Highest Quality HO Trains

Well, I do have a bigger layout as well, but the railcar is really a branch-line unit.

Nice looking though - I also have the Rivarossi model. That runs nicer but it's lightweight and fragile.

I read about that on the Maerklin ng when they were new - it sounds like a badly engineered model. Can you fit a "Spud unit" or a "Black Beetle" motor bogie to it? It sounds like the Trix/Ma power unit isn't worth perservering with.

Regards, Greg.P.

IT IS A MIRACLE STEVE IS POSTING ABOUT TRAINS WITHOUT BASHING PEOPLE!

THANK YOU GOD AND STEVE FOR CHANGING.

Kato makes the highest quality other than brass.

Perhaps that is a quality issue also. I've noticed that some of my locos seem to favor running fast. The Bachmann Smoky Mountain Express has trouble even getting going until a lot of power is applied, and seems to stutter quite a bit unless it is running fast. The War Baby runs beautifully even at low speeds.

The Lionel Polar Express can't even get going (even when not pulling anything) until at least 40%-50% power is applied. I've heard that Lionel's higher end items have lower starting speeds.

BTW, thanks for the scale MPH ratings. I'll make a note of those for future reference.

Greg Procter skriver:

Very nice - I agree

We allso have one of the Rivarossi models. But an very old model, it runs with the same stabillity as the Märklin.

Yea - unfortunallyy

A what ? Those names i haven't heard before.

Correct.....

Klaus

I do appreciate the realism. Though it is fun, albeit extremely unrealistic, to have a loco roaring around the layout. I think, for me, it is the noise factor and laying on the carpet watching the loco come straight at me.

Of course now that I have a radioactive waste flatcar and rocket fuel tank car, it's horrible to imagine the result of a real train running at those speeds. What a mess for whatever unfortunate town. A vast pool of radioactive waste, burning rocket fuel, Dixie honey, Gold Medal milk, and God only knows what it in that Great Northern tank car. The only saving grace would be the tank car full of Comet Cleanser. With any luck, the Chessie Hi-Cube box cars are full of Handi-Wipes and HazMat suits.

But seriously, when I finish planning a permanent layout running three, or maybe four trains, I will reduce the speeds to increase realism and reduce distraction. Though I will make a GarGraves 0-138 outer loop for the purpose of running a train flat out just for fun if I want to.

I'm still thinking of what passenger line I want. I have my eye on a vintage Lionel Blue Comet set with five Madison cars. However, wanting to use TMCC at some point leans me towards the Green Bullet. But those are old fashioned.

What about the Amtrak Acela? That would seem to be realistic at very high speeds since it is a bullet train.

I don't mind mixing eras. I'll already be mixing O and HO gauges, so the era hardly matters.

On Tue, 16 Jan 2007 15:04:53 -0500, David Starr

I haven't had this sort of derailment yet. The HO layout is about 60"x70" (22" radius curves if I recall correctly.) The Polar Express layout is

50"x50" (O-36 FasTrack curves).

I've run both flat out and never had a derailment, other than some problems with a couple of poorly aligned Bachmann EZ Track sections causing a single car to jump the track and scrap along until it passes over the rerailer. The only fix was to pill that section of track and turn it around.

I haven't done this since I was a teenager and I can't recall a loco derailing on a curve at high speeds then either. Though I do recall having the whole consist tip over.

I have tested this with the two Bachmann locos I have (The 0-4-0 Smoky Mountain Express, and 4-8-4 Southern Pacific War Baby.) Nothing much seems to happen until at least 25% of power is applied (RailPower 1370 power supply.) But from there they both make at least a reasonable progression in speed.

This is opposed to the Lionel Polar Express which does nothing until about

40% of power is applied, and then jerks alive. There really is no slow going with that train. 50% power is about the lowest at which the train will actually make it around the track.

But as I understand it, that is a known "feature" of Lionel's lower end units. The latest I've read from Lionel says they are working on trains that have slower and slower starting speeds. Of course these are being designed for larger and larger wallets...

I am enjoying the living room carpet layouts with lower end stuff I have bought so far, but I'd like to get some higher end TMCC locos eventually. But with another child on the way (coming in August), that will have to wait.

For a carpet layout, I've bought an awful lot of stuff already while remaining debt free. I better not push my luck.

Utter bullshit Greg, of course prototype locos can crawl at 1 mph. Where's your proof that they can't?

Mark.

Check the power/speed curves of Diesel electric locos - they tend to fall off the bottom at around walking speed.

I think the Spud unit comes from Sagami and the Black Beetle from Mashima, both producers of good quality can motors for model railway applications. Both are available in a variety of wheelbases and wheel diameters. They are both motor units with integral gears and are contained within the outline of the motor bogie under the floor. Operation is excellent but the price is high, although probably a lot less than Ma/Trix replacement parts =8^)

In that case a Spud unit will be an excellent replacement.

SPUDs used to be marketed by Tenshodo, but I believe these days they are sold under the Hanozono name. I've only seen them advertised lately in Japanese publications.

Black Beetles are made in Australia by Steam Era Models.

I'm referring to their models of Big Boy, GG-1 etc. I saw a GG-1 at the Toronto Train Show last spring - absolutely first rate. And diecast, too: capable of hauling prototypical trains IOW - you know, 18-20 heavyweight passenger cars.... Just couldn't justify the $700CAD the dealer wanted. :(-

And it's not Marklin and Trix. I should've written Marklin's Trix, I guess.

Many of IHC's locos are still made by Mehano. But even IHC is dealing with Chinese factories now.

Wolf skriver:

What is this facination with diecast ?

It is not possible to get af many detalis as with plastic. And the "plastic trains" of goog quality is "die cast" inside.

Klaus

Mark Newton skriver:

Thanks.

I'll take a close look into the Beetles....

Klaus

Mark's entire purpose in life is to prove me wrong. (I should be flattered, but being wrong in public at least brings to light information I don't know)

Does overheating and burning out traction motors while attempting to run at 1 mph constitute being able to run at that speed or not being able to run at that speed? It's a pedantic point and Mark wins at a very high prototype cost.

Has their track degenerated to such a bad state??? ;-)

Regards, Greg.P.

Well, it's true you can't cast as much detail into a diecast shell as into a plastic one, but since most of the detail these days consist of separate add-on pieces, that's become an irrelevant consideration. Diecast surface detail, eg rivets, weld lines, etc, can be as sharp in diecast as in plastic. Etc.

No, they are just using a single 4,400HP engine to pull a *long*,

*heavy* coal train, rather than using 2-4 3,000HP engines. The trains are 'under powered' for anything like rapid acceleration, so the train creeps along and *slowly* accelerates. Doing this with DC traction motors will litterally burn them up. Yes, you can go at 1mph with DC traction, just not for very long. If you cannot get 'up to speed' before the motors burn, you are in trouble. The AC traction motors can run at slow speeds for hours and hours if it takes that long to accelerate. Since there is no rush to haul the coal, the RR's figure that using a single unit saves money.

BTW: this is all described on the high-horsepower special edition DVD put out by MR (part of their 'Dream, Plan, Build' series).

There are much more interesting things in life than MR DVDs! OTOH, really slow trains make one's layout seem much bigger than TGVs roaring through at a scale 300km/hr. That's why I model old-time steam.

I would think you can get even better detail with die-cast models than with plastic. Like anything else, it all depends on how far the manufacturer wants to go with the process. Doesn't it depend on how detailed the dies are?

Personally I like the weight of die-cast locos.