How long do you run your trains at a stretch?

[Anonymous]

I run mine for about 20 minutes and let em rest for about 30 minutes. Just a guess, but I'd say that what I do is "over-kill."

[Roger Bielen]

Usually I'll run two trains for up to 30 min. to unwind. If I feel like "working" I'll add in a switcher setting up another train to change out with one on one of the mains. During our annual Christmas party I could be occupied in my train room for an hour or so showing guest whats new.

[overall]

I am curious as to how long we run our trains continously at a time. Do our operating sessions last one hour or several hours? Do we stop the trains for a time to let motors in the locomotives cool off?

On my layout I have a single track main line with a couple of staging yards and two passing sidings, so no one train of mine runs more that 15 min during an operating session. I can and do sometimes have one train run continously for a while if I don't feel like "operating" my railroad.

How do some of the rest of you do it?

overall