There is an excellent article in the latest issue of the NG&SL Gazette, May/June 2006, on the speed of the trains from Alamosa toward Durango and Silverton. Good food for thought on the speed of running our equipment. Always time to slow down and enjoy the running of your trains. The article is called “A Matter of Speed” in the column The Narrow Gauge Scene by Charles Getz on page 64.
Considering 3/4 of my loco fleet are Shays…I don;t have a speed problem! heheheheh
In February, I was having a little trouble keeping my Annnie from hitting that Mallet from behind. :o
Tom-
Just a heads-up.
When I do virtually all Bachmann and LGB locos, 14.4v is more than enough, but 12 isn’t enough. I find the extra 2.4v is needed on grades.
The Mallets, however, need 16.8 to do the same job.
As do the Pacificados.
Gearing and driver diameter, I would guess.
TOC
Andy C. and I chased the Evansville Western shortline across Southern Illinois Monday. The job was picking up and dropping off grain cars and we were watching at every town. Top speed was probably 30 mph. Just a two man crew, Engineer and Conductor. In communication by radio at every move. The Engineer dropped the Conductor off every place he needed to be, to perform a function of uncoupling or throwing a turnout or whatever. The rules now say the crew steps off and on the train after it has stopped. These functions were being carried out quite well. It adds time to the moves and extends the process. Maybe not as romantic or challenging to watch a man shove his foot into the corner of the step and watch him be swept away as the train passes, but for model railroad operations, it would add considerable to the time and the challenge.
Its very hard for me not to reach ahead for the next move, even when doing the Timesaver. But under current standards, I need to slow the process down. Damn, I’m just going to have to slow down and have fun for a longer amount of time.
Ric Golding said:Ah, the burdens we must bear for the hobby.............;)
Its very hard for me not to reach ahead for the next move, even when doing the Timesaver. But under current standards, I need to slow the process down. Damn, I'm just going to have to slow down and have fun for a longer amount of time.
Having just read the article that Ric mentioned, it came to mind that when I was out in Colorado I happened to drive up the old RGS right of way from TroutLake to Lizard Head Pass and from Trout Lake down to Ophir. I doubt very much if I ever exceeded 10 miles an hour the whole time. Granted I was very much enjoying the scenery, but being gravel or unpaved roadways there were quite a few ruts and in some places the undergrowth had to be negotiated too. Another interesting spot was the old Florence and Cripple Creek ROW up through Phantom Canyon. That one is actually a state road. One and a half lanes wide, unpaved, blind curves, no guardrails, and most of it carved out of the mountainside. I can’t imagine a train negotiating that ROW any faster than 10 MPH either up or down. Luckily I had a rental so I didn’t much care how bad the roadways were…
Yes. The Aristo Mallet is very slow. I loved to let it crawl around the shop.
At Carlyle in February, my RC Annie was following a Mallet cruising majestically around with a long train. I like my Annie’s low speed performance (18v alkyline batteries), but I had to stop at stations to let it pull ahead a ways. Seemed rather prototypical to stop at each passenger station
unless your train consists of leaking nuclear waste containers…
“Seemed rather prototypical to stop at each passenger station”
Hmmm. Now that’s a cool idea. Perhaps a little out of my era;)
Reminds me of the time last Labor Day weekend. I was running my Sumpter Mallet over at a friends house. Nice and slow as it wound it’s way thru the scenery. Turned my back on it for just a minute to get a cool one, and his neighbor’s brat had cranked the throttle on the power supply. Never seen that Mallet go so fast. Also never seen a kid run so fast out of the backyard… 
I can’t stand seeing trains, any kind, dismal or steam, runnin’ around a layout like the old Lionel’s you used to see in the store’s front windows. Warp factor 1. Ugly.
jb
I think it has to do with being 10 years old. My grandson got a Lionel from his proud gran’pa, who set it up on his 3rail layout in the basement, at a proto speed, and then turned the throttle over to the apple of his eye. Said grandson immediatly said, “Let’s see what this baby will do,” opened the throttle, and damn near flew the locomotive and train off the layout and onto the floor, just like his gran’pa did, lo those many years ago.
madwold aka SteveF
I had a couple of guys show up one morning to fix the rug in the basement after the hot water heater developed a leak and had to be replaced. They noticed the RR outside by the driveway and asked to see the train run. Brought out the Annie and set it up, blew the whistle and started it off on it’s merry way. I guess the one guy was used to the slot-car Lionel stuff as a kid and asked if it went any faster. I said sure it will, but made the excuse the that the track work was just temporary and not in the best shape so I run it slow to keep it on the track. I didn’t want to get into a discussion about prototypical train speeds and narrow gauge RR’s, so just left it at that.
Oh. I remember. I had the smoke on, but it wouldn’t smoke going as slow as the mallet was running.
Had one in the shop all summer. A magnificient machine!
Ken Brunt said:Yeah.....pople don;t realize that real trains don;t go 100s of miles an hour.......and lets not even try to explain a point to point layout to the uninitiated........No1 question asked by visitors...."Are you going to make it go all the way around the house" generally to be followed by "How fast does it go..." Both of course are getting replaced by" why do you have a table in the middle of your backyard?" and "Where are you going to put it when you are done?"
I had a couple of guys show up one morning to fix the rug in the basement after the hot water heater developed a leak and had to be replaced. They noticed the RR outside by the driveway and asked to see the train run. Brought out the Annie and set it up, blew the whistle and started it off on it's merry way. I guess the one guy was used to the slot-car Lionel stuff as a kid and asked if it went any faster. I said sure it will, but made the excuse the that the track work was just temporary and not in the best shape so I run it slow to keep it on the track. I didn't want to get into a discussion about prototypical train speeds and narrow gauge RR's, so just left it at that.
Oh the pain…the pain of it all…</Dr Smith>
I just say, “That’s about as fast as a train like that could go.” When they say, “that’s not very fast,” I say, “Compared to what?”
Bart,
You said -
“Considering 3/4 of my loco fleet are Shays…I don;t have a speed problem! heheheheh”
I believe there is a Buffett song about that -
“Livin in 3/4 time”
Didn’t know you were a “Parrot Head”.