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GoldenBrassRail

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
As you can see here, I have these trains rolling down the track at a high rate of speed.

Looking at the speed of my G scale train there.... If I had an additional G scale train that was operating at the exact same speed as the one you see in this video, and the two trains collided head on at these speeds, would that put these locomotives at a risk for damage? Or would they withstand a closing speed collision at this clip?
 
#2 ·
GoldenBrassRail said:
As you can see here, I have these trains rolling down the track at a high rate of speed.

Looking at the speed of my G scale train there.... If I had an additional G scale train that was operating at the exact same speed as the one you see in this video, and the two trains collided head on at these speeds, would that put these locomotives at a risk for damage? Or would they withstand a closing speed collision at this clip?
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Why would you want to crash them?
Sounds like a lot of money gone down the drain. If these are LGB I would not want to as g is very expensive as you most likely know.
 
#4 ·
GoldenBrassRail said:
Oh I will never do this. I just wanted to know how it would turn out if two LGB steam locos collided at a 40 per cent offset with a closing speed of, say, 110 inches per second.
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Thas oddly specific and I don’t think I know how to answer your question. I’m sure someone more mathematically inclined could though.
 
Discussion starter · #5 ·
Rail_Master4501 said:
Thas oddly specific and I don’t think I know how to answer your question. I’m sure someone more mathematically inclined could though.
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110 inches per second closing speed is basically about the maximum speed you could possibly get two garden-grade G scale locomotives up to... About 55 inches per second each. The question is basically if the plastics, construction and internal components could withstand an instantaneous impact like that.
 
Discussion starter · #6 ·
Rail_Master4501 said:
Thas oddly specific and I don’t think I know how to answer your question. I’m sure someone more mathematically inclined could though.
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I personally think that at this speed, the plastic body of the locomotive risks experiencing a shattering-type crush... That these speeds would react with the plastics in such a way that exploits the brittle nature of the plastic and the locomotives would undergo jagged cracks or even break into a few pieces.

With most plastics of this type, they will bend or bounce away impact or force... to a certain extent, but if the blow is swift enough it shatters.
 
Discussion starter · #8 ·
zr1rob said:
why ruin your locos? Just watch an episode of Addams Family with Uncle Fester in the basement for the same thrill
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Everybody keeps reminding me of that Adams Family crash event. That was cool, but the trouble is, I am pretty sure those trains were going no more than 20 inches per second each. A closing speed head-on of 40 inches per second will make a loud bang and possibly pop the locomotives off of the track, but they will usually be unharmed.

In my scenario, the two locomotives would be going more than twice that speed. The locomotives would be ripped off the track violently and spin around a few times as a result of the offset partial overlap impact, and would endure some degree of damage it's just that the million dollar question is that I don't know how much damage they would experience, and I am not going to find out.

However, A few weeks ago I made some simple home-made O gauge rolling stock out of a brittle and flimsy wood, that were fitted with weights strategically placed throughout. Yes, I designed this home made rolling stock specifically to stage a high speed crash and create mayhem to film on camera. The funny thing is I thought that this was a failure because when I tested one of the cars after the glue dried, they it did not break apart fantastically like I hoped and I put the cars away. Anyway a few weeks later I was moving stuff and I dropped another one of these cars. It shattered when it hit the ground! I was surprised, but the reason my test run failed was that I did not allow sufficient drying time for the glue, and when it had not fully cured it was much stronger and withstood major impacts. But after a couple weeks it was fully dry and this surprisingly made it far weaker, and so it turned out my design succeeded after all.

Unfortunately I only have one car left to crash because one was dropped and the other was trashed but I am going to do the crash this week and I will post the video when it is done. I am not using a G gauge train for this crash, but an O gauge locomotive that came with my starter set.
 
#10 ·
While I have never done this myself, I have had the same morbid curiosity. I know on youtube there's a young man called "Crazytrain595" or something like that, a lot of his videos are of older/broken G gauge locos crashing, but a few are of trains colliding at speed, not max speed I'm sure, but a decent clip. My best guess would be that at least one locomotive would be cosmetically destroyed, even the robust plastics used on a LGB would no doubt warp and shatter in different places. The running gear being made of metal may do more harm than good as the sudden shock and bounce of the collision could bend the rods or force a set of wheels out of place. Any small detail parts would be lost or at least sent flying in all manner of directions, so the flag posts, marker lights, crew, etc. would be at risk.

Honestly at the end of the day, unless you added some fireworks to the mix, you'd get a mildly entertaining crash and then be out several hundred dollars worth of locomotives.
 
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