Y3 speed

pennsy484 posted:

I am looking for information about the 2882 y3. 

The N&W 2-8-8-2 class Y3, only had 57 inch diameter drivers, so the top speed would have been maybe 50 MPH.

Roughly what would have been their top speed pulling a not short train? 

Too vague a question. What is a "not short train", i.e. loaded coal cars, empty cars, tonnage, ascending a grade, how steep a grade, etc., etc..

Google is not much help on this.  All I found is that the y3 was better than the 20 mph of some other articulateds.   Thanks. 

Thank you.  I was hoping you would reply.  I am trying to get a ballpark on the fastest I  should run a y3 headed train on my layout.  I'm figuring no faster than 25, maybe 30 mph.  Sound right? 

pennsy484 posted:

Thank you.  I was hoping you would reply.  I am trying to get a ballball on the fastest I  should run a y3 headed train on my layout.  I'm figuring no faster than 25, maybe 30 mph.  Sound right? 

1) What is "a ballball"?

2) Speed should depend on how heavy the train is and whether it is going up-grade or down-grade.

*Ballpark.  

Pennsy484,

Since you are asking about the speed to run your model train, you might get better responses on the 3 rail forum.  Something like "What speed do you run your Y3 with coal cars and why?" I personally ran my PRR HH1 (Y3 from NW) with a 12 -car coal train (I'll hear shortly that is not realistic) at about 20-25 smph.  Looked and sounded good, and took a while to go around my old layout.  Realistic or not, any faster just did not look right.

Personally, I'd say 20-25 would look good on level track, and 15 would be realistic on track with a grade, about 4 chuffs per second.  By not exceeding 30 smph, you will preserve the distinct chuffing, which would get mushy above that speed on a locomotive with scale 57-inch drivers.  I always think that the stack talk of a model steam engine is an important part of the experience of watching it pass, but that's just my personal opinion.

As Jack said, I probably wouldn't exceed 50mph.  N&W did a lot of tinkering with the later Y6 class, and those regularly got up to average 50mph on the flatter sections of the N&W.  I've heard stories of a Y6 hitting the road overpass on the west end of Abingdon, VA at 60mph making a run for the short hill going west out of town.  Being an older design from a different era of railroading, I'd probably say an average of 30ish is appropriate for a Y3 for a lighter train on flat railroad.  In later years on the N&W, they were primarily yard engines or used for mine runs.

Long time no see Jeff, hope all is well!

All I can add to your topic is some visual stuff with Y6's you may have seen before:

A bit more footage here at 2:57:

Hi RickO. Glad to see you are still around here.   Haven't done much trains in the last fee years, but am back in now!  Thanks for the videos! 

One thing that I think a lot of you don't ever take into consideration is "track curvature". That has as much or more to do with how fast a train can run. It doesn't mean a fat rat's petoot that a Class J can run a 100mph if it has to traverse trackage limited to 35mph! 
As for the Y3a, some of them received the better breathing "Y" type exhaust pipes from rebuilt Y5's. I would think that these would be capable of a little more speed than the normal Y3a.