How much will they pull...?? What grades are recommended...?

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by cabbage

This may sound amazing silly -but check how much weight of the loco is actually on the driving wheels and that they actually make good mechanical contact with the track.

Not silly at all. I had this exact problem with an LGB U Class. The spring on the trailing truck was too powerful and was taking some of the weight off the drivers (leading to problems with gear mesh as well as lack of grip). I've since cut it down a bit (following advice from one of my local shops) and the improvement is noticable - it sits a lot more like the prototype now while before it was almost balanced on the spring, the gear problem is also solved as more of each tooth is in contact with the worm gear. I don't have enough track (or an unmodified U) to do a proper test but it worked for me.

[cabbage]

This may sound amazing silly -but check how much weight of the loco is actually on the driving wheels and that they actually make good mechanical contact with the track.

As I build everything myself I can to a limited extent cheat and start out with an articulated design that will be capable of doing this!!! I have found that rather than using 6 wheel chassis 4 wheel chassis are a better bet. Compensating the axles is only really effective if you have 3 or more in a bogie -otherwise centrally spring mount the bogie to allow for roll yaw and pitch.

How the power is initially appled to the motors also seems to be a traction advantage... I use a Pulse Width AMPLITUDE Modulated ESC by Electronise. This provides a low frequency startup (100Hz) and moves to high frequencies (2kHz) when you are moving at speed. Looking at the wave form on a scope you can see it 'chop' a sine wave -rather than the 'normal' square wave that you get from a PWM supply.

regards

ralph

[RhB_HJ]

QUOTE: Originally posted by iandor

Does anyone have any idea how to find out about slippage in advance and it there anyway that you can improve the situation whithout doing anything drastic?

Rgds Ian

Oh man! What a perfect opening!

Well Ian, there is. [;)][}:)][;)] Actually there are several different approaches.

One is to keep grades and curve radii to a value that is reasonable, for grades somewhere in the 2 to 3% range, curves in the 1000mm and up range.

Of course there are other methods, too. One that comes to mind is knurl all the drivers on the engines. Diamond pattern is perfect if you don't plan on knurling all the track on the grades as well. Because it gives you a nicely equalized, straight ahead progression.

LH slanted pattern on the RH drivers and RH slanted pattern on the LH drivers, matching patterns on the rails. It will make for absolutely amazing traction!!

Now that is the stuff I really worry about at night. You have no idea how long it took me to figure out why this pattern would be better than any of the other patterns. All those knurling patterns twirling in my head made me almost dizzy and that's when I start to worry.

[Anonymous]

Why, Ian? Isn't four litres enough?

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have any idea how to find out about slippage in advance and it there anyway that you can improve the situation whithout doing anything drastic?

Rgds Ian

[RhB_HJ]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Ray Dunakin

Too bad those pdf's are all in German.

Ray,

Those PDFs are simple enough to have the column headings translated by Google. [;)][:)][;)]

[Anonymous]

Wow thats pretty good; my Mallet will pull 4 litres of white wine up a 4 % grade, is all.

rgds Ian

[cabbage]

I regularly test my locos to see how much tractive force they are putting down on the rails. The current holder is my MEYER at 85N. This and the GOLWE coupled together have enough traction to pull my 6 year old son (34Kg) across the deck on his pedal tractor.

regards

ralph

[Ray Dunakin]

Too bad those pdf's are all in German.

[RhB_HJ]

Ian,

It's a general outline of what certain engines can handle, measured on level, straight and clean track using a 5A power supply etc. etc. etc.

As I mentioned some time ago, for your "unique" conditions you'll need your "unique" solutions. Doesn't mean that you can circumvent physical laws, but you'll find that out step by step.[;)][:)][:p][;)]

[Anonymous]

Yeah but HJ this is a different matter, to do with whell slip under tropical conditions!

ian

[RhB_HJ]

Hi all,

If you're interested in the pulling capacity of different engines here is a start

This one is ordered in ascending order of pulling power

http://www.champex-linden.de/produkt_info/einsatz/einsatz%20-%20zugkraft_g.pdf

The next one; order according to mfg and product number

http://www.champex-linden.de/produkt_info/einsatz/einsatz%20-%20zugkraft_sn.pdf

The info is from the Champex-Linden website and is Copyright protected.

Please note that the info dates back to 2000 and doesn't include some of the newer engines. But it is a good starting point.

As far as grades are concerned

http://www.champex-linden.de/produkt_info/tipps_tricks/t&t%20-%20steigung.pdf

Worth noting is the scenario "steep grades, tight curves"! Not only will it decrease the hauling capacity of the engines, it will also increase the wear and tear!

But we all know that, don't we??[;)][;)][:)][:D][:p][;)][;)][soapbox][soapbox]