Double track, high speed, signaled for both directions?Erskine Tramway wrote:...I expect the mainline to be about 1100 feet long.
A bit of "former BN engineer" humor.
Thirty acres would be awesome; I have a 40 x 150 urban lot.
Moderator: Harold_V
Double track, high speed, signaled for both directions?Erskine Tramway wrote:...I expect the mainline to be about 1100 feet long.
Sanity prevails!Erskine Tramway wrote: <<Double track, high speed, signaled for both directions? >>
Nope, single track, low speed, no signals.....no 'Officials' either
My back isn't in the greatest shape either, after all those years bouncing down the track in sometimes not so great seats. So, I try to make hauling stuff as easy as I canrkcarguy wrote:Your thread was a great read! I've got a messed up lower back, and like you I was looking for a way to collect firewood from my acreage and take the garbage can down to the end of a 220' driveway, and now I have a plan:)
My 1/2 scale Heywood wagons are 18" wide, but my free-lance bulkhead flats are 20" wide. Sir Arthur had some 10% grade on his home railway, but anything up to about 4% isn't unreasonable for a short distance. I'm trying to keep mine to 2% max. If it's downhill with loads, you'll want good brakes I used to come off the 4% into Minnekahta with rock trains with the brakes on the front 10 cars smoking from having the Brakeman 'set up' the retainers. It was the only way you could maintain the 10MPH speed limit cycle braking the #6 air on the SD-9's. It got easier when we started using the bigger motors with #26 air.rkcarguy wrote:I'm planning to install a wood stove in my place, and luckily it's placement is in the southeast corner of the home near the proposed RR grade. I'm a bit uphill of it though. If I can get the grade to a tolerable % I'm going to run a siding right up the house. Planning didn't have any problem with me proposing a "wood rack" in the living room with an exterior door behind it so I could fill it from the outside. Incidentally the width of my 2" scale equipment is 20" which is also the max log length the stove will take, so my bulkhead cars will also act as a no-go gage for the firewood. The less times I can handle the wood the better(beyond the train and switching of course)
Yup, rk.........there are speeds you are not supposed to run on jointed rail to avoid 'harmonic rocking'. As I recall, it's between 11 and 21 MPH. Sometimes, you can't avoid it though. We had places, before they put in 'Continuous Welded Rail', aka 'Ribbon Rail', where running at coal train track speed, which was 35 MPH then, an SD40-2 would literally 'hop' along the track. You knew that the wheels weren't leaving the rail, but it sure felt like it.rkcarguy wrote:That's pretty crazy, I've never been in or driven a real locomotive.
So you undoubtedly experienced the bumpiness of the old ~40' bolted railing that used to be the norm?
One of the reasons I remember the Milwaukee road so much, is as a kid we had a grade crossing not far from home. When we had to wait for a passing train, I remember how much the hopper cars would pitch from side to side on that lumpy rail. One was so rocking back and forth so violently as it got closer to the crossing, I remember my mom backed up further away from the train lol!
Hey, being you have a lot of locomotive experience, I wanted to toss my control layout at you. Sorry If I hijack your thread just a little.
Looking at the limited info and pictures I could find online, it appears the controls sit at an angle to the left of the engineer. The top lever to the left is pulled back to engage the brakes, the center/upper is the throttle and also pulls left to increase, and the center/lower would be direction?
I'm wanting to make a small "engineer stand" to mount on my riding car and hope to make it somewhat realistic.