Peter in Oz Posted September 28 Share Posted September 28 Am wondering if the APT NDM (power car) is able to easily haul the 12-14 car train, or will I need to motorise the second NDM? I am waiting for the extra coaches to arrive so haven't been able to try this for myself yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atom3624 Posted September 28 Share Posted September 28 There was mention of this within the RMWEB when it came out, and there are videos. Some said it could NOT haul the load so they did use 2 power cars. I would suggest spending some time 'Googling' and checking for videos within RMWEB / YouTube. Al. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter in Oz Posted September 29 Author Share Posted September 29 I have looked and there seem to be a few ideas on how to improve the ndm. Also, it appears, that the newer NDM's have more weight so presumably more pulling power, but also have different couplings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
What About The Bee Posted September 29 Share Posted September 29 (edited) Hi @Peter in Oz Adding weight would certainly improve the tractive effort. The normal force (force perpendicular to the track, in this case gravitational acceleration of the mass of the NDM) is multiplied by the coefficient of friction to yield tractive effort. Since CoF is constant, increasing the normal force increases the tractive effort. I would also suggest the condition of the track on your layout will have an affect on performance. Does it have slight bumpiness or angles at the joins? Is it perfectly flat or are there slight inclines? Do you use radius 4 or radius 2? What of deposits on the rail, where the wheels contact it? Are they crisply clean? Please understand, I am not attempting to degrade your layout, rather I am listing factors which are a retarding force, that subtracts from the tractive effort. The condition of your layout will affect performance. Your layout condition will be different from that of others. To be fair, of course two locomotives will provide more tractive effort than one. Duck soup obvious. A prudent operator would be wise to plan on two, for best operations. Bee Edited September 29 by What About The Bee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted September 29 Share Posted September 29 Folk should also be aware that even tho' their layout is flat without gradients the whole board needs to be level else there is a gradient. I used to have a flat test oval board that I propped up incrementally at one end to test various decoder performance settings. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
What About The Bee Posted Monday at 00:40 Share Posted Monday at 00:40 16 hours ago, 96RAF said: the whole board needs to be level Exactly what I was driving at. The tiniest of errors have outsized effects when attempting what may be marginal. 14 cars uphill may just be an incline too steep. On 28/09/2024 at 05:39, Peter in Oz said: easily haul the 12-14 car train Retarding friction, when multiplied by 12 or 14 could be just a bit too much. 'Easily' is a relative term. If all things are just so, sure, the locomotive may do it easily. There are so many factors that can alter the result, only an over confident person would guarantee the locomotive can handle that consist on a random layout. Bee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LTSR_NSE Posted Monday at 01:18 Share Posted Monday at 01:18 Since the whole rake has working lights & the 2 unpowered ends have provision for decoders (for configurable lighting) that will require pickups through virtually every wheelset - that could reasonably be expected to result in increased drag. Personally I would therefore think that a reasonable expectation is that one motor can manage the 7 car rake - so if a double sized full rake is desired, two motors will be required. If two motors weren’t expected to be necessary for full rakes, why did Hornby produce the additional motorised NDM as an optional extra?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atom3624 Posted Monday at 06:09 Share Posted Monday at 06:09 Does this mean that every carriage has wipers on them? Pity they didn't figure out connectors which assisted here with just one or two with wipers - less drag for the power car(s). Al. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LTSR_NSE Posted Monday at 13:07 Share Posted Monday at 13:07 I don’t have the set so can’t comment on whether wipers or powered couplings have been used. I agree that powered couplings would reduce drag - they would also allow all the lighting to be decoder controlled. I don’t believe that is possible which suggests that powered couplings are not used? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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