a couple gears. Then I lubed it up, reassembled it and it still runs just fine.
Cheers!
~METRO
Keep-em lubed and they should run till the motor brushes wear out
My LHS had a set of Athearn BB engines, a pair of GP38-2’s and SD40-2’s that pulled a 60+ car train 8 hours a day, 6 days a week. After a number of YEARS they finally needed repair because they started derailing. Come to find out the wheels had worn down to the point they had flanges on the OUTER edge of the wheel, and were trying to go both ways when they hit a turnout. A new set of wheels, and they were back in business. I asked the resident train expert about maintenance, and he said once a month or 2 or 3 he would give the gears a drop of oil and that was it.
You do the math with me. At about 45 Scale miles per hour x 8 hours per day x 6 days per week = 112,320 scale miles per year. I think he said it was nearly 15 years or so on these units when they finally needed wheels. That’s roughly 1,684,800 scale miles or roughly 19,365 actual miles (HO scale).
I hope my rolling stock does at least half as well.
Brad
Day 3. Still no obvious signs of wear or cracked gears after 30 hours of running. Both seem to perform just as good as new. I think I’ll run them backwards over the weekend so they will wear evenly.
One of my PK2 PA’s died after running a passenger train on our club layout, that took about three years. This because I’d run my passenger train on Sundays for several hours. Found that it was the can motor that failed and not the gears. No big deal, sent it to my diesel shop for repair just as the prototype did.
Brad, that’s quite a story on the old Athearns. BB is about the best bang for your buck. I still like Athearn BB.
I ought to dig out my BB GP38-2 and GP40-2 and just let 'em run pulling a heavy load for a while.