I was working in the basement and set a train to go on the main at a slow speed, looking for any problem areas, dirt wise but had jut run a cleaning car so wasn't expecting any (I have one area in a tunel that seems to crud up, for no reason). Anyway, I got onto other things, went to the house, family was ready to go to the store, came back and did all the yard work, then finialy went back to the garage to put something away. I heard a noise coming from the train room part, here was my Kato NW2 still slowly pulling a bunch of cars over 3 hours later, guess my trackwork is bullet proof! Note: this is a 15x30 dogbone layout.
Not yet, however I think it will happen one day.
I like to have a train running when I am in the room working. My little 4-4-0 will pull its five cars around all day without so much as a hiccup. I just have to remember that it is going to come by every five or six minutes and get out of its way.
I often wonder how many hours a good quality loco wood run before it bite's the farm, if you never turned it off.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Hey, bet that loco is now fully broken in! But you are right, that is an excellent testiment to your track laying skills.
I've never left a train running, but early on when I got into DCC, I left a couple locos on speedstep 1 or 2 by accident. Shortly thereafter, one derailed on a turnout and the other was up against a track bumper.
That's been a couple of years ago, and I haven't done it since.
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
At the speed it vwas going, proubly 20 min. to go arround layout, running as slow as possible without any problems is over 30 min. ( i do have a grade crossing or two that should have been a smidge lower and a grownd throw or two that could be further tuned, with a keep alive I could do an hour on the 130' mainline).
At the museum I work at, we have two layouts.
One of the locomotives have been running 4 months a year for the last 5 years.
We calculated that it has ran almost 6.000 miles!
The only service is oil two times a week and cleaning once a month.
It is now in the workshop as the motor is being replaced (a Cannon coreless). Can't complain about the quality.
Swedish Custom painter and model maker. My Website:
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While I could just let a train orbit, I never do. Every train starts from a place and stops at some other place well short of a full turn around the mainline. Since Tomikawa is a crew and engine change point, NOTHING runs through without stopping. Also, no trains run during construction or maintenance (or nothing would get done.)
Maybe if I wasn't so rigid about running to schedule...
[EDIT] There's also the last item on the pre-departure checklist:
Layout main power switch (120VAC) - OFF
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - TTTO, 24-30)
Yeah...I've done it more than once. Most memorable... Summer a couple of years ago. Had several window fans running which drowns out trains running on the layout outside the living room where the layout is. Got a train going. I needed to go to the bathroom, left the train run since I only figured on being away from it for a minute or two. As soon as I finished my brief bathroom business...the phone rang down the hall in my computer room. My mother was on the other end of the line, so I sat and went into conversation. Being somewhat absent minded and easily distracted, I forgot about the train. More than 2 hours later, I got off the phone went to the livingroom and discovered the train still running...all well and fine.
My track work is far from bullet proof, but I guess I had just the right mix of cooperative equipment.
Mark H
Modeling in HO...Reading and Conrail together in an alternate history.
Express trains of LION just keep running and running as long as the power is turned on. LOCAL trains will begin to stack up behind red signals and stop all of their own, unless someone is operating the tower at 242nd street.
LION has big red and green lighed buttons on the console of him. Pus Green Putton, trains run. Push Red button trains, clock, and timer stops.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
Oh yeah!
I'm in a modular club with a semi-permanent layout in a shooping center. My modules have a loop connection to a staging yard behind them, so I can run a train continuosly around them without going on the main lines. The club is open to the public Wed, Sat, and Sun. I was running during a Saturday open house when someone asked for help programming a locomotive in back. I diverted my train onto my modules, helped out with the programming, and got distracted working on some new modules in back. At closing I powered down the layout. I was out of town the next day, and working on Wednesday. When I opened up the following Saturday and powered up the layout, I found my train running around on my modules. Other members who had been there Wednesday said they saw the train running, and thought I deliberately left it that way! My track looks more bullet riddled than bullet-proof, so I was very surprised nothing broke away or derailed.
If everybody is thinking alike, then nobody is really thinking.
http://photobucket.com/tandarailroad/
lets see lol i had a day off,nobody home so i ran rivarossi big boy & challenger & got distracted went upstairs &the next day about 12 i heard a noise downstairs....hummm well i investigated &yes boys & girls they were both pulling cars around the layout for 24 hours straight lol not an issue after that well built i guess
Most of the run for my subways is hidden, so I lose track of where they are. They are very quiet, too. Everything that runs on the surface has a sound decoder, or is consisted with an engine that does, so it's impossible for those trains to go unnoticed, but I've been known to forget I've got a subway train running. It's a simple loop on bulletproof track, so if I come back an hour later it will still be running.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.