The pulling power of Maerklin.

11234 Views 48 Replies 13 Participants Last post by goedel, May 19, 2007

neil_s_wood

Discussion Starter · Feb 27, 2007

This item appeared on the Maerklin website. They have managed to get 200 Maerklin locos to pull a full sized DB coach. That would be 1 to 1 scale.

On the area of railways system engineering in Munich took place on 21 February 2007 a sensational experiment. Märklin locomotives of the size H0 on a scale of 1:87 should pull an original-size IC region car of the German course AG over a distance of 10 meters. The car had nevertheless an unloaded weight of approx. 48 tons and measured scarcely 27 meters. 200 Märklin locomotives of the BR 143 with the article number 37433 were available. On 50 tracks, to 4 locomotives each arranged, they were supplied by 50 transformers with energy. To set 3,000 VA necessarily around the IC region car in motion. The experiment succeeded and the 200 Märklin locomotives pulled the 1. Class car evenly, strong over of the Guiness book of the records editorship given distance. The Märklin specialist of the 1. Märklin model course team shifted altogether 625 meters of the Märklin of C-track, pulled 1.5 km cables and set over 3.000 soldered connections. The pool of broadcasting corporations transmission "W wie Wissen" sends the pictures of the preparation and the world record travel on coming Sunday, 25 February 2007 in the 1. Program at 17.03 o'clock.

So if the coach weighed 48 tons and there were 200 coaches, does this mean that each loco was pulling a quarter of a ton?

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neil_s_wood

Discussion Starter · #3 · Feb 27, 2007

QUOTE (dbclass50 @ 27 Feb 2007, 18:13) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Thanks for the report Neil - be great to see a video of this.

BTW - don't you mean 200 Loco's

oops

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neil_s_wood

Discussion Starter · #16 · Feb 28, 2007

Because the current collection is better with AC because it's coming from both outer rail you can afford to have more traction tyres. There was an article on the American Trix website about a Big Boy model pulling a record number of wagons but it seems to have gone now and I can't remember how many there were.

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neil_s_wood

Discussion Starter · #19 · Mar 1, 2007 (Edited by Moderator)

QUOTE (dbclass50 @ 1 Mar 2007, 18:03) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Be interesting to know who many Trix locos would have been required - or how many equivelant loco's without any traction tyres

Another point - the Marklin stud contact track uses steel rather than nickle silver for the rail itself. It is possible that steel gives a better grip than nickle silver (& no, I'm not talking about Magnaheasion, however it's spelt).
The stud contact track is not used for traction unfortunately. I beleive it is the return power rail. There is a sky thing under the loco which skims it so it creates drag rather than assists with traction.

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neil_s_wood

Discussion Starter · #25 · Mar 1, 2007

QUOTE (BRITHO @ 2 Mar 2007, 01:12) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Why Warley? (no disrespect)

Could we somehow arrange this locally and see what does what?

Regards

John

Who's just noticed he's now an engine driver!!
Congratulations John.

QUOTE I wonder what 200 locos fitted with sound decoders all starting up at the same time would sound like? Pretty horrible unless you could synchronise them.

As regards the Maerklin loco pulling Hornby Coaches, I can find out how many a Trix one will pull once I have started unpacking my trains. I will report back once I find out.

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neil_s_wood

Discussion Starter · #27 · Mar 1, 2007 (Edited by Moderator)

QUOTE (Dennis David @ 2 Mar 2007, 09:41) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Just a question, does Hornby not use traction tires? Why not?
Seems unbeleivable but apparently some idiot told them it was good thing not to have them. Most of my Hornby locos have them so it must be a new thing. This would seriously reduce their pulling power and is a huge mistake in a lightweight loco.

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neil_s_wood

Discussion Starter · #34 · Mar 3, 2007

QUOTE Lima were a European company and their traction tyres induced wobble

Although Lima were a continental company they were rubbish. I have a couple of their items and they really suck. The outside on one isn't bad but the motors were shocking. When people are talking about Continental models in the context of quality they are generally reffering to Maerlkin, Fleischmann, Trix Brawa, Roco. Lima is not in the same book never mind on the same page as these guys.

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neil_s_wood

Discussion Starter · #41 · Mar 4, 2007 (Edited by Moderator)

QUOTE I'm sceptical of the idea that decent haulage can only be achieved by fitting traction tyres , since US HO has been a traction-tyre-free zone for several decades , yet US HO locos are certainly expected to haul long trains as a matter of course , and their running has been used as a stick to beat OO for many years I told you recently on another thread this is because US outline is considerably larger and heavier than European including UK outline. This still hasn't changed. In order to get decent traction you need weight or something which will give purchase on the track. If your loco is light the wheels will spin wildly while the train doesn't move. I wont give any specific examples as it may be distressing for some.

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neil_s_wood

Discussion Starter · #44 · Mar 4, 2007 (Edited by Moderator)

QUOTE (Ravenser @ 4 Mar 2007, 20:28) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Neil;

I'm not sure this is true - certainly for not Type 5 diesels.

Hornby 60 - 11 inches long over buffers , weighs 700g

The Bachmann 66 is pretty similar in terms of length and weight, and I'd expect the Bachmann 40 mentioned above to be in the same league as well. The Heljan 47's not far off either

Even the powered coach of my 2 car Bachmann Turbostar DMU scales in at 1lb (450g). This is the same mechanism as Bachmann use in the 158 and Voyager , so the worst load it faces is a 5 car Voyager - powered coach + 4

Bachmann's 20 is a mere 425g , but this is a narrow bonneted loco and the real things are only 1000hp

These are all common , widespread classes, so very much "bread and butter" models for a 4mm modern image modeller

Steam isn't my scene , but state of the art OO kettles aren't light either
I was thinking about steam as I don't really buy diesels. My Trix Big Boy is about a Kilo and ¾ (four pounds) whereas a Hornby Steam loco would be a quarter of that at the most. My BLI J1 is about a kilo too. The Hornby ones with loco drive are a lot better as there is more weight in the loco to keep it down but the two three year old ones still had tender drive and little weight in the loco to keep it on the tracks. The newer ones are definitely better. Bachmann ones tend to be better weight wise too. I haven't had any problem with Bachmann locos only Hornby but they do seem to be sorting this out.

The Hornby GNER 225 can't pull any more than five coaches on the level which is annoying as I have eight and it just sits there with it's wheels spinning out of control!

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neil_s_wood

Discussion Starter · #46 · Mar 4, 2007

Where a loco is designed to have traction tyres there is a groove in the wheel for the traction tyre to fit. If you were to put a traction tyre onto a wheel not designed for that purpose it would unbalance the loco noticably. Unless of course you replaced the wheel with one which was adapted for traction tyre use.

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