World's Longest Train - 2011 | Ray's Electric Trainworks

World's Longest Train - 2011

Our attempt at the World's Longest Train.

*updated 11/20/2011*

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Overview of attempt:

Over the course of 1-2 weeks members of the KCGRS (Kansas City Garden Railway Society) cleared a large abandoned retail store location for use for an attempt at the worlds longest train in G scale. Once cleared I started work on the layout with some initial help from a couple of key members. It was first built to 1200ft then later expanded to 1600ft due to a possible 1600ft of train identified as possibly being available for the event. The minimum target length was 1050ft and in the end we only ended up with 850ft. We were missing one key person that was unable to attend at the last minute otherwise we would have had enough for the attempt. While we didn't end up with enough length to break the record, the process itself and the corresponding discovery phases were the most enjoyable and interesting part.

One key accomplishment was the creating the world's largest single oval (in a continuous electrical block) successfully signaled with MTH DCS's control system which ended up being a total of 1600ft. Signaling is done via track level digital signals between the TIU and the engines. As this signal test shows it works very well: YouTube 1080p HD

I've been asked many times if I will attempt this again and because of the time commitment involved I probably won't, but you never know.

6/3/2011

The retail area being used has been cleared out and track laying has begun. (Track used: All code 332, Brass Aristocraft 20ft curves, Brass AML 6ft straights, all brass Split Jaw direct to rail clamps) So far the completed oval is 1200ft.

The following engines were slated for use: (All engines are MTH DCS Protosound 2 equipped with optical precision speed control)

5 - MTH Big Boys
2 - MTH Challengers

Rolling stock: (including engines totaled 850ft) included the following

128 - Bachmann coal hoppers (in two - 60 car coal trains)
40 - USA trains Intermodal cars
10 - MTH Passenger cars - (American Freedom Train)
10 - MTH Passenger cars - (Daylight)
21 - Aristocraft Heavyweights

Photos of the setup:

06/03/11 - Before track laying started.

06/03/11 - Track laying in process.

06/20/11 - Progress update:

The 1200ft oval has been expanded to 1600ft with all DCS functionality testing now complete. (This is a continuous electrical block and powered by one TIU port in passive mode (TIU Rev L) A few final touches and final photos and video will be taken and posted soon. After the photo and video session we will start adding cars for test pulls around the course. Stay tuned.

06/21/11 - Videoing the layout (see links below)

06/24/11 - Time has come

*** Because of the time dedicated to get the event going I didn't take any other photos or video. I will work to try and secure some additional images to show the resulting 850ft of trains. ***

World's Longest Train - 2011:

Click the Link to play video

- YouTube 1080p HD

block with one TIU port in Passive mode (unlimited amperage mode)

- YouTube 1080p HD

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