Preventing string-lining - SUCCESS!

It is important in the case of a longer train.  Keeping the axles oiled as necessary is very important, too.

Just like the real railroads, freight train make-up should have the loads (heavier cars) towards the front and empties (lighter cars) towards the rear. 

Mario

I had that problem with older very light cars.  In general they had to be in the back of the heavier cars.

I added weight to make them match my newer cars, still shy of the NMRA weight but closer. I can run the consists in any order now, including a 6 axle Die Cast crane in any position. The Crane is easily double the weight of the average car but it's only one car.

As Rattler 21 said above might be time to add weight. There have been a few threads on adding weight to your rolling stock to bring it up to the NMRA recommendations. I have not done this, but many have said this really improves the running of their rolling stock. Recommended weight calculations for all scales are available on the NMRA website. Might be something to think about?

I have checked and weighted many of my freight car fleet close to the NMRA recommended weight of 5 oz plus 1 oz per freight car length. I never had stringling problems again since this has been implemented.

You should weigh all your rolling stock and add weight to NMRA standards. I have done this and new purchases are oiled and weighed before I put them on the layout. Also operating your trains prototypically with no rapid starts or quick stops will keep them on the track. Micro-Mark has a digital scale that is not too expensive.  Super-elevating your track increases the chance of string lining on a model railroad, especially if you have tight curves.  With all my cars properly weighted, I can back trains into curved sidings without problems too.

.....

Dennis

Get a small postage or food scale, a box of 1 oz stick on wheel balancing weights and you'll never have to worry about it. Any time I buy a new car, it immediately gets converted to Kadees, weighed and add weight if needed, then a bit of oil before it hits the layout.

Or.....keep all the heavies in the front

THANK YOU EVERYONE!

 

This is exactly what I was hoping to find out...

 

Right now I have them in roughly an order from heaviest to lightest, and the caboose...

 

Best part, I already have a kitchen scale and will use it to add weight per the recommendations.  I forgot completely about the NMRA recommendations on weight, and didn't even think about the difference between going through a curve and starting on a curve!

 

We'll see how it runs at the Syracuse Train Show...

 

Thanks again!

 

- Mario

 

The super elevation will aggravate the tendency to string line. On a model railroad, super elevation looks good, but actually makes the train perform worse.

 

Particularly troublesome is the transition between super elevation and level. On many model railroads, that transition is too abrupt.

Curves on a grade can bite ya too

I had a Clinchfield 30 Hopper consist behind a Challenger on my 9' high Shelf RR that tended to stringline in a curve upon start up, I very unscientifically weighted the first ten cars with a diminishing number of pennies taped together. Never had another problem.

Here are a few ways to prevent stringlining.

1. Broader curves, preferably with easements. Sharp curves and long trains don't mix. Also, long trains snaking through several curves is a formula for disaster.
2. Gentle (or no) grades on curves. We have a 1.5% grade on a 48" radius (O-96) curve on the club layout and we've never had a stringline incident on that curve.
3. If all cars are of similar weight, place the shorter ones up front. This increases the number of flanges per foot up front in the curves. Prototype practice seems to follow this somewhat, but prototype curves are so broad that it almost becomes irrelevant except in a few circumstances. Of course, if all cars are following NMRA recommendations, your longer cars will be the heavier ones so see #3.
4. Heavy cars up front.
5. Helper engine(s). This takes the tension out of the train. Make sure that your helper speed characteristics match the lead engine(s).
6. Realistic and consistent speeds. Running fast means you have to slow down; running too slow means you'll need to speed up. Shifting momentum causes shifting in the coupler slack which isn't a good thing.
7. When all else fails, shorter trains. While I have successfully run two 40-foot trains on the club layout through our 1.5% grades, arranging the cars and the pusher engines was a pain in the rear as was staging the things. By the way, I did run a 50-foot train successfully...for five laps until one of the cars toward the rear of the train snagged something and stringlined some cars up front. There you go.

Dewey, that sounds like money well spent.  

 

Just your 2 cents? (Ha!  Sorry, I couldn't resist it.)

 

Thanks!

- Mario

JUST THIS FRIDAY NIGHT ONE OF OUR ROOKIE MEMBERS MADE THE MISTAKE OF PUTTING THE HEAVY CARS IN THE BACK. DON'T LIKE THE SOUND OF A CAR HITTING THE CONCRETE FLOOR FROM 5 FEET HIGH. LUCKILY IT WAS ONLY ONE CAR OF A 20 CAR TRAIN 

The NMRA practice of 5 ounces plus one ounce per inch of length for freight cars is a very good one. However i've found that in my case with no freight cars even approaching that weight without the addition of weights, i have brought all of mine up to the weight of the heaviest  (about 14.5 ounces) car; i've had no stringling.

jackson

Pardon me but could you explain to us DUMMYS here …what is string lining or stringling?

Nick, Here's an older thread discussing stringlining...

 

https://ogrforum.com/t...what-is-stringlining

How important it is to have heavier / lighter freight cars in specific order in the train to prevent string-lining?

 

That depends on several factors that include curves, grades, superelevation, speed, train length and the cars themselves.

 

Do I need to put the die-cast scale cars closer to the power, and lighter cars in the rear and go down in weight?

 

That is a good practice to follow for reliable operation.  As Hot Water pointed out real railroads do this for better train handling.  They can have very specific rules that govern the order of cars in a train depending on the tonnage, power, specific car types and specific routes.  You may also find similar specific rules that work on your model railroad to prevent derailments.

 

Let's say the curves are super-elevated O-72, O-84 and O-96; and its a 18-car scale freight train. 

 

On curves O-72 and above I have found that trains up to about 20 modern O SCALE freight cars will run very reliably without much consideration of car order in the train.  And that includes curves with slight superelevation. 

 

If you have some super light O-27 MPC era cars in the mix all bets are off.  The same goes for older plastic trucked Weaver cars. 

 

If you put ten Lionel PS-1 box cars ahead of ten K-Line diecast cars all bets are off as well.

 

If you run 50 SMPH through an O-72 curve you are on your own. Realistic speeds are required for reliable operation.

 

But Atlas, Lionel and MTH have all done a pretty good job of building cars that are at or slightly above the NMRA recommendation.  The Atlas Master Line tends to be heavy at 19 to 20 ounces for most of their 40 foot cars. Atlas Trainman cars tend to be lighter but close to the NMRA recommended practice.  Lionel 40 foot reefers and PS-1 box cars weight very close to the NMRA recommended weight of 15 ounces.  Some Lionel Standard O cars like the mechanical reefer are heavy for their length and the ethanol tank cars are very light for their size.  MTH is the most consistent.  The premier line 40 foot box cars and reefers are 17 ounces out of the box.  The MTH Railking freight cars are well weighted for "traditional" sized cars and tend to run well with scale equipment, even in longer trains.

 

If you are interested in car weight you can have a look at the O Scale Freight Car Guide.  The weights of some types of cars are listed now and more data will be added as information is updated. 

 

https://ogrforum.com/t...le-freight-car-guide

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, video says it all!

Thanks for all the info, good to know on the manufacturer's typical weighting, especially since you named exactly what I'll be running.

 

Here's what I have come up with:

 

1. K-line die-cast 4-bay hopper
2. Lionel die-cast 4-bay hopper
3. Lionel PS1 boxcar
4. Lionel PS5 gondola (with die-cast girder load)
5. Atlas TM plug-door boxcar
6. Atlas TM plug-door boxcar
7. K-line die-cast coil car
8. Lionel PS1 boxcar
9. Lionel 4-bay covered hopper
10. Atlas ML 4-bay covered hopper
11. K-line modern boxcar
12. K-line boxcar
13. Atlas tank car
14. Atlas tank car
15. Lionel PS4 flat car
16. K-line caboose

 

Sorry for the details, but I'd hate to lose this stuff.  Is there any changes I should make?

 

I put the 3 lightest cars at the back, ahead of the caboose, except for the covered hoppers which are light and relatively tall.

 

Thanks,

Mario

Have an Atlas 70 ton plastic ACF 2 bay hopper, it weighs 1 pound 7 ounces and is the heaviest car we have. Not sure how they got it so heavy!

Lima,

 

I don't know, either... since the covered hoppers are super light.

 

I HAD to put the die cast hoppers at the front, they're well over a pound, too!

 

PS - If anyone wants to come see it, my train will be on display at the Great NYS Train Fair in Syracuse this weekend... on Sunday.  Full scale train and fully weathered!  I'll post pics as I get them.

 

Thanks,

- Mario

EXACTLY. That is one of many reasons why the NMRA standards were developed. If you follow those standards, you won't have a problem.

 

Easy.

Keep the kids from grabbing the last car as the train goes by... that's my challenge.

As long as the cars are close to the standards, there usually won't be a problem... unless you have sharp curves or steep grades.

 

Out of the box...

 

Lionel cars are usually on the lite side.

 

Atlas cars are usually on the heavy side.

 

MTH cars are usually pretty close to the 5oz +1oz per inch standard.

 

Aluminum/Die cast cars are obviously on the heavy side....just don't put them on the rear of the train, keep them up front.

 

The super lite plastic cars are usually the ones that cause the problems with train placement. If you don't want to add weight to them, just put them in the back. However, adding weight helps the cars track better over all. It will keep them on the rail over those bumpy turnouts or not so quite smooth curves.  

And RMT Cars have been on the light side in my findings so far....

 

Track Power Generated Force Field!

 

I hear that GNJ will be bringing that out in 2015!

BS! I don't know who came up with that myth!

Just like real railroads, tonnage dispersed evenly throughout the train is best. 

 

I don't know about real railroads, but so far my experience has been I have better luck with the light cars in the rear of the consist.  YMMV

quote:

I don't know about real railroads, but so far my experience has been I have better luck with the light cars in the rear of the consist.

Yes, as far as model trains go, if you aren't going to weigh cars down to some standard, that is all you can do. But, it seems that the consensus above is that it would be best to put some weight in those light cars.

I think we're on the same page Jim. 

 

I agree that the right way is to simply add weight to the cars, and I've done that to a host of cars to bring them up to NMRA weight standards.  The ones that are really heavy, the diecast hopers and gondolas, I do tend to run in the front of a consist anyway.  If you have light cars, they work best in the back for model trains.

SUCCESS!

 

Check out the new posting on the video from the show when I get it edited.

 

Thanks to all!

 

PS - Setting up the TMCC CAB1 to run both an Atlas GP35 / Lionel GP30 worked well, although both of them could pull it by themselves.

 

- Mario

 

LD and HD videos below...

Nice video, Mario. Great music too. Thanks for posting.