Heavier Loco

[Chrisjh]

I have just returned to N Gauge and had a wonderful modern image layout built by Steve Hornsey, Just wondering as I am running long rakes of wagons which modern image loco is best at pulling long rakes, I have had problems with my Farish 57's and 66's.

 

Many thanks,
Chris

[jpendle]

Farish 60, 66, then other Farish locos

Dapol are generally less able.

 

In your other post the Rev TEA's are a special case, hauling 22 Farish or Dapol bogie wagons shouldn't be an issue, anything long wheelbase without bogies, Rev IZA Twins, VGA's etc, will have considerable resistance going round smaller radius curves.

 

Regards,

 

John P

[grahame]

27 minutes ago, Chrisjh said:

 I am running long rakes of wagons which modern image loco is best at pulling long rakes, I have had problems with my Farish 57's and 66's.

 

Two things that adversely affect haulage performance are tight radius bends and gradients. It's worthwhile trying to mitigate and eradicate them if you are having problems.

 

G

[John M Upton]

Another factor affecting haulage is what is being hauled.  I have a rake of old Poole tooling VBA Van's which used to run like a bag of nails so I treated them to a full works overhaul, a decent paint job, some extra weight and, most importantly a new set of modern replacement. metal wheels. 

 

A rake of these easily run over sometimes not great track behind modern tooling 37's etc no problem whatsoever. 

[MrSimon]

I put bullfrog snot on the central axels of the bogies - they don't have pick-ups on those wheels but do have gears. It improved the pulling power of a 56 and 47, I didn't try it with my 60/66s but no reason why it wouldn't.

 

Cheers

Simon

[njee20]

Yes, I feel this has been done a couple of times on your threads, a bit more context may help. Have you got gradients? If so you’re probably going to struggle with most locos if you want long rakes. Is it all your rakes, or only certain ones?

 

The Revolution TEAs are heavy, so are a bit anomalous IMO. That said I had problems with their IZAs out the box too, and found they needed a fair degree of fettling to run smoothly.

 

Dapol 66s and 68s are poor, their 86s and 56s are better, plus you can (/should) double head 86s on intermodal trains. 

 

Ive got high hopes for Revolution’s 92, as that’s being built by the same guys as the TEAs, so I’m expecting good haulage. 

 

Or just buy CJM locos

[Chrisjh]

Many thanks everyone for your help and suggestions which are much appreciated, funnily enough I have no problem hauling a full rake of 40 x Dapol spine wagons loaded with a Farish 66. So I will definitely try out some of these suggestions later. Many thanks

 

Best,
Chris

[Steven B]

It's worth checking that your wagons & coaches run freely too. Some run better out of the box than others. The length of the wheelbase also plays a role.

 

For example, I've got a rake of 39 Farish HAAs which my Farish 37 & 60s and Dapol 56 & 58 move without any problems. The same can't be said for a rake of OBA or VGA wagons half that length - I think there's some binding/rubbing on the OBA and the long wheelbase on the VGA can still cause increased drag, even on curves of greater than 15" radius. Five DJM Mermaids add a huge amount of drag to my rake of 18 Dogfish.

[Chrisjh]

Many thanks Gents much appreciated, there are no gradients. I have removed some of the weights so I now have three Dapol DRS 66's hauling the TEA's, so I will try my Farish 66's and see how we get on.

 

Best,
Chris