The World's Fastest Model Train? | Breaking the Speed Record 

When you have 4 fans all in the same airflow, the pitch of the blades needs to increase with each fan. When you use all four fans with the same pitch, the three behind the first one aren't doing anything because the airflow is already up to the speed of the next fan. Each fan needs to do work in order to provide thrust to push the thing forwards. If you could 3D print your four fans with increasing pitch, every fan would contribute to making it go faster, Woof!

01:03 You forgot to mention the most important thing you added: Painted-on flames. Everyone knows that flames always make things faster!

Sam is really a mad scientist when it comes to model trains, thats for sure

personally i would suggest using larger loco wheels - eg steam loco wheels to give the larger turning radius which will help give you theoretical higher speeds, look at land speed road vehicles they always have large wheels

Hi Sam, I love your wacky experiments. I can't help wondering how fast a Hornby 0-4-0 would go at 100 volts 😉

21:26 I hear by declare this model ("The worlds Fastest Rail mounted object that Sam has ever made") Award, lol Cheers Jasper & Willow

The best thing was that you were able to stay serious most of the time. I was laughing most of the time when watching.

Hey Sam, after seeing your lastest loco its safe to say you are a master of 3d printing. Just a suggestion, what if you tried to 3d print some scenery or railway infrastructure?

Fantastic vid sam, really enjoyed this! Those sparks off the wheels!

Nice video. It might be good to consider Ohm's law, you don't double the power when you double the voltage over a given resistance, you quadruple the power when you double the voltage over a given resistance, as doubling the voltage makes the amperage double. So, as your motors represent a given resistance, the actual power changes with the square of the change in voltage. That means, increasing voltage from 12 to 100 volt increases the power almost 70 times, disregarding the increased losses in the conductors. And that is assuming other things, like that the connection is still maintained. So, if your speed doesn't increase much when you double the voltage, your system have some issue, and resolving that should help more than increasing power even further. As long as you're still accelerating, the fact that kinetic energy also increases with v² (the square of the velocity) means the increase in velocity should be the same as the increase in voltage, when disregarding friction and other aspects. But at low speeds the acceleration should be roughly the same as the increase in voltage. Aerodynamic drag typically have little influence in such speeds, but that also increases with v², but as velocity increase that means your fighting that increased drag of a longer distance in a given amount of time, which makes the power required to overcome drag increase more than v². But, at a few mph (true) speed drag typically have little influence. If you're going to push this further, which seems like a good idea, you might want to try a longer track, and measure if the speed still increases significantly at the end. Maybe try creating some downforce.

you know, something that might be up your alley are slot car motors. ive seen readings to 50k rpm and above. they are also usually the same size and shape as those can motors in most model trains. i could only imagine how much power those would draw through the rails though. maybe some carbon brushes against the rails directly? thanks for the vid!❤

All good fun Sam, but be careful....above 50v is considered dangerous to health. But most importantly you are using a variac which is a variable auto transformer...and is not isolating. This means one rail could easily be at mains potential and therefore potentially life threatening. Keep safe 👍

seeing the insulating fishplates makes me think it would be fun to have the polarity reversed on the other side of them, to both have a jet engine style of braking, and potentially to create a shuttle up-and-back demo layout

You did it! Over a thousand miles per hour! Way to go!

I appreciate the efforts here! I do slot car drag racing and they're fascinatingly fast, hitting 60mph in just under 60 feet.

Well, I'm impressed, and the upcoming November 5th celebrations suggest how this project could be taken a step further, as follows: Step 1: Visit your local dodgy-looking Fireworks Emporium. Best to extinguish all cigarettes before entering. Step 2: Ask for their most powerful, largest and really scary Rocket. Ignore the warning labels plastered all over it. Step 3: Carry it home. Avoid passing the local Police Station. Step 4: Manoeuvre Rocket up into your loft, carefully demolishing walls as necessary. Step 5: Glue Rocket to a handy HO scale loco. Mr Stephenson's iconic design seems appropriate... Step 6: Check that your House Insurance covers 'All Risks'. You can't be too careful, you know. Step 7: Collect together all available fire extinguishers, hoses, buckets of water etc. Safety First, remember... Step 8: Light the blue touch paper. Run! Step 9: Realise that the GoPros were not turned on to immortalise the results. Whoops. Step 9.5: Repeat from Step 1. That gives you a whole year to rebuild the house...

Is it possible to lay the track diagonally across the room? Corner to corner should be a longer distance. Love the dragster.

One way to get a little extra speed from the propeller version is to hold the car in place until the props come up to speed. Take care if you're running at volts!

Oh yeah, maybe if you hide a motor and fan in those Walther’s tank cars you reviewed recently (and cut out the tank end caps) you’d have the fastest tank cars in ANY scale! 😄😄

🤣🤣 You mad man LOL. Better start building a mini maglev with your amazing engineering skills and see how fast that can go hahah. 2000 mph at least we bet 🤣🤣 We just love your mad experiments 😄

Hey Sam. I am noticing your camerawork is getting really good. You have picked a very good angle for your talking shots. And the lighting is perfect. Just Wow 👏 Keep having fun with your filming techniques 😂

Possibly for the next dragster design, add some fins to provide downforce and weights

Excellent video Sam I really enjoyed watching this.

Sam, believe it or not, several early electric locos in America were built like your dragster, having lots and LOTS of wheels because of the low torque, They ran on the legendary Milwaukee Road.

Have you tried bullfrog snot to improve the traction? You'll probably have to apply it to the drive wheels and then have an extra axle just for the electrical pickup.

Well done! Great video I've been waiting for a vid to come and its come! Keep up with the great content + videos. (You are also the only person i know who likes to risk there life, power bill and his trains for content!)

MEANWHILE on his second channel, Sam'sBubbleWrap... "Today we'll be testing the shock absorbing impact of the Riley 3822, which we all know to be exceptional in pop quality and surface integrity. I have these model trains set up to give it a good workout, so let's see how it stands up to some high-voltage impacts!" 🙂

Good work Sam. What I would like to see is how fast can you get a loco to run on 12v, and still have a prototype profile.

Congrats Sam!! I swear that thing looked like it shot out of a cannon or something. Absolutely incredible.

Looks like you gave away a future review of a locomotive, the box at the bubble rap was an MTH DCC ready locomotive

Happy November 1st Sam. Cheers Jasper & Willow

Sam can’t get enough speed!! I actually have a massive straight on my layout so I could test it again if you want Sam!!😂

Very well made video Sam! tho i have the feeling your next train is going to be rocket powerd at this point 😂

Well done Sam! Excellent, fun video.👏😀

You should try the dragracer on a continuous loop of sloped straight tracks, kind of like those "wall of death" motorbike circles but less inclined

Great video sam those things were going fast! Wouldn’t want to get hit by one 😆

When Sam pulls out the Variac we are in for some high powered bullocks

Now Sam is in dragsters too .....I love dragsters for the power n acceleration they produce.....n speed too

Great video, Sam. I think on the last attempt, you need to create a downforce that will keep it on the rails. Many thanks Harry

Every modeler should see this as a reminder to occasionally have fun with your trains

LOVE IT ! Great video. Fan blades at higher RPM may flex forward allowing more spill-off of "working" air. More blade pitch helpful ?

You're nuts! 😂 Ya always know how to entertain to the absolute max!

I love your way of thinking

Always enjoy your videos👍

Strongly suggest not using so many fans, stacking only increases static pressure not velocity

Congratulations love your videos. Very interesting content. Great job. Have a blessed day everyone

you are crazy as hell!........ keep it up......great entertainment it has made my day

bet that dragster could do a lot better with some proper downforce and rubber allowing it to get the power down… but then it’s probably more of a model dragster than a model train

For the dragster, I'd ditch one of the motors. Drive only the front wheels, and use the back wheels for picking up power, that way you could run traction tyres on the driven wheels. Maybe run 2 rear axles just so it's only half the power through each pick up.

Who knows, Hornby may have been onto something, you need traction tires! Haha great video as always Sam!

I thoroughly enjoy all your videos Sam, but I LOVE the crazy experiment videos. My favorite was the brakes. With your new found engineering talent I bet you could make a new, improved model. It'd make a fun video at minimum. Thank you for your videos!! And maybe I'm being crazy, but you might even be able to make a little retrofit kit and sell them!

That was Brillant! 🎉 I'd love to see the dragster under normal power pulling rocket coaches up Gordon's hill

7:23 jeez look at the sparks on those rails *30 seconds later* 7:57 "what I need to do next is run 80 volts through this 12v motor"

The mad scientist is at again, lol. Love it sam!! Next time use a scale size jet engine for rc planes.

That was one heck of a workhorse. You definitely have outdone yourself with this one. I’m not too much worried about speed, but would like to know if it’s possible to create a fan driven locomotive that can actually pull a train. Or better yet, one fan driven locomotive at each end of a passenger train or cargo train. That would be interesting to see. Keep up the wonderful work and thank you for doing these experiments, so we don’t have to. Cheers

That was awesome! Image seeing that as a functional model train for sale! Cheese-it’s Crusts!!!

You should have it run with ball bearings pressing on the underside of the railhead so it doesn’t fall off. That way, you can test it on curves.

🚀👍 Rocket Man . Most enjoyable vid I've seen anywhere in a long time. Loved it . Well Done ! Cape Cod Steve

nice work sam

Awesome video Sam's trains

Wonderful video Sam. Are you calculating the speed at OO scale or HO scale?

totaly bonkers. well done.

Brilliant sam nearly peed myself laughing when the drag racer appeared 😂

Maybe you should go and film offsite, find a long hallway somewhere that you can set up a much longer track, and then try the dragster on that. Alternatively, you might get something out of giving the dragster some down force to reduce wheel slip.

Ah yes the mad scientist Mr. Sam's strains is back! Yes direct drive - remove all that stands between your wheels and POWEEEER. Very spectacular, so if there is a next time it will have to be on longer track and probably outside? Certainly can go faster, lighter materials, less solid frame (hexagons, triangles or what have you) higher rated motors, hobbyists have 12/24 as general use so there should be something in that range no doubt but there could be 42V as well. i imagine overclocking those could be fun. or at least scary.

Great video

That's so cool my friend. It looks awesome. Very nice idea. Keep being awesome my friend. Ur trains are the best. This is going to be interesting. Keep up the good work

You ought to make a flipbook with steam engine stickers on each square paper page. You need as many square paper sheets (quite small, not tiny) as you want to make the book, a pen or pencil to mark the numbers on each page, a clipboard clip and some funky steam engine and scenery stickers. You can try creating the stickers with a 3D printer. Create the flipbook however you want to, and give it a name: Sam's Trains Flipbook. Or any fitting name you think of. Clamp the pages in order together with the clipboard clip on the left hand side, and flip away. Try it.

Nice Variac!!

Love your videos

Hi Sam, what about trying a Sparklets/Soda Syphon/Soda Stream type CO2 cartridge? You'd need some kind of valve to release the gas instantly but you could trigger the release through voltage on the track.

Hello, I love your British style, Hans from Germany!

Gave this a like before I even watched it because I was thinking to myself - when will Sam do another... I'm not contemplating an HO scale rocket train... not at all.

lol that was so funny! 15 MPH! and yes even I could hear the wheels still spinning! 1136 scale MPH!

The next generation of Sam's Frankenstein jet trains

Wonderfully bonkers. Could you modify a Triang Hornby Battle Space Turbo Car? Might be worth remembering to wear insulating (vinyl?) gloves. Next step might be a wheeled variation on a Maglev?

You should do an aprils fools advert for the drag racer claiming that it is very safe, reliable and almost impossible to have a crash whilst there are clips of it falling over in the background

Nice video Sam’sTrains, really enjoyed it. Also, when will the Heljan BR class 28 be Reviewed? And, when will you finally look into OO9 gauge?

poor old mr jenga, constantly slammed in to a bubble wrap wall and he so kindly sponsored the raised wooden track bed. lol

Try using those high speed little dc motors on the dragster.

I have an old Athearn Bluebox mode that when I turn it up to full power runs at like 5 mph

That Thing Runs So Fast That Gordon Is Jealous.. Lol That Turbo Engine Might Give The Passengers A Fair Fast, And Smooth Ride If Its Possible

Hi sam, love to see your inventions pushing the limits of modelling. Do you think an entirely self sufficient track cleaner would be possible? I know this must be the bane of many modellers existence. The dapol one is nice but not really abrasive enough if you ask me. I was just brain storming of building a grinder car with two spinning pads underneath, followed by dapol's car set to 'vacuum' mode followed by a tank car with cleaning cloth underneath, but it struck me that it was the kind of invention I feel you could take on. I don't mean to suggest but I would love to see you tackle it. sorry for the novel!

good vid thanks lee

Decent video here Sam, even though they are not anything like the creation you have made here realistically I would say the fastest trains I have in my collection would probably be my hitatchi 395 javelin or my Eurostar

Extremely interesting 👍

You know how to live life on the fast track!

wow Sam's trains that is really good latest loco, I have to agree that the first one is absolutely fast and smashed the record of 1136mph or something like that which I think you could add it with the drag racer in your model museum as part of the collection of 3d printed engines/rolling stock and the ones that had seen better days

very nice, i clicked on this video because Turbo train looks very similar to Fireball XL5

Good video, Sam. Very interesting. Re the dragster running at the higher voltages, I suspect your limiting factor is wheelspin. In this case you change from static friction between tire and rail to sliding friction, which would remain constant regardless of the wheels' rotational velocity. This would likely occur very early in the run since the weight of the vehicle is light, i.e. the normal reaction between wheel and rail would be low. This would possibly explain why you saw no speed improvement as the voltage and current increased. Maybe set up a funicular cog drive system using your fancy printers?🙂😀😁 (Pssst... btw, voltage goes across the motors and current goes through them)

Sam you just keep smashing your own record! 🫡😆

I did the same thing with a hairdryer turbine fan/motor combo duct taped and wired to a lighted model passenger train. The model train went so fast it flew off the track.❤

Well done Sam

I reckon that the turbo train might have been running into a problem that actual turbines run into, which is having fan after fan actually decreases efficiency which is why they have a static set of blades between each set, Granted that's for fans being moved by the air and not fans moving air, but I do think something similar might have been happening on the initial tests,

That's amazing Sam

Well done Sam 😮😀🚂🚂🚂

Put the faring on the front to increase the air density, then put a nozzle on the rear to constrict the air flow and increase air pressure against the fan blades. Also, see if there are other ways to decrease weight.

Good fun. It's a shame you cannot get a scale sonic boom! All the best.

Time to start taking these experimental trains outside. A longer run would be better, and soon will be needed. Fun fact, you did break the sound barrier, in scale.

Sam that was very entertaining great fun maybe next time try the a delorion lol