Anyone risk running their expensive steamers at full speed?

Back in the day,say 40+ years ago,I used to be a little fearless and crank the ole ZW up a little  😉

My childhood layout had a straight stretch on the back side of about 15ft and I could really get some speed built up.

But sad and embarrassed to say now,a few steamers met their demise in deadmans curve ! 

My late father would hear the thump from downstairs open the door and ask "what fell this time ? ".

Marx always seemed to get more speed than the Lionels did.

I've learned today that full speed isn't prototypical, but a little nudge on the throttle is fun to a regulated ,being my hand,degree.

Two scale hudsons, 3rd rail super Hudson and brass masterpiece Hudson, moving at a pretty good clip pulling a few heavyweights. This was shot  years ago testing newly laid track and turnouts.

Ron H posted:

Two scale hudsons, 3rd rail super Hudson and brass masterpiece Hudson, moving at a pretty good clip pulling a few heavyweights. This was shot  years ago testing newly laid track and turnouts.

 

I just watched this 10 times! 

My MTH Premier GS4 Northern and 6 custom painted, decorated, and decaled (by me) 60' Lionel "Golden State" passenger cars slamming by at around 80 scale mph. 

Same train as before, different angle.

I routinely run locomotives at top speed... 

On the workbench with their wheels in the air.      They tend to like it in small doses, a couple of minutes maybe.  

Mitch 

20centuryhudson posted:

Lol I was ten!

At the transformer with a circle of track on the carpeted floor around the Christmas tree I am still 10.

On the layout not likely though.

When you say top speed, are you speaking of Speed Step (#125) on a 990 Legacy Remote or more speed to crash and destroy your engine?

Speed Step 125 is a reasonable limit for running my large Vision Line Big Boy engines.  These are not race cars.  If my Big Boy #4014 crashes, I keep another #4014 sealed in the box under the train table with my 4004, 4012, 4017 and 4018.

Sincerely, John Rowlen

John Rowlen posted:

When you say top speed, are you speaking of Speed Step (#125) on a 990 Legacy Remote or more speed to crash and destroy your engine?

Speed Step 125 is a reasonable limit for running my large Vision Line Big Boy engines.  These are not race cars.  If my Big Boy #4014 crashes, I keep another #4014 sealed in the box under the train table with my 4004, 4012, 4017 and 4018.

Sincerely, John Rowlen

I've only got the one VLBB and when I said top speed, I meant speed step 200 (Which I think actually says 199 on the remote as 0 counts towards the 200 speed steps of Legacy.).  She does just fine.

As for the PRR T-1, I have the PS-1 version and had it full throttle (18V) several times.  And she sure runs smooth.  When ever she gets on the rail she just screams to be let loose.

The thought of a train derailing and falling to the floor is one I would rather not have.  I have set the limit on all my locomotives, steam and diesel using the MTH app.

John

Ya when I was 7 maybe!

I had the door bridge in my train room not installed and accidently ran this K line scale Hudson nose first onto the concrete floor. This prompted me to super detail the loco and to never do that again. Goober mistakes not high speed can also wreck em.

Never have.

But then I've never driven any of my automobiles as fast as they would go.

I don't remember if we "drive" or "operate" automobiles.   I don't want to offend anyone on the forum

When I was a child? I liked to run them fast. Now I run conventional sans cruise control on O-27 track, and none of my locomotives cost more than $150, including shipping, though most I have upgraded with ERR RailSounds. Let's say the most I have invested into a single engine is about $280, still very modest. While I can't run my trains as slow as those of you with cruise control, I still generally try to run them as slow as possible. So I think that some of it is related to youth

Every once and awhile, the kid in me sneaks out and I open up the throttle. My series-wired Williams geeps, heavy as they are, stay planted. The lighter K-Line MP15, also series-wired, becomes hairy as it approaches the full-throttle, and would almost certainly leave the track if pushed that far. The Lionel docksider, heavy for it's size can run quite quick, but I have managed to dump it on my O-27 curves. My layout has plexiglass fences on the sides that aren't up against the wall, so the risk of damage in a derailment. But again, usually my trains don't leave the slow to medium spectrum.

Interestingly, when I go to the local club's semi-annual open house, it bothers me not when children run the trains on the hands-on layout at high speeds. However, there is one adult who likes to run his scale passenger train on the big layout at above-scale speeds. Even though it is his prerogative, I find it mildly irritating.

Are you kidding?  I run engines full speed for about 4 ft of straight track and cut back or off usually just to test reversing E units, etc.

Charlie

I used to run trains really fast when I was a kid.  Although I still run post-war locomotives with magnetraction or very low CG's fairly fast sometimes, I don't run the scale ones over about 65 on my current layout (054 curves). 

If you want to run them fast, I would run them fast and enjoy it.