I live across the street from Dennisons Trackside Hobbies and the owner asked me to help with his open house on his garden railroad today. Of course it rained. Nothing else could run except for our good ole RCS engines. We actually have had a few visitors who brought umbrellas to watch. I kept kidding Walt to turn on his 10 amps of track power. We finally quit when it started raining sideways. We both felt like a couple of kids, but we were smiling.
I have been running LGB Express trains in the rain with track power and AC Train Engineer , for 8 years or so , and another person named Splicer ran his LGB express trains , non stop , for days and days and days , also in the rain as well . And if they are running fast …there is a sort of mist kicked up also by the train , at times .
Sitting in the gazebo , or watching from the warmth of the house is nice in bad weather .
The LGB express trains are poor models …but impervious to the weather , to run anytime .
Share the fun
Dennis,
The LGB express trains are great for visiting kids to run also.
Kids like speed, and you can’t break the things, even if they derail off of a high trestle.
I will probably get a set for just this purpose.
jb
Dennis, I all fairness Walter could have run in the rain if he had the proper set up for his transformer. Something is just a little scary about being soaked and playing with house current, GFI or not.
I would be delighted to see a track powered LS model try this.
Easily done with battery R/C.
TonyWalsham said:
I would be delighted to see a track powered LS model try this.
Easily done with battery R/C.
Tony I have a video of shay running thru streams for you If you every get to Ocean City,Maryland;)
Marc, don’t feel like the only crazy kid on the block. Weekend before last I and a friend of mine in Ritzville were out running trains in the rain. The picture looks more like night but actually the darkness is clouds. That’s not the cars tail light on, it’s a reflection from my flash…yea I had my camera out in the stuff too… The locomotive is track power (TE) with a Phoenix sound system. It was only about 45 degrees. I wound up chilled to the bone and my warm bed felt really good that night…
Warren
I only wished to share the joy of running in the rain , and also plowing snow , with our outside trains .
I also have a onboard battery powered RC controlled LGB Express Train , that I can run any layout that I visit , and the train is double ended so it even works on the point to point layouts .
Dennis ,
A lot of us know and appreciate that , don’t let the knockers spoil your fun . Track power is cheaper and better than R/C , but only if you know how to use it . As you obviously do . I run both , but probably like you , I run my trains so much that the track never gets mucky .
You mean like this?
This is battery power radio control. Can’t beat RC/battery!
How many prototype rails run under water ? There is enough advice on this forum to prevent that .
HOLY FRACK!!! How’d yall pull that off???
How many prototypes run with rails under water???
Well, let’s see. I know of two for sure. The photo that Tony posted and the CD&StL that I posted.
Bart, I have a section of seldom used side track that goes under water when we have a lot of rain. Having seen photos of Shays running through water, I thought why not? Old No.2 has made the trip on several occasions.
I can attest that the motor blocks are not watertight. Not a problem. Take the bottom covers off, pull the geared axles, dry out the interior, lubricate, and then run for an hour or so to get rid of any remaining moisture.
Not as much fun as plowing snow, but it will do till we get some snow.
Good one Jon.
YEah but I figgered that water and electric motors don;t mix…reminds me…mebbe the Gods of Steam will forget that I own a snowplow this year and bless us with some accumulation!!!
Bart,
You are correct.
The CD&StL MOW Superintendent plumbed the depth, so to speak, so that we didn’t put the motors under water. That no doubt would have at the least let all the smoke out!
We did run No.2 back and forth through the water a number of times on two different occasions. Don’t think we’ll tempt fate again. But it sure as hell was fun. And the neighbors once again know for sure that I don’t play with a full deck.
John Wilcox posted photos last year of my Shay on underwater tracks running on his rr.
As far as running track power in the rain, it depends on the intensity, the type of ballast, and how much dirt.
Spash enough “stuff” on the rails, it doesn’t work.
Yet, with self-contained power, it actually improves traction.
I should find prototype photos I have seen where the RR’s kept old steamers in reserve to run in flooded areas as the traction motors on dismals shorted out in the floodwaters.
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/steamtown/shs2i.htm
“This was the company that now operated 2-8-0 No. 641, probably principally for freight service, the typical use of Consolidation-type locomotives. The engine reportedly hauled freight trains in Tennessee for many years. The engine must have seen hard service, for reportedly the Illinois Central rebuilt it in 1918, modernizing it with a superheater, and possibly replacing the boiler and firebox. The engine then continued in heavy freight service. In January 1943 the Illinois Central renumbered the four engines in this series 790 through 793, and thus No. 641 became No. 790. The Consolidation remained on the company’s roster until virtually the end of steam power on the Illinois Central. Near the end of her use, when she was virtually retired to storage by diesel-electric locomotives, the railroad nevertheless had to fire No. 790 up in the spring to assist Illinois Central trains through track inundated by flood waters near Cedar Rapids, because diesel-electric locomotives with their electric motors shorted out in any water, whereas even the bottom of the firebox in a steam locomotive was much higher above the rail, hence above flood waters. Finally in May 1959, the Illinois Central sold No. 790 to Louis S. Keller of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.”
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/steamtown/shs2c.htm
“Following the war, No. 3713 and her sisters returned to handling the regular passenger traffic. Among their patrons were young campers headed for an outing in the northern woods. Toward the end of her working life, No. 3713 was equipped with special steam pipes and used to melt snow in the yards of North Station, and still later as a stationary steam power plant. She was last called into service during a flood. Whereas floods shorted out the axle-mounted traction motors of diesel-electric locomotives, the fireboxes of many steam locomotives rode high enough to be above flood waters so that steam locomotives could push through flood waters that diesels dared not enter. No. 3713 made her last run in 1958.”
My experience in snow, ice and water with track power is that I loose traction before I loose electrical continuity. 
I love running in the snow too…
Warren
Snow??? Whats this Snow you speak of???