# The Incredible Power of Accucraft Engines



## xo18thfa (Jan 2, 2008)

Many of you own one or more of Accucraft's very fine live steamers, such as the K28, K27, or a Shay.  And, as you well know, these machines have incredible pulling power.  

Steve Davis' K28 has no problem pulling a fleet of 1:20.3 scale freight cars I built last year, based on plans from Garden Railways magazine.  In all, 45 cars: 24 gondolas, 15 short boxcars, 4 tank cars, 1 idler flatcar and a Drover's caboose.  Steve can hardly contain his excitement.

*http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/xo18thfa/Long%20Train.jpg*
_Image exceeds 640 pixel max. width - converted to link. Mod.
_
It's hard to get it all in one photo










A fine looking machine:










Coming down the back straight










My 3 cylinder Shay does very well too.  She does just as well in forward as reverse.  Somewhere we lost the caboose, so it's only 44 cars.










Lou Banning's "tried and true" C16 does a good job towing the gondolas and tankers.

*http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/xo18thfa/Oct706.jpg*
_Image exceeds 640 pixel max. width - converted to link. Mod._

Sitting still long enough for a family photo.

*http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/xo18thfa/IMG_1749.JPG*

Mark Johnson got some time off from St Aubin's and brought his 2 cylinder Shay.  Unfortunately I did not get a shot of him pulling 28 cars while lifting the safety the whole way.

We meet at Clark Lord's the first Saturday of every month.  Clark has a 300-foot double main line with long straights and generous curves.  Plus all the hospitality you could imagine.  Clark's smokin' hot bar-b-que turns out the best chow in town.

*http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/xo18thfa/Lunch.jpg*
_Image exceeds 640 pixel max. width - converted to link. Mod._

Oh, by the way, Clark is definitely not a UNLV fan!!

*http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/xo18thfa/Gators.jpg*
_Image exceeds 640 pixel max. width - converted to link. Mod._


----------



## afinegan (Jan 2, 2008)

All those ams cars, did you do anything different to the bearings of those cars, My dads K-28 was pulling around 28 ams cars and it felt incredibly heavy with the stock cars. I have done nothing to the bearings yet.

His drivers where slipping though, lol It rained earlier

Andrew...


----------



## xo18thfa (Jan 2, 2008)

Hi Andrew:  Those cars are all scratch built including the trucks.  The trucks have hard brass bearings.  The wheel sets came from Sierra Valley which came with a highly polished axle ends and spot-on back-to-back gauge.  I have to bragg a bit, those cars roll very well.

Bob


----------



## afinegan (Jan 2, 2008)

Something I definately have to do to my father and I's rolling stock.


Andrew...


----------



## David Rose (Jan 2, 2008)

Very impressive. I'm also impressed you could pull all those cars behind that empty flat car! In my experience that resulted in derailments.


----------



## jfrank (Jan 2, 2008)

Bob is only showing what Accucraft owners everywhere already know.  Accucraft locomotives are incredible pulling machines.


----------



## dwegmull (Jan 2, 2008)

Hi,
You can even ride behind them :
[url="http://embed>[/url]
This is Dan's "heavy weight" three cylinder Shay (he added several pounds of lead into its chassis).
and:
[url="http://embed>[/url]
This is a brand new Mogul (only its second steaming ever) and a two cylinder Shay (which is radio controlled).

We have also succesfully pulled lightweight people with a K28 under less than perfect conditions at Mark's place. I am not sure if that was caught on film though... I guess we'll have to try again . I will most likely bring back my dual gauge track to the NSS this year.

Greetings,
David


----------



## zephyra (Jan 2, 2008)

What would be really cool would be for someone to design a dynanometer car that would measure/record force on the drawbar and speed to get a real sense of work done. Static pull tests and gee whizz videos are fun, but hardly scientific!


----------



## Guest (Mar 5, 2008)

Here is my Accucraft Mogol pulling 29 cars at Bob Weltyks in September.  About half of them had water in them too.








Brian


----------



## dwegmull (Jan 2, 2008)

Hi,
These dynamometer cars are very common for ride-on scale efficiency competions in the UK (and elswhere?). I've been toying with the idea of building a compact setup that could be installed in either a gauge one or 4.74" gauge car. What is needed is a force gauge (a strain gauge is great, a calibrated spring and potentiometer would do as well) and a way to measure distance / speed of travel (optical or magentic wheel rotation counter) both sensors then go to a recording device (a laptop) for processing and graphing...
So many projects, so little time...

Greetings,
David


----------



## Steve S. (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By jfrank on 03/05/2008 7:35 AM
Bob is only showing what Accucraft owners everywhere already know.  Accucraft locomotives are incredible pulling machines. 
                                                                                                                                              

Gosh John,  I thought that we all new that they are Brutes!!   And Heck, I have already seen your little Miss. Ruby pull 45+ cars.  These big Brutes should pull 3 to 4 times this much.


----------



## Charles (Jan 2, 2008)

I agree with Steve, that number of cars is impressive but an average consist of cars.   Most of the runs we do on the big tracks have freight pulls of 75-150 cars.   Relative to "real" operations would a K28 pull that many cars during revenue service?


----------



## David Rose (Jan 2, 2008)

I don't think any narrow gauge engine running on the D&RGW saw more than 70 cars (unless they had a death wish /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/crazy.gif). That was the rule if I'm not mistaken. 

As far as pulling 75-150 cars at a meet I've personally never seen even close to that many, but then again I do not make that many meets! I can remember seeing around 65 cars being pulled by a double headed Berk and Big Boy at Dr. Rivets. Unless you are talking about the Alley at the private track in North NJ. I seem to remember seeing a video of that seemingly endless coal drag!


----------



## bigsteam (Mar 6, 2008)

Here is a link to a K27 pulling a string of Accucraft, non ball bearing trucks, that almost fills the 120 + foot loop at the Colorado RR Museum track. Earlier that day, before the owner of some of the cars took them home, the loco pulled in excess of 70 cars.   Note: The loco is between the trees on the left.












John


----------



## Dave Hottmann (Jan 2, 2008)

Great pics Bob. Sure miss the runs at Clark's.


----------



## xo18thfa (Jan 2, 2008)

I would bet half a month's pay that a K28 could pull over 100 cars easily.  Steve's K28 was not working hard at all pulling 45.  It walked through curves without skipping a beat.  We were limited to 45 cars.  While Clark's track has fairly broad curves, we would probably have derails if we tried more.  I think my 3 cylinder Shay is close to max'd out at 45 cars.  I' love to get on a big track and see what a K28 could really do.

Hi Dave.  We miss you down here

Bob


----------



## Bob Starr (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Dave Hottmann on 03/06/2008 11:13 AM
Great pics Bob. Sure miss the runs at Clark's.


Me too!  Gas prices make it impractical.  I do remember setting up 100 cars at Clark's to be pulled by an Aster Big Boy


----------



## Charles (Jan 2, 2008)

To add to the denoted power of the Big Boy, add the Aster Allie as a member of the 100+ club.  Am hoping that once the Cab Forward is well tuned that it too will should it's true potential.


----------

