4 wheel & 6 wheel trucks?

[Anonymous]

what is the difference between 4 and 6 wheel trucks?? do 6 wheel trucks have more power? go slower? go faster? pull longer trains? pull hills better?

what is your opnion on the
MTH Dash 9 Desel locomotive

thanks
Super Chicken

[John Busby]

Hi Super Chicken
In the model world No difference at all exept it should be noted that
as a general rule if it has 6Wh bogies it is a bigger locomotive so requires larger radius curves.
It is the Quality of the locomotive that provides the hauling power, reliabilaty and sensable speeds.
You will also find that just like the real ones the larger the loco the heavier it is
thats where your tractive effot comes from the weight.
As for an MTH Loco no idea never seen or owned one so cannot comment.
regards John

[Anonymous]

A six wheel truck spreads the weight over a larger area. A line with a bridge load limit that would not permit a 4 wheel trucked engine might be able to support that same engine if equipped with 6 wheel trucks. And of course this also applies to rails and roadbed.

Art

[Anonymous]

I believe you are refering to the MTH -8s I have three of these and are very pleased with them .The only draw back with the Mth is, to max use them ,you need a DCS system
$$$$ They will run with out the system just won't do as much But as the wheels go
some of the Dash 8s have 6 wheel trucks and some have 4 wheel trucks depending
upon which road you buy . My dash 8s all have 6 wheel trucks and the smallest
diameter I run on is 10 ' It might run on smaller I never tried You get great sound with
Mth. I also have a challenger and a Hudson also great sound

Ed

[Anonymous]

In the Real world (not talking model here), the 6 axle served many purposes, one previously mentioned by art, and they can start a longer/heavier train and get it up to speed faster because of more tractive effort, which is why most of them are mainline engines. In theory two 6 axle (12 total axles) could take the place of three 4 axle engines (again 12 total axles). 4 axles are often used in local/switcher service, but not always, I have plenty of pictures of them on mainline trains also. For example the Rock Island towards the end often put many 4 axle engines together to make sure the train had enough power to get to its destination (the maintaince was so poor usually 1 or 2 engines broke down on the way)

[Anonymous]

I have a Mallet wwhich is 0 - 6 - 6 - 0 and the two 6 wheel bogies are articulated and i can tell you going up a steep incline with curves it is all by itself.

The key is the articulation.

Rgds Ian

[Anonymous]

Just asking a q Iandor I thought the malliet was 0-8-8-0 Or am I wrong usually am

Not trying to insult you just wondering
Ed

[dukebasketballer`]

Super Chicken,
I have 3 MTH dash-8's. I love them! The sound is awesome as well as the other functions. They may seem expensive, but at $335 to $400, they are really a steal (you can gey them cheaper on ebay). Just think, if you buy an aristo dash-9, add a sierra sound system and a decoder, the cost would be well over $500. The downfall is that if you want to reep the full benefits of the MTH system, you need to buy a DCS system that runs about $250. They are great pullers and have a special "cruise control" feature that controls the speed. Let's say you set you dash-8 to go 45 scale mph, when it goes up a hill/grade, it maintain its speed while a normal loco would slow down. Also, I have dash-8's with 4 and 6 wheel trucks and have not noticed any difference in performance. They can all negotiate the 8ft diameter turns I have. I LOVE MTH!
Hope I could help,
David
George Mason! In the Final Four! Its Madness! Ahhhhhhh!

[Anonymous]

rail fan, your question sounds like you might be wondering if all mallets aren't the 0-8-8-0 configuration and is iandor's really an 0-8-8-0 since he didn't specify who made it.

And I don't want to be insulting either, but Mr. Mallet, a Frenchman one would presume just from the pronunciation, thought that using steam twice was a great idea thus used it in many configurations.

TRAINS mag for awhile tried to use the + to indicate the double bogie as in 0-6-0+0-6-0 but it didn't catch on.

Art

[Anonymous]

Art I never learn if I don't ask . Had heard about the French thing before But when you get as old as I am, you tend to forget sometimes.

Are you saying that there is 0-6-6-0 mallets and 0-8-8-0 mallets also?
please clarify for me.
Ed

[Anonymous]

Yes, Ed, there are many mallets from 0-4-4-0 to 2-8-8-2 and others no doubt.
Try this web site
http://loggingmallets.railfan.net/list/list.htm
which is a history of the Baldwin critters.
To be a 'true' mallet, the steam is used twice; first in the smaller high pressure cylinders - usually the rear engine next to the fire box - and then in the larger low pressure cylinders on the front engine. Many were rebuilt as simple articulateds instead of compound.

Art

[Anonymous]

Hi Art Cool and Thanks I don't usually get into all the details of engines My imfo is usually what is easy to aquire and what people tell me I mostly just like to watch
long trains run around the track both steam & diesel.

[Tom The Brat]

In general, the more driving wheels on the rail, the more it can pull before it slips. There are LOTS of other factors. Also, in models, some of the "Driving" wheels might not really be driving, or even not on the rail.

[dukebasketballer`]

In the case of the MTH dash-8's, on the 6 wheel trucks the middle axle is not geared, it spins freely so there is absolutely no difference with thier 4 and 6 wheel trcuks.
Hope it helps,
David
Go Gerge Mason Patriots!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[cabbage]

Ok -settle down people -'Sir' is about to lecture....

The real question you are trying to ask is :
Does a 6 wheel bogie deliver more tractive effort than a 4 wheel bogie?

The answer is :
It depends on how many of the axles are powered to the weight of the loco.

In a BO-BO loco all 4 axles are powered, all the weight is available for traction. In an A1A-A1A loco 4 of the 6 axles are powered and only 66.6% of the weight is available for traction. However in a CO-CO loco all 6 axles are powered and all the weight is available for traction.

The point load on the track for a BO-BO loco is higher than that for a CO-CO loco of the same weight, however the BO-BO will take tighter curves than a CO-CO.

Thus: if you have a twisty track then your loco is likely to be better off being a BO-BO configuration -however if you are capable of having wide curves and straights then a CO-CO, A1A-A1A or BO-BO will do.

If you are considering steam then I would suggest you visit here:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/sheila.capella/cabbage/articulated.html

And yes, I did go to school on a Garratt!!!!

regards

ralph