Locomotive weight/speed

[jeffrey-wimberly]

It's been my experience that HO locomotives are much too light. Attempts to weight them so one loco can pull twenty-five or thirty NMRA weithed cars in many cases results in the motor getting burned out. Keep in mind that model a model locos wheels are all driven by one central motor whereas a real locos wheels are driven by motors geared directly to the wheels. If the real loco used a single central motor to drive all the wheels it would likely suffer the same fate as our models plus, who would want to build it.

 

[diburning]

Forum Members,
Does anyone actually have cars are weighted prototypically? Does any actually gear weight locomotives so that they pull what the real would be able to pull?

I work in live steam where the physical weight of the cars and the grade on the track can stall you if you bite off more than you can chew. It it myunderstanding that NMRA recommends so much weight per inch, I am wondering why not have the actual scale weight of the car, and the scaled horse power of the locomotive on the model railroad.

Is NMRA RP 20.01 arguable out of date?
Does the grade and friction of locomotive drivers to rail work where this is feasible?

John P
Atlanta

First of all, physics does NOT scale. There's no such thing as scale horsepower.

Even if you attempted scale down the weight in all 3 dimensions, your railcar would weigh hundreds of pounds, and unless you use some sort of radioactive metal, you're not going to get your cars to that weight.

 

[D&J RailRoad]

First of all, physics does NOT scale. There's no such thing as scale horsepower.

Even if you attempted scale down the weight in all 3 dimensions, your railcar would weigh hundreds of pounds, and unless you use some sort of radioactive metal, you're not going to get your cars to that weight.

Scale horsepower too. An HO scale SD45 would produce about 51 horsepower. Awesome!