Can't increase loco speed. It crawls.

[Sydney_railer]

Hi All,

I have 3 locos running on my DCC layout with RailMaster (RM). Two are running at a good speed. The third one I can't get it to go faster than a crawl, getting stuck often. I opened the loco details screen and RM read in all the CV values for each loco. For the loco that crawls, I changed the shunting speed and cruise speed but it still crawls.

Any ideas?

Thanks SR

[Rog RJ]

What model is it that only crawls?

[P-Henny]

Have a look at FAQ 4 in the "RailMaster FAQ Index" pinned sticky thread at the top of this forum section.

[Sydney_railer]

What model is it that only crawls?

 

 

Hornby OO gauge, R3485 BR Class 08 0-6-0 diesel electric locomotive RN 08644, (DCC fitted)

[96RAF]

The real life loco used double reduction gearing and only had a top speed of around 15-20 mph so the model may be geared such or RM may have profiled it for scale speed. Is the ‘use scale speed’ box ticked in RM setup.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_08

[gilbo2]

The RailMaster speed profile for R3485 has a maximum of 15mph, so its correctly controlling it at low scale speeds.

The {very] rough and ready fix is to change it to a loco that has a faster speed profile, eg find loco R863 Class 47 (but can be any mainline loco!), when you set up a locomotive. Then just change the loco picture to yours.

Deselecting ‘use scale speed’ is another quick fix, but this changes every locos performance.

The scientific way is to select the "Enter Speed Factor" in the locos set up screen and follow the lap timing instructions from the manual for an increased speed. Personally, I've not had much success with this as I either end up with a loco that crawls or goes like a rocket with no control! That's my issue though wink

TIP: To help address FAQ4, as soon as you have created a new loco, close RailMaster straight away and re-start it. I've found the loco database can get messed up if you don't do this step.

[Sydney_railer]

Have a look at FAQ 4 in the "RailMaster FAQ Index" pinned sticky thread at the top of this forum section.

 

 

Thanks P-Henny.

 

 

The problem was as described by FAQ 4. I deleted the crawling loco and added it again manually, giving it my own name and setting cruise speed to 80 kmh. Once saved and its CVs read in and saved again, the loco ran at a good speed.

This is definitely a bug in RM that needs addressing by the coders.

[P-Henny]

To be honest, I don't think that on this occasion this is necessarily a bug. As others have said, RM scale speed data for Hornby locos usually make Class 08 locos run very slow. The FAQ 4 fix just circumvents the scale speed Hornby loco database. I originally suggested FAQ 4 because at that time of posting you had not told forum your issue related to a Class 08, if you had, I would have suggested the tip below instead.

There is another way to increase speed. I documented it in this historical previous thread.

https://uk.hornby.com/community/forum/loco-going-crazy-352502#post-352517

Note that speed is a subjective narrative. What is slow to some may not be slow to others. A YouTube video demonstrating your issue would have instantly indicated whether a true issue or not.

But at the end of the day, if the result you have achieved is something you are happy with (your layout your rules) then this is a 'happy outcome' resolved issue.

[Rog RJ]

Think of the 08 as a tractor, not a sports car.

[96RAF]

Cannot agree with your bug theory. RM has set the scale speed to what is correct for that class of loco. If you have reported it in to HRMS then do not be surprised if you get told by them that there is no problem.