How do you run so many locos?

Rotation. Depending on how many you have, you have to keep good records.

Rotation is pretty much it. I've got far more engines than I can run on any layout, let alone my 13x13 foot mini-layout, so I just run whatever I feel like running that day. I am also a member of a club that has a large museum layout, so the larger engines and longer trains go to the museum for Sunday open houses. I made sure my layout has a loop of 072 so I can test run anything, but a 4-12-2 looks pretty silly on a layout with 5-foot straights, so the big stuff normally gets its exercise performing for the public. 

Well, first of all, I don't do what I should which is to run every loco at least once a (quarter, year).  

 

My intention: was to have a list (Excel spreadsheet) and check it every so often and rotate though my locos, taking some Saturday mornings maybe to just clean, check and lube each and run if for maybe half an hour. 

 

In ever get around to this.  What I do is just far too infrequently say to myself "I ought to run that."  I'm particularly remiss with my relaly big locos, which I can only run on one loop (my longest, and all 72+" curves).  I was shocked when i checked today and my scale Big Boy has not run in nearly three years - i thought I ran it early last year but if so I did not record it.  My Allegheny ran two Februaries ago.  My EM1 when delivered last year and not since.  

 

My excuse is a problem some others might have - I have insufficient shelf space of all my locos.  When the shelves are full, I have to keep three fully made up trains, at least, on my layout - no where else for them to go.  This makes changing out a loco or a set of rolling stock a rather involved process.  

I have 3 steam and 3 or 4 diesels. I have a steam day then a diesel day.  Or like a steam special and a regular diesel train.

And around holidays it's all steam all the time

Rotation. I rotate through all my engines. I run them a couple hours each and then put another one up on the line. I have 3 independent lines.

Rob

I started with four steam engines and two diesels. As I began to expand I landed at ten steamers and eight diesels and realized what a waste it was to have these sitting on shelves as I typically ran my favorite items, or those whose operation was most trouble free.

 

I pared myself back to three diesels and six steamers and enjoy what I have chosen to have. 

Rotation.  I have 4 independent lines, and I keep a list of all the engines here.  Once a week I swap out what's on the layout for the 4 at the top of the list.  The ones I remove go to the bottom the list.  This way, I don't "skip over" anything, and everything is assured of getting run at least once in a while.

 

- Mike 

I have run 16-24 locomotives at once on my temporary layout,it worked but it was a hand full. Normally,I run 5-7 at once using DCS and Legacy.I have no idea if I have run every engine I have.I am quite sure I have run all the big steam at least once.I only have room to display about 70-80 on the shelves.My layout doesn't get run much as I am home about a month out of the year as I am always travelling with my job.The rest are all packed away as well as most of the rolling stock awaiting the time I get closer to settling down and getting a larger house.

I only have 6 Command engines, and a couple conventional.

I keep 5 on the layout, each has it's own siding big enough for the usual consist.

 

I toss the last one on once in a while for the kids, Its a TMCC Docksider and the kids like the whistle. I'll drag a few cars or a MOW set with track cleaner for a while, then move it off the rails again. It sits near a siding on the layout, not hidden away somewhere.

The others get run as I feel the call. My Coors Light Special train probably runs the least, but it runs at least once every 6 months. I always have to top off the steam fluid in all the cars for that one as well as the engine, I am switching to NADA for that one... Lots of smoke there.

The conventional stuff is slowly going away. 

I tend to cycle through locomotives regularly because I often want to change the consists that are operating on the layout.  I own ~30 locomotives, and have a permanently assigned set of rolling stock for each one.

 

Also, having kids that often want to see different things keeps all my trains busy.  Sometimes I think we spend more time railing stuff on/off the layout than we do running!

I have been trying to rotate loco's and run them all  I have been at it 10 years and still have a few I have never run

I've wondered the same thing.  I only have a relative handful of engines so it isn't hard for me to run them all.  I just need to run trains more.

"...have quite a few locomotives". How do I run them all? Some don't run for years,

especially the older, conventional ones. Some never do, really.

 

Not to jinx things, and not to say that I've never had a loco die on me, and also

being aware that there are inevitably some time bombs sitting on my shelves, but

generally speaking the electronics of all makers have held up pretty well.

 

I put a PS1 FP45 (from the 90's?) on the track the other day for the first time in at

least 3 - 4 years...and it fired right up and went about its business. No battery, by the

way; most PS1 locos do not require one, and I know this from actual experience.

As mentioned, ya got to rotate them if ya have a bunch. I have a spread sheet set up on my basement computer so I will log my locos in when I run em.

Paul,

   In reality I have a lot more rolling stock than I do engines. 14 engines that get run when ever I feel like it, pulling numerous different rolling stock.  For some reason the old 1959 Lionel Northen Pacific with both the passenger cars and the work train seems to get used quite a bit, even pulls the Christmas box cars at Christmas time.  The Weaver 0-8-0 Steam Engine pulls the Masonic Train most of the time, and the Tin Plate Engines & rolling stock are on the tracks most all the time.  The GG1's pulls everything from the NASA train to the the Silver PRR passenge cars.   The big Williams UP usually gets a level of it's own, on any layout due to it's size.  No particular rotation or time for each engine or train however.

PCRR/Dave 

 

My locomotive collection isn't huge, but I have a nice amount.  Like others have said, I too regularly rotate what I have.  I rotate the rolling stock too.  Although I have my favorites, everything I own gets run.

In my small collection I worry about moving/rotating them and possibly breaking something off.  Does anyone use gloves or just bare hands to move their steamers around?  How safe is it to move them often with the detailed parts? In and out of the box or other?

 

James

In just three years I have acquired an interesting assortment of O-gauge locos. It's not a huge collection but it has got to the point where I now have some extra items parked on shelves. It's enough selection to rotate though for operating variety, so I'm not actively looking to get more locos. I will only buy cheap fixer-upper projects if they happen to come my way.

I rotate various railroads' motive power every few months, i.e. I recently changed from all CB&Q & NP to all UP & SP. Then we have another Run Beer, Drink Trains session with 6 or 8 guys over, so everything "gets exercised".

Like many others here, I have way more locomotives than I have layout space to run them.  I do rotate things from time to time, but certainly not in any systematic manner (unfortunately).  Some have not seen any running in three or four years, or even more.

 

Most of my relatively manageable roster of U.S. Army locomotives is on the layout, along with an Alaska unit or two.  The rest of the somewhat extensive roster of Alaska engines reside in display cases until I get around to giving them some running time.

 

Same applies to my MTH/LCT tinplate collection.  Only two of them can operate on the layout at any one time, so the vast majority of them are in display cases on the walls of my living room.  One set--the Blue Streak set I gave myself for Christmas--hasn't even been out of its box yet.  It will, however, see some running time soon.

 

And don't even ask about my On30 collection.  It's all boxed up and awaiting a layout, even a small one, to run on.  With more than 40 of those beauties on hand, it will ultimately involve a very slow rotation over a long time.

+1 to those who say rotation.  I have ten or twelve postwar locomotives (I just realized I'm not sure of the exact number), and although I have my favorites, I do rotate them every month or so.  It keeps things fresh and interesting on the layout, which isn't big enough to hold more than two at the same time.

 

I also rotate the rolling stock.  I prefer passenger cars, mostly, but just last week I was running nothing but coal trains.

I use ProTrak and the switch list helps me pick what Motive Power is needed

Paul:

 

I gave this very subject serious consideration before I designed my layout. Since the two longest walls in my train room are slanted because of a gambrel roof line, shelving displays did not make any sense. I was fortunate to have sufficient space for benchwork that would support a sufficient amount of space for sidings to store engines and full length passenger trains when not in service. So rotation of trains and engines is not a problem. I do my best to manage my train inventory to available space on the layout.

I switch around by what kind of mood I'm in. Sometimes its modern, sometimes its steam, or 70s or whatever. A lot of time, I just try and MU a bunch of them, so that 3 or 4 get run at a time.

 Really....nobody's going to say it??

 Come on Ben!! How many loco's you got??

You guys better start running bigger lashups consists. Maybe like a dozen at a time per train to keep them charged.

 I'm still waiting to see a big EL train!!!

I run all my locos. I hace a glass front cabinet that I keep the engines in and also ones for rolling stock.  Several times a week I look in the cabinets and choose as the mood strikes me.

I have room on my layout to keep 12 engines parked. I also keep about 25 cars in the yards. When I am running with DCS and Legacy in hand, both running recorded sessions, I still control 2 or 3 engines along with that.

A really fun session for me starts with making new recordings and once running in a loop bring out 2 more trains and consists. I have to pay close attention but I can have 6-8 full trains running no problem.

Most days I run 5 trains and play in the yard. I really don't know how many engines and rolling stock I have but all get used at least once every 6- weeks or so.

I have many, many locos in my collection.  That's the collector part of me.  I run what I like, whatever suits my needs at the time.

 

Some locos may not get run for years.  That's OK.  The fact that they are in my collection is what is important.

 

The Grandkids have free reign to select any loco for me to run.  It can be a 2332 from 1947, the Thomas engine from a few years ago, or the beautiful PRR Y3 (the two-year olds favorite, and lately the SS PRR Vision Centipede), or the Vision CC2s.

 

Some get run, others don't.

 

That's just the way it is.

Since 99 o/o of my running of trains is done when we have guests, I only utilize the ones that I can be definitely sure will not give me attitude or fussiness. Several locomotives do, so they stare down at the action from their perches, consigned to shelfqueenhood. I've noticed that even though I have always liked steamers the best, in real-life as well as on the layout, I have been using diesels more and more, since they seem the most tolerant of any peculiarities within my layout.

Here are a couple of my best runners - most dependable - steam locomotives. They haven't been off the layout for years.

 

...a 3rdRail B&O, which pulls a mixed passenger consist...

 

..two scale Lionels...

 

..and my favorite, for whistle roar and sure-footedness...

 

...and my very favorite, a scale Lionel Dreyfus, which hasn't been off the layout for a decade...

I dont have a horde of engines,  but I have one extra.  If I buy something new, then I sell the least common denominator of the collection.  I am trying to cycle out of conventional to all PS2 with the exception of my Polar Express.

Power up the layout at one time (12) units/locomotives were all powered at once.  Usually no more than (4) ran at once.  Double track allowed for this.  Also the longer loop could accommodate two trains at once.
(5) powered at one time there are two SW9's in the right stall of the house.



Three track circuit pictured.

Each SW draws about 1.5 amps max.  6 amps for the consist.    Track circuits are fused at 7.5 amps. Power is provided by (2) PH 135s with a parallel source adaptor.

I have two simple loops; a passenger and a freight. I try to match the road names of the engines and the freight loop has a certain theme. I don't keep a spreadsheet but I have a pad and pen where I write down the date when I last serviced the engine. Every engine gets a touch of oil and the gears get inspected before it goes on the track. All of the pickup rollers get a touch of oil whether it needs it or not.

I have 100 engines and they're always running all the time (in my dreams) without any problems at all.

Ron Running them right now.

I have two loops, the main 0-42 loop (two trains) and the upper 0-27 loop (one train). 3 trains in total. I VERY rarely run my trains these days, only running the layout a handful of times per year for a half hour or less. Just don't have the interest in watching trains run around in circles and haven't for a while now. I prefer doing actual work, scenery or whatnot. 

 

I have a dozen PS2 or PS3 engines I run. Plenty of others on display (conventional, or non-operating engines, as well as HO, N, G, etc). One MTH Subway set I really don't run at all. The rest, steam and diesel run those handful of times per year. I generally don't alternate trains often. What I put on the layout tends to stay for a LONG time as it is a bit of a PITA to maneuver things around to swap trains. It is not uncommon for me to not run anything or what isn't on the layout at a select time for months, sometimes pushing a year or so and with that case, I recently put BCRs in all engines. 

I usually have two loops on my carpet central layouts.  One is usually strictly conventional operations and the other is hooked up to my command base.  I have somewhere around 20 locomotives currently with only a few display shelves and a case.

 

I usually run two at a time until I get bored with them, then I pull out another two and so on.  There are definitely a few that get more run time than others, but I do run them all occasionally.

If I had to keep records and spread sheets I'd start selling stuff off.

I have 3 loops so I try and run each loco at least once a month, I also keep several locos on sidings which are powered up because I like to keep the batteries charged on the MTH ones

 

The only problem loco I have is a post war Lionel circa 1955 which like me needs to be run more or less daily or it really needs a push start, probably oil getting thick and old motor brushes also I find that the HO stuff needs to be run to keep things smooth probably because rails and engine pickups are smaller and more prone to dirt

 

At the monthly club meeting we get visitors and often they ask for a display engine to be run so that encourages use

 

I must say the idea of a log for each engine is a very good idea as if you have a large collection then its easy to miss one out.

Using DCS, any three of the Hiawatha, the 20th Century Limited, the Crusader, the Chessie, the Pocahontas or two Long Island freight trains run simultaneously on my layout. The mainline is single tracked in some spots, so it is all my brain can handle to run three trains.

 

Train speed and separation are important. I challenge myself by running two passenger trains with a slow freight train fouling the main. To do this, my layout has several double-ended sidings. It's a good thing MTH put a STOP ALL panic button on the hand-held DCS remote!

Rotation. I'll run by roadname, era, and type (steam/electric/diesel), whatever the mood strikes me.