General Discussion

I have read in peoples testaments of running their locos for around 30 minutes, and I got to think whether they could go longer on one steaming. Try 45 minutes!! Here's how:

Firstly I will describe my layout. It is a double track main line with R4 outside and R3 inside settrack curves set in a shed 6x3 metres. The outside track length is 15.412 metres long.

So the 'how' is easy. Isolate part of the circuit from electrical power. I have two sections of isolation, one being the access bridge to the room, 914mm and the other is between sets of points which is 3.27 metres long.

The train was Mallard with 8 Backmann MK1 Blood and Custards all with metal wheels and to minimise rolling friction I lubricated each axle.

I firstly ran Mallard for a few laps to warm her up, then after cooling for a while I topped up the water. Upon starting the test, Mallard pulled way effortlessly with the 8 coaches in tow - lovely to see! Once on the move I regulated the lap speed to around 32 seconds for the 15.412 metre circuit and dropped the superheat setting to notch 2 for maximum efficiency. Well 30 minutes went by and still running at 32 seconds, and so it went on for another 15 minutes. I kid you not. Unbelievable but true.

The days temperature was 16 centigrade and humidity 24%, yes it was a rainy day.

For the mathematicians amongst you this running speed equates to 1.896 feet/sec. Multiply that by 76 (model scale) and you get 144 feet/sec. Now 88ft/s is 60mph, so by interpolation, 144 ft/s = 98mph.

Also doing 32 seconds per lap

over 45 minutes equates to a distance of no less than 1300 metres.

Finally, the fact that the power supply was cut off for those periods around the circuit actually regulated the average speed of Mallard such that I did not have to adjust anything during those 45 minutes.