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This blog details the development and construction of my newest model railway. The biggest challenge I've set myself this time is the balancing act I need to pull off between my hobby and my MOW Crew Chief, Mr. Circus Peanut. I can't simply fire him (he's got a good union).

Wednesday, December 20, 2023

How Slow Can You Go?

 You gotta go S-L-O-W if you hope to operate in a prototypical fashion. That is NOT something you can normally coax out of a Gilbert 300AC. Rightly so. The 4-4-2 Atlantic was an early passenger thoroughbred based on a prototype that flew the rails, pulling named consists on tight schedules and the AF model is true to the prototype.

american flyer 300ac locomotive - TrainDRSo what did I do to achieve a low-end speed of under 11 scale MPH out of mine? Two things actually. 80% of my results come from a Port Lines "Scale Speed" Can Motor Conversion. It's an easy to install upgrade to performance for only $39 (DC operation). The other 20% comes from using a DC 'pulse' throttle - which in my case simply means a 50¢ schottky diode between one terminal of my Lionel Type "R" and my track.

Electronic - How is it possible to create a stable DC generator ...

With these two bits of hardware (and some clean track) it takes the Atlantic 17 seconds to crawl over fifty inches!

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