Best tractive effort in G scale?

[Spawn of Chaos]

Hi all. I am looking into my future and seeing the garden railroad my fiance and I plan on having. We intend to actually put our railroad to good use hauling stuff we grow into the house. I would like to know what you all think would be best for hauling 50+ pounds up a helix (low-grade, long hill). I plan on using battery power.

FYI, I'm currently only modeling HO scale, so if you have any suggestions, you're going to really have to detail it for me. Otherwise I probably won't know what the heck you're talking about!

[Jim Krause]

Not being an outdoor railroader, I can only suggest that you do some local reasearch via a club in the Seattle area or the local train stores. Try Eastside Trains. they seem to have a big stock of G scale. 50 pounds sounds like a pretty hefty load but being unfamiliar with G scale, maybe it can be done. The battery power could also be problematic for heavy loads. I'm writing this because I know that there are folks out there who are just waiting to jump on my comments and so we may get some discussion going.

[hmas]

Originally Posted by Spawn of Chaos

Hi all. I am looking into my future and seeing the garden railroad my fiance and I plan on having. We intend to actually put our railroad to good use hauling stuff we grow into the house. I would like to know what you all think would be best for hauling 50+ pounds up a helix (low-grade, long hill). I plan on using battery power.

A 1 to 1 scale wheelbarrow, will save you & your trains a lot of grief!

1 you will need large radius curves 10' min 20' better. Any tighter & the lenght of train with that sort of weight will pull the wagons off of the curve, ie they will try to follow the tangent back to the loco than the curve.

2 wheels & the plastic that suffices for bearings on the trucks will give way wear out very quickly.

3 the battery packs will have to be gel cells to supply the power you need "c" size ni-cads will not cut it at those power requirements.
You can use track power!

4 2 or 3 locos maybe to haul 1 load? up hill! ( 3x bachman shays or hieslers, climax's could do it.

5 if you have the space why not do 3&1/2" or a 5" railway then you could use it to ride on as well (car starter motor + 12V batt chain drive to the wheels, away you go)
Tony
bin dere dun dat.

[Spawn of Chaos]

I don't think we'll have the space for a "live steam" style railway. I was thinking, however, of building my own Big Boy out of all like steel or something and using real steam to power it. The heat would be electric (battery power), and the tender would hold extra water and a small pump. Sound good? Or does that sound impossible?

Oh, and all my trestles/scaffold work (on the helix) would, of course, be metal...lol

[hmas]

Originally Posted by Spawn of Chaos

I don't think we'll have the space for a "live steam" style railway. I was thinking, however, of building my own Big Boy out of all like steel or something and using real steam to power it. The heat would be electric (battery power), and the tender would hold extra water and a small pump. Sound good? Or does that sound impossible?

Oh, and all my trestles/scaffold work (on the helix) would, of course, be metal...lol

Don't have space for a live steam layout then you say you want to do a bigboy in steam. Are you trolling, acomplete newbie or tbd.

Trestles OK metal is better than wood AFAIAC.
A bigboy in metal is quite an undertaking, I would suggest something smaller, unless you have access to a machinery workshop.
dun anything like this before?
Batt powered steam, Hornby does steam in HO size but with track voltage & lots of amps, in this size I don't think you could get enuff batteries to do it.
but I've been wrong in the past.
Tony

[Jim Krause]

The use of battery power to create steam would not be very practical. The current required would deplete a battery pretty rapidly. I would think that propane would be a better choice.
As others have noted, building a steam version of the Big Boy is a major undertaking and requires machining skills and at least a lathe and probably a milling machine would be desirable too.

[Spawn of Chaos]

hmas: I plan on making one in G scale (sorry forgot to mention that)

Jim: Hmm...track power I suppose would have to do. I found a great website, Crabfu SteamWorks, by some guy who does a lot of steam workings (including remote controlled steam stuff AND A TURBINE POWERED TANK!) and I plan on getting some suggestions from him.

[hmas]

G scale? that covers every scale from 1/18 to 1/29! which scale?
1/30(10mm to the foot)-1/32(3/8" to the foot or 9.45mm) scale is the original
from the 1800's.
crabfu s' site maily uses stationary steam plants to power his "toys", if you want to power a loco with them DON'T!
They cannot produce enuff steam for your purposes in a working loco, you need to speak to a professional loco manufacturer, rather than relying on the web sites where people may not have all the info to actually help you build one that works or how to operate it safely!
try this series of links, there's a couple from the usa who make locos & can give you better advice.
Links

[Spawn of Chaos]

Basically the original G scale, 1/29 to 1/32. (Learned from my LHS, don't try to tell me I'm wrong lol, just tell THEM that THEY'RE wrong! XD)

[hmas]

the original G, was Gauge 1 at 1/32 scale. Then LGB under the Richter brothers did a gauge 2 train size but made it to run on gauge 1 track, hence they called it Gross Bahn "G" then the sheeples copied the name.
Aristocraft used to import & sell LGB, (under Polks), when they lost the dealership they made their own stuff. & as usuall for the Amerry-cans stuffing it up in the process! The polks divided 1/87 scale & came up with 1/29 scale for gauge 1 track instead of the correct 1/32 scale for standard gauge.
So endth todays lesson, next 'undays sermon will be on why don't Merkins read?
Not picking on you directly I have 30+ yrs on you, so just don't believe everything you are told research it yourself & not on the net or wiki!!
& yes we have built close on a 100 steam engines!
Tony

[Spawn of Chaos]

HAH. You've probably got more than 40 years on me personally seeing as to how I've been around for oh...a year and a quarter? lol

I don't think you could possibly beat Kirk and Wanda Holmes of Seattle's Train Center unless you're at least 90 years old though.

[Spawn of Chaos]

Anyone else have any ideas?

[thedowneaster]

Spaun of Chaos,

USA Trains is the answer! The USA trains GEEPs and F-units are by far the most reliable and powerful locos in largescale.

Have a look at my outdoor layout and personal collection:
http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/s-4/a%20rcrrhome.htm

My trains are all battery/RC using NiMH batteries and Airwire900 by CVP for control.

Airwire900 can handle 10amps so I can add as many as 2 other engines to each RC equiped engine! Note the ABA set on my homepage has only one RC-equiped engine, yet all have motors.

Jeff

[nkp174]

Something to think about in wanting to build a big boy (1:32 is the correct scale for standard gauge, 1:22.5 is correct for meter gauge (properly called G scale), 1:20.3 is correct for 3' gauge (properly called F scale)...1:24 and 1:29 are also common)...is that a live steam big boy requires a pressure vessel. That isn't exactly simple. I've seen people use small steam boat boilers in garden scale trains. I think you ought to look into either Aster or Accucraft. I've seen Accucraft's live steam locomotives pull extremely long trains. They're much cheaper than you could probably do on your own (unless you already have all the tools and skills you need).

Also, don't forget that several small trains can move the same freight as a single long train.