LOCO-TALK

I have been a operator and collector of toy trains for a period of over forty years. In that time I have operated many model train locomotives on large and small layouts. At various times during a year and for a period of over fifteen years I operated a large public layout. This work will give the visual description and operating performance of various locomotives as observed by myself. All the locomotives described were operated over a period of time, on a road bed, under a load and sometimes over the fingers of small children. All locomotives were carefully maintained with regular cleaning and lubrication of motors and gears. The twin motor locomotives were assigned to pull a train of fifteen to twenty cars, the single motor locomotives six to ten cars. There are many locomotive manufacturers which state their locomotives will pull many more cars than this and they are correct. They do not say for how long the locomotive can pull this load and at what cost to the owner. Pulling their assigned loads the twin motor locos were changed at 30 minutes of operating time and the single motor locomotives one hour. They were then rested for a time of one to two hours. over a two day show the individual operating time for a locomotive would be three hours for twins and four hours for single motor locomotives. The motors for all of these locomotives are electric and by using various weights, gears, magnets, rubber tires and motor types different operating conditions occur and that's what this is all about.