The Home Machinist!

rkcarguy wrote:Looking good, getting to be a fairly long train there. How's she do with them all full of firewood?

Well, I'll know in a week or two, when our new load of firewood gets delivered. I do know that 'Sparky' will shove three Heywoods and the coach chassis full, up the 2% out of the Yard. I tried it last year When I get a train load, I'll take it out to the end of track and see if I can pull it back up, without 'doubling the hill'.

Mike

Hi Folks.......

I did the hauling test this afternoon. After I loaded all the cars, I took the train down to the end of track to see if "Sparky" could pull them back up. The test was successful, The loco pulled the whole thing back up to the Car Shed. That's more of a load than I expect to ever move in that direction, so I'm happy. Admittedly, the speed dropped noticeably coming up out of the 'sags' in the track, but it made it. When I get around to raising the sags, the grade will be the steady 1% it's supposed to be, instead of up and down. I started out with 23.4 volts on the meter and went down to 22.0 pulling the steep sections. After standing for the photo at the Shed, it recovered to 23.4.
I'm not going to start re-splitting the bigger pieces until next week, so I stashed the cars in the Car Shed for the weekend.
Mike

SWEET!

-G

I got inspired and took the riding mower out and ran a line. It shows up dark in the picture. Depending on exactly where I terminate, the extension measures about 610 feet. Now that I have an idea of the alignment, I can take the laser out this week and see if the levels are something I can live with. I'd like to keep the grade down to 2% or less, but I can exceed that for short distances. I'll take my measuring wheel and marking paint out and mark 100 foot intervals and see how it works.
Mike

sometimes tall grass can be a blessing!

Tom C.

tomc wrote:sometimes tall grass can be a blessing!

Tom C.

Yup, how's the grade look to you Tom? Not as steep as some of Jack's

Mike

it looks like it starts out ok but may get steeper toward the rear. u will be able to tell once u get the 100 foot increments plotted.

Tom C.

That's great, that's a lot of firewood! Figure over a ton there? I would say it's a good full size pickup load at least. Future ROW looks very scenic!

Ahhh. Just like the real railroads, you'll have to survey your route so that you get the best compromise between ease of construction and ease of operation. From the look of your picture, you have some land features that you're going to try to avoid when building. Congrats on a really great place to put your railroad!!!

Hi Folks.....

This afternoon, when I finished 'running the levels', I got out the GoPro and took a run over the line. For your amusement and amazement......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O-ow2x ... e=youtu.be

Mike

That was fun! Thanks for sharing.
You have accomplished a lot!!
~RN

Mike, is your crawler one of the little guys the military dropped by parachute?