PlaymoFriends
General => Trains! => Topic started by: The_Mad_Hadder on November 02, 2016, 16:18:53
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The year is 1869 and the Transcontinental Railroad has been completed back on May 10th. With the civil war passed only 4 years prior and a country still on the mend the locomotive played a pivotal roll on rebuilding of a nation. My question to you rail buffs out there is this:
On a level grade how many rail cars loaded could one steam engine such as the Jupiter pull?
I know that the lay out would be the engine and tender followed by a box car (for mail) then a flat bed car, then passanger car either 1 or 2 followed by box cars, cattle cars and possibly a caboose though not often.
I have found that a steam locomotive on a ruling grade of 0.43% could pull 5500 tons without help any insight would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
James C. Byrne
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That's a tricky one. I found an interesting discussion about trains from the 1880s at this link (http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/121623.aspx) it's model railroaders so they go super-geeky about what was typical and so on which is just what you are probably looking for. There's a good book reference you might look into there as well. I would say it sounds like 7-12 is a typical train of that type and the car sizes we get in Playmo. That is about right as far as pulling capacity on a Playmo single engine block too.
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is just what you are probably looking for.
Tim, I could not say it better myself. Thank you for the assistance, this is perfect. I was thinking of going with 8-9 rail cars so that will give me 2 more freight cars and 2 cattle cars on the end of the train.
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I'd always understood that Playmobil recommended no more than four pieces of rolling stock.
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I'd always understood that Playmobil recommended no more than four pieces of rolling stock.
Are you talking about the electric trains that get power from the track or the battery operated RC ones?
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I'd understood all.
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Sorry, there is no simple answer to that.... :help:
There is a difference between the 12 V= and RC motors. The 12 V= is more powerful and the motor drives the two axles directly by gears. The 12 V= Playmobil locomotives can be compared with the Stainz from LGB. For the Stainz 11 2-axle cars unloaded and 13 4-axle cars with bogies unloaded is the maximum on flat terrain. Keep in mind that 2-axle cars has a higher friction in the curves. The maximum gradient with no (0, zero) cars is 18%.
In practice 5 to 6 loaded cars on a 3% gradient is a neat train. You can improve that by reducing the friction from the cars:
— Replace the axles by axles with roller bearing and independent moving wheels (quite expensive, LGB 67403).
— Replace the R1 curves by more gentle curves.
— Replace the 2-axle cars by 4-axle cars with bogies (pity, Playmobil is making only one passenger car with bogies).
— Reduce the gradient to less than 3%.
The RC motor is a different story. The old RC motor (with the blue remote control) is powered by a 6 V= motor that drives only one axle direct with gears. The second axle is powered by coupling rods on the outside. In my opinion this is a weak solution with a lot of friction.
The last RC locomotive with the gray remote control is much better (5258), this locomotive is powered by two axles each with it's own (smaller) motor.
The maximum train lenght in practice is about 5 cars, but greatly depends on:
— The batteries used in the locomotive (4x2600 mAh NiMH gives more power than 4x1100 mAh NiCd).
And the same rules as the 12V= trains:
— Replace the axles by axles with roller bearing and independent moving wheels (quite expensive, LGB 67403).
— Replace the R1 curves by more gentle curves.
— Replace the 2-axle cars by 4-axle cars with bogies (pity, Playmobil is making only one passenger car with bogies).
— Reduce the gradient to less than 3%.
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The biggest problem with the Playmobil loco motor block is that it has a worm driven gear and too much load will strip the gear.
The new loco has two motors and only gears and will stall the motors before it will strips the gears. On test I have pulled 19 tanker wagons and also 13 Panorama coaches.
Will be trying more coaches at the next G Scale society meeting.
The stall current on the new loco is 2 amps.
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Question about gradient:
Is a 3% gradient having the track rise 3 inches in 100 inches?
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Question about gradient:
Is a 3% gradient having the track rise 3 inches in 100 inches?
Yes, or 3 cm in 100 cm.
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Thank you for your very useful and detailed answer, Marco, and I look forward to hearing how things go with your further testing, Walter.
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I will be using the train engine that came in set 3033, 3034. Yes I want to make sure that I do not strip the gear but at the same time I am not looking to pull 16 cars, only looking at moving as close to a historically accurate train from 1869.
I do not forsee me building a rail set with a grade over .5%
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Marco,
Early "American" type locomotives had very low tractive effort ratings - so could not handle very large trains. On the flat (no grades) maybe 5 to 8 cars. On grades, depending on how steep, 3 to 5 cars. The American type locomotives were very popular for quite a long time as lightly built track (like how the original transcontinental railroad was built) could handle them. As the mainline routes were rebuilt for heavier capacity the smaller locomotives went to work on branch line and short line railroads that never justified rebuilding.
Hope this helps. Greetings to you in The Netherlands.
Phil
Colorado Railroad Museum
17155 W 44th Ave
Golden, CO 80403
United States
I could not find a better professional answer ;-)
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P.s.: the transcontinental railroad in the United States was completed on May 10th, 1869.
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P.s.: the transcontinental railroad in the United States was completed on May 10th, 1869.
Marco,
I am glad we could agree on this, if you look back to my first post in this thread lol
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Sorry, I was quite busy at work, and did not read all the post.
But I hope the answer of Phil will be of much help.
Greetings, Marco.
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Sorry, I was quite busy at work, and did not read all the post.
But I hope the answer of Phil will be of much help.
Greetings, Marco.
No worries, all the information has been helpful