Trains.com

Subscriber & Member Login

Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!

How do you know if your train might too long? (more added)

17759 views
129 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    December 2004
  • From: Bedford, MA, USA
  • 21,484 posts
Posted by MisterBeasley on Wednesday, September 5, 2007 10:31 AM

If your locomotive is a steamer, but by the time you get to the end of the train the caboose has been replaced by a Fred, your train might be too long.

If you invite Werner Heisenberg over to an operating session, your train might be too long, but nobody can be certain.

If you need a Fred on a bridal gown, her train might be too long.

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse. 

  • Member since
    November 2001
  • From: US
  • 1,720 posts
Posted by MAbruce on Wednesday, September 5, 2007 10:20 AM

When the lights in the neighborhood dim as you increase the throttle (and you model in N-scale), then perhaps the train is too long.

When you're running on the huge Springfield N-Trak layout, and you see your loco consist appear soon after the caboose passes by - why then you have room for a few more cars on the train!  Hey, what can I say, the rules change on N-Trak layouts...  Mischief [:-,]

  • Member since
    December 2010
  • From: The place where I come from is a small town. They think so small, they use small words.
  • 1,141 posts
Posted by twcenterprises on Wednesday, September 5, 2007 3:20 AM
 jeffers_mz wrote:
 steemtrayn wrote:
 jeffers_mz wrote:

You mean like this?

Yes, only deeper.

That picture or one very much like that gave me the idea.

In the case of the pic I saw, teenage vandals broke into the train at night, fired the diesel, locked the brakes and it just sat there spinning the wheels till someone noticed it the next day.

Pretty crappy thing to do if you ask me, and since I saw the pic, wheelspin on the 5% grade here bothers me a lot more than it used to.

Ah, so that explains why only 3 axles were spinning on (presumably) a 4 axle engine.  The handbrake was (I'm assuming) still "tied down".  As I'm told, the handbrake only "ties down" one axle.

Don't RR's lock up the loco's at night?  Or at least lock the controls somehow?  (Oh, wait, you said they "broke in".  Never mind.)

Brad 

EMD - Every Model Different

ALCO - Always Leaking Coolant and Oil

CSX - Coal Spilling eXperts

  • Member since
    June 2006
  • From: Maryville IL
  • 9,577 posts
Posted by cudaken on Tuesday, September 4, 2007 11:56 PM

 Hum, would it work?Big Smile [:D] I have 3 of them.

      Cuda Ken

I hate Rust

  • Member since
    November 2005
  • 1,223 posts
Posted by jeffers_mz on Tuesday, September 4, 2007 2:50 AM
 cudaken wrote:

 Your train is to long if you are thinking about using the 70 amp battery car charger as a booster!

              

 

Hmmmm...this sounds suspiciously specific...

 

:-)

  • Member since
    November 2005
  • 1,223 posts
Posted by jeffers_mz on Tuesday, September 4, 2007 2:48 AM
 steemtrayn wrote:
 jeffers_mz wrote:

When all 20 drivers have ground clean through the nickle steel rail, and start in on the plastic ties, your train might be too long.

You mean like this?

 

Yes, only deeper.

That picture or one very much like that gave me the idea.

In the case of the pic I saw, teenage vandals broke into the train at night, fired the diesel, locked the brakes and it just sat there spinning the wheels till someone noticed it the next day.

Pretty crappy thing to do if you ask me, and since I saw the pic, wheelspin on the 5% grade here bothers me a lot more than it used to.

  • Member since
    April 2007
  • From: Iowa
  • 3,293 posts
Posted by Semper Vaporo on Tuesday, September 4, 2007 12:27 AM

Your train is too long when Walthers has to go out of business because you bought them all.

 

Semper Vaporo

Pkgs.

  • Member since
    October 2003
  • From: Milwaukee & Toronto
  • 929 posts
Posted by METRO on Tuesday, September 4, 2007 12:13 AM

If your fresh switch crew ends their shift before
they get to the end of the first cut, your train is too long (and your yard might be too)

Cheers!

~METRO 

  • Member since
    June 2006
  • From: Maryville IL
  • 9,577 posts
Posted by cudaken on Monday, September 3, 2007 11:51 PM

Your train is to long if you can read all the postings on this thread and have yet to see the caboose! 

 Your train is to long if you have to use a passing line for the engine so the caboose does not get hit by the engine.

 Your train is to long if all the engines you want are made and delivred before you see your caboose!

 Your train is to long if you think about running the short line around your yard?

 Your train is to long if you are thinking about using the 70 amp battery car charger as a booster!

 Your train is to long if your wife gives up on trying to count the number of rolling stock you have on the bench.

 You have to many Rolling Stock and Engines when you have to pull half of them so you can run a train!

 I guess I don't read 1/2 off the postings, I have missed the trolls postings and that is fine with me.

  To many train Ken               

I hate Rust

  • Member since
    August 2007
  • From: Missouri
  • 103 posts
Posted by Alex V. on Monday, September 3, 2007 11:30 PM
What, exactly, happened?
Alex - Engineer, brakeman, conductor, hostler, railfan, railroad historian, and model railroader
  • Member since
    July 2006
  • 1,414 posts
Posted by Guilford Guy on Monday, September 3, 2007 11:25 PM
Remote control units has a tendency to do that...

Alex

  • Member since
    August 2007
  • From: Missouri
  • 103 posts
Posted by Alex V. on Monday, September 3, 2007 11:23 PM
Is that real????!!!  Tongue [:P] If it is, what the heck happenned?
Alex - Engineer, brakeman, conductor, hostler, railfan, railroad historian, and model railroader
  • Member since
    September 2005
  • 1,377 posts
Posted by SOU Fan on Monday, September 3, 2007 10:10 PM
 jeffers_mz wrote:

When the little door on your P2K GP9 slams open and your plastic engineer is sprinting away at top speed, yelling "She's gonna BLOW!", your train won't be too long for much longer.

  • Member since
    January 2006
  • From: Kentucky
  • 356 posts
Posted by myred02 on Monday, September 3, 2007 9:40 PM
 steemtrayn wrote:
 jeffers_mz wrote:

When all 20 drivers have ground clean through the nickle steel rail, and start in on the plastic ties, your train might be too long.

You mean like this?

Or this?

-Brandon

 

Modeling (and railfanning) the CSX mainlines since... ah fudge I forgot! http://myred02.rrpicturearchives.net/ http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=myred02
  • Member since
    July 2002
  • From: Jersey City
  • 1,925 posts
Posted by steemtrayn on Monday, September 3, 2007 9:34 PM
 jeffers_mz wrote:

When all 20 drivers have ground clean through the nickle steel rail, and start in on the plastic ties, your train might be too long.

You mean like this?

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • 1,414 posts
Posted by Guilford Guy on Monday, September 3, 2007 6:39 PM
Your Train just may be too long when your little plastic engineer calls you Long distance from LA and the train is still in Chicago.

Alex

  • Member since
    February 2005
  • 627 posts
Posted by exPalaceDog on Monday, September 3, 2007 3:30 PM

One, any train is Too long when you try to back it up!

Two, any train is too long when it starts taking short cuts through the inside of the curves!

Three, any train is too if the shippers are complaining becuase the yardmaster holds cars in the yard until he has a "full" train's worth of tonnage.

Have fun

 

  • Member since
    November 2005
  • 1,223 posts
Posted by jeffers_mz on Monday, September 3, 2007 2:30 PM

When all 20 drivers have ground clean through the nickle steel rail, and start in on the plastic ties, your train might be too long.

When attempts to pull the train yield loud popping noises, only half the train moves, and you find Kadee #5s embedded in the wall more than twenty feet away, your train might be too long.

When the power company calls to tell you they expect you to pay for the melted windings on their 650 megawatt turbines, your train probably is too long.

When you look through the rectangular hole with brown smoking edges in your benchwork, right where your head end consist used to be, and see an identical hole through the subfloor into the crawlspace, your train used to be too long.

When the little door on your P2K GP9 slams open and your plastic engineer is sprinting away at top speed, yelling "She's gonna BLOW!", your train won't be too long for much longer.

When the space time continuum around your layout folds in on itself, past the Schwartzchild radius, and your train and layout disappear beyond the event horizon, your train may well be too long in the X'Y'Z' reference frame, but we have no way of telling that because the Lorentz Transforms break down in proximity to naked singularities.

At this point, we can invoke Hawking's virtual particle annihilation equations using the measured gamma radiation data and equivocably state that your train is probably too long.

 

  • Member since
    December 2004
  • From: Rimrock, Arizona
  • 11,251 posts
Posted by SpaceMouse on Monday, September 3, 2007 2:07 PM
 PAERR wrote:

If you have time to read all of this weekend's troll related posts before the last car of your train clears the yard... your train might be too long!

Laugh [(-D]

-George

No one has that much time.

Chip

Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.

  • Member since
    August 2006
  • From: franklin ma
  • 95 posts
Posted by jesrr on Monday, September 3, 2007 2:07 PM
  When the train is in a curve and the engineer can touch the EOT marker...maybe your train is too long
john
  • Member since
    September 2006
  • From: Ogden UT
  • 1,055 posts
Posted by PA&ERR on Monday, September 3, 2007 1:58 PM

If you have time to read all of this weekend's troll related posts before the last car of your train clears the yard... your train might be too long!

Laugh [(-D]

-George

"And the sons of Pullman porters and the sons of engineers ride their father's magic carpet made of steel..."

  • Member since
    September 2006
  • From: Ogden UT
  • 1,055 posts
Posted by PA&ERR on Monday, September 3, 2007 11:54 AM

If the conductor can visually check the end of train device from the cab of the lead locomotive... your train might be too long.

If a mathemetician sitting at a grade crossing looses count of the number of cars in your train as it passes by... your train might be too long.

If people waiting at a grade crossing while your train passes by, order a pizza, get it delivered and finish eating it before your train clears the grade crossing... your train might be too long.

-George

 

 

"And the sons of Pullman porters and the sons of engineers ride their father's magic carpet made of steel..."

  • Member since
    June 2005
  • 4,368 posts
Posted by Darth Santa Fe on Monday, September 3, 2007 10:47 AM

If you can't pull your train with a string of 15 Bowser T-1 4-4-4-4s, your train might be too long.

If your train is so heavy your engines can't pull it downhill, it might be too long.

If you can see the back of the train from the engine, and you don't have any curves in your track, your train might be too long.

That's all I've got for now.Big Smile [:D]

_________________________________________________________________

  • Member since
    September 2006
  • From: Ogden UT
  • 1,055 posts
Posted by PA&ERR on Monday, September 3, 2007 10:36 AM

If you can't uncouple from your train without coupling onto your own caboose... your train might be too long.

If you are admiring the realistic smoke coming out of your lead loco going up a 1% grade and then  realize 1) it doesn't have a smoke unit, and 2) its a diesel anyway!.... your train might be too long.

If your train can block the arrival yard of your destination and the departure yard of your point of origin at the same time... your train might be too long.

If your locomotive, mid train helpers and caboose/rear end helpers are all in different time zones... your train might be too long.

-George 

 

"And the sons of Pullman porters and the sons of engineers ride their father's magic carpet made of steel..."

  • Member since
    January 2006
  • From: New York City
  • 324 posts
Posted by sfrailfan on Monday, September 3, 2007 10:24 AM
Very funny Spacemouse! I always push the limit at our club, 18 cars is our standard siding/staging track length but recently one of the senior members told me it would be fun for me to run more!

I like to run coal drags 30-60 cars long at times so the dispatcher will just have people wait in sidings for me to pass them! I don't do that often though, I don't think it's fair. I do have to use helpers up some of our grades though, thats always fun.
  • Member since
    August 2004
  • 2,844 posts
Posted by dinwitty on Monday, September 3, 2007 10:24 AM

If you emptied your turntable tracks of locomotives and still cant get out of the yard, your train is too long.

 

If your the only train on the layout and you see 3 trains over the Tehachapi loop, your train is too long.

If you called for the real 3985 for pusher help, your train is too long.

If you saw 3 trains running and your running only one, your beer was too long.

 

  • Member since
    September 2006
  • 565 posts
Posted by Bapou on Monday, September 3, 2007 10:12 AM

If the engineer sees the helper engines from train 1 and he is train 1!

If your commuter train is in hoboken and summit at the same time (thats at least 20 miles)

Go NJT, NJ Transit, New Jersey Transit. Whatever you call it its good. See my pictures and videos here: http://s239.photobucket.com/albums/ff20/Bapouthetrainman/
  • Member since
    December 2004
  • From: Rimrock, Arizona
  • 11,251 posts
Posted by SpaceMouse on Monday, September 3, 2007 9:08 AM
Nice additions guys. Keep them coming.

Chip

Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.

  • Member since
    January 2006
  • From: Kentucky
  • 356 posts
Posted by myred02 on Monday, September 3, 2007 12:15 AM

If ALL of the locomotives in the consist are classified as DPUs, then your train is too long.

If the brakemen in the caboose of a train can look over their shoulder and see the whites of the engineer's eyes, then your train is too long.

Man, this is a fun post! Thanks for this, I needed a good chuckle today.

-Brandon

Modeling (and railfanning) the CSX mainlines since... ah fudge I forgot! http://myred02.rrpicturearchives.net/ http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=myred02
  • Member since
    August 2004
  • 2,844 posts
Posted by dinwitty on Sunday, September 2, 2007 11:53 PM

If your local neighborhood power transformer catches fire, your train is too long.

 When you wonder why you have to stop at the yard on the main because another train is leaving the same your you just left, your train is too long.

When you build a transcontinental railroad and your train gets from New York to Los Angeles in 10 seconds, your mainline is too short.

When you call your Conductor back to the caboose, he gets on the locomotive pilot for a ride back, your train might be too long, (and he may never get to the caboose either!)

 

Subscriber & Member Login

Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!

Users Online

There are no community member online

Search the Community

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Model Railroader Newsletter See all
Sign up for our FREE e-newsletter and get model railroad news in your inbox!