This Hill Climbing Engine Wins Every Tug Of War 

I think the same tests need to happen WITHOUT the ratchet just for fairness 😊

I like that the loco appears to be made of discarded parts from your other customs, having the smokebox of your upcoming Lady of the Lake and the cab of the GER 552. It gives it a very Frankenstein's mosnter vibe, and I dig it.

Redo your ratchet so that the notches have a backward slope, so they meet the sleepers at 90 degrees. That should help with the bumping out of the track.

I'd have liked to see a tug of war between speedy pete and the paddle steamer. I'm not convinced its more powerful than speedy pete!

Can we all apreciate how much Sam's modeling and crafting skills are improving drastically over the years? Good job Sam!

This is a very cool thing to see. While the overall design is rather gimmicky (apologies), I am just in love with the concept of rack-and-pinion in model form. Love to see you tackle an engine from the Snowdon Mountain Railway with this design concept lol!

14:00 It looks like the loco tripped over its own ratchet after the pinion wheel lost traction on the sleepers. That effect will be a direct geometric function of the climb angle. You are, in effect, re-inventing a rack railway system - just using an expedient form of rack. The failures you encounter are very similar to those that plagued early rack-railway systems, including the infamous derailment on the Snowdon Mountain Railway on its opening day. It is for this reason that SMR had to add an extra feature to the rack on the steeper sections (which constitute the bulk of the line's length) and a corresponding device on each loco and carriage, which physically holds the pinion into the rack. This extra piece of the rack is omitted on the less-steep sections since it is incompatible with pointwork. You could probably improve the Paddle Steamer's climbing performance by rebuilding the pinion with "hooked" teeth, like a water-wheel, and by constraining the movement of the ratchets so that they don't tend to lift the loco further off the track when under severe pressure. The latter is probably more of a safety feature than a performance feature. You should try to have both ratchets in place, as the forward one will be important for stability when engaged.

I can't help but wonder what difference it would've made if all 3 locos were up against the Paddle Steamer. Awesome video though

Speedy Pete as I recall had multiple points of contact with track, Paddle wheel has only one at any given time, so the improvement is the motor can coast [no load] to full speed while ratchet is engaged. Therefore the paddle wheel with NO power will still be stalemate unless other loco can pull paddle wheel unit over the ratchet point - and as this is in effect a becomes a lever working in favour of the paddle unit Still fun video [as always] , totally enjoyed and admire the thinking that went it design and build. A challenger - dual inline paddle wheels, offset central gear drive by 1/2 tooth means always a tooth in contact with sleeper,... just a thought. TTFN

The next version, if there is one, should have a mechanism to raise and lower the ratchets, such that it can move backwards if it chooses to.

Imagine being the driver of the Paddle Steamer Locomotive on that 45 degree incline. You would think you could do it, but immediately, you plunge to your Death.

The ratchet is kinda unfair.. By design, no other engine can hope to pull the paddle steamer backwards and win cause it just keeps jamming into the sleepers. Think it defeats the purpose of a "Tug of War" Still though, the concept is really fun! Maybe you should try making an actual Rack and Pinion 00/HO loco with accompanying track to see if the technology works in miniature!

The concept behind this is really clever, you've essentially developed a way to make a functional rack railway from standard model track.

Few edits I think are needed to improve the design. 1: add weights to the base of the frame with the wheels, this will eliminate the issue of the wheels coming up and loosing connection with the rails. 2: Give the teeth of the paddle a very slight reverse angle rather than the teeth coming straight out like they are now, this will mean that the face of the teeth will be flat on to the sleepers rather than ever so slightly ramped which is causing the skipping we see. 3: remove the ratchet pegs on the base that locks it to the sleepers upon reversing, this not only lifts the whole engine off the tracks, but offers a huge cheat in that is can only ever win by not allowing for lose. If it can't go forward then at least it will never go backwards, massively unfair. 4: make the paddle wheel much smaller or figure out a way to mount the motor in a more traditional way to keep the weight of the engine centered. It would be awesome if the motor turned a gear that then powered with a piston connecting rod to the driver wheel/wheels, as adding a second wheel might fix the issue of the odd gaps in the sleepers as well.

I think the problem with both Speedy Pete and the Paddle Steamer failing the incline is that they were designed more for horizontal track than an incline and the problems they would have on inclined track. It seems that the problems with the paddle steamer were weight distrubution and losing contact with the track. If you look at photos of the engines on the Snowdon Mountain Railway and the Pikes Peak Cog Railway, they were built to look tilted forward so when they go uphill, their boilers sit flat. If you designed an engine like the Paddle Steamer with a sloped shape, sloped weights, and some sort of clip to keep the wheels on the rails, you could in theory build an engine that could climb a 45° angle.

13:14 The tragic death of Bullman the cow and the great Paddle steamer...

I've been doing some personal engineering projects for the past year or so about weird steam locomotive concepts and prototypes, and I want you to know I'm furiously jotting this idea down for a Marsh rack railway design. A larger gear probably wouldn't make mechanical sense, but a 7 1/4 inch prototype would be interesting

Great design. I must say that putting the two rachets give an unfair advantage over the regular locos as they have nothing to hold onto and the wheels will obviously slip. The competition should be between the paddle and the regular wheels. Even then, unless you have an engine that can pull the peddle steamer over and topple it, it will fail the test because you have now a very much larger motor in the P.Steamer. Now, that is a better name for it!

One of the few wheeled vehicles which can go up a 45° is the Unimog so a model loco almost going up that slope is really impressive

What if you rebuilt Speedy Pete and put them head to head in a simple tug of war. See who is the real strongest engine.

The next iteration should grab the sleepers by the outside like the pilatus railway (Locher Rack System).

This is so cool, I love your experiment videos! Can the paddle steamer handle points and curves? Also, can you tell us what show Speedy Pete was featured in on TV?

Seeing the Paddle Steamer in action, something I've really wanted to make since getting into 3D printing is a cog railway engine (namely the ones from the Mt. Washington or Pikes Peak Cog Railways). Yeah, it'd be best if the layout for it had a system to automatically stop it and change direction (which is not impossible), but it'd still be neat to have a running model of one of those goofy-looking engines that actually climbs a rack rail.

I have found an unfair advantage for the paddle steamer! The ratchets, that are designed to stop it being pulled back mean that it can’t be pulled back by a normal model. And therefore, it is bound to win every time, unless of course there is enough tension to make the rope snap, of which is unlikely!

That's genius! I wonder if a pair of extendable arms with "hands" would work? Very entertaining!

Isn't the smokebox from your LNWR Problem Class and the cab from your Great Eastern 552?

I wish you tested it against multiple locos! Would have loved to have seen what the results would have been

Your creation of the paddle steamer was amazing Sam. That was a fantastic experiment which you have done. By the way are planning to review the new Hornby BR 2mt Mogul at any point of time Sam?

You always impress with wacky experiments sam!! Great video

Reminds me of Robot Wars Sam … excellent idea 😂 AWESOME. Can I buy one Sam ?

the normal train fight was too hilarious

Great idea and design on the paddle wheel!

If you ran the Paddle loco on track that isn't "ON" any sort of roadbed, then those gear/teeth could get a deeper bite. Just the rails and ties/sleepers. Try it that way. John

0:18 I love this part lol

how do you remove the base keepers plate on the VI trains 37 and whats the best way to clean loco bodies ?

Awesome vid sam, would love to be able to do somethibg like this myself one day!

I think it would be possible to solve the skipping issue almost entirely by having one or two less teeth on the main wheel. If you watch closely, when one tooth is engaged and holding weight against the sleeper with either coaches or a steeper gradient, the next tooth is coming down on the top edge of the next sleeper rather than coming down in the gap to properly engage with it. I have a feeling this is due to the fact that when a tooth beds in for traction it means the back tooth is at an angle, so thanks to weird trigonometry related shenanigans the actual distance between the edges of the teeth ends up not being long enough. Speedy Pete didn't have this issue since the chain drive essentially meant it was always engaging with the track "flat", so the teeth on the chain were always able to bite. When it's running on flat track without any load, the wheel can actually pull itself along with friction on the carpet combined with a little bit of momentum, so it doesn't skip. If the distance between teeth was larger, then when it's bedded in the next tooth will actually land in the gap rather than on top of the sleeper. Another quick improvement would be to add a stop to the ratchet to prevent it from going round and under the loco. When it started to lift, the ratchet essentially went back underneath the loco which effectively disengaged it entirely. Adding a stop just shy of directly down would mean the whole loco would have to pivot around the ratchet, rather than it essentially terminally slipping at about 45 degrees.

i already see so many ways to improve it. the constant skipping tells me that your cog doesnt have the adequate spacing for the ties and just pulls the train up rather than forward, making it skip till the tooth can engage the rearward tie to give a slight nudge forward.

This was a neat idea! Now that you have a resin printer, you should re-design the GER 552, Gladstone, Old Copanog (etc.) to be resin printed! Edit: Ummm… we’re you able to heal bullman from his injuries???

So cool . It looks so good. U know how to design cool locos. It's the best design yet. Keep being awesome my friend. Ur the best.

Maybe a worm gear drive on the sleepers would allow more contact and smoother operation. Or angle the paddles to the rear by a few degrees to hook in better.

"Let Me Show You Its Features" 🤣 Very Joerg Sprave 😏

I cannot think of a more viscerally threatening name than *_The Paddle Steamer_*

A rack rail can't fail. Love it looks like the Touretts Train.

I love these kinds of videos from you, Sam. Nice work! However, I think the bit that keeps the paddle steamer from going backwards was a bit of a cheat vs. engines that didn't have the same part. Just my opinion.

maybe using the ballasts to shift the weight forward might help?

What if you lift the track up so the pattle doesn't touch the floor and only touch the track, like a gear mechanism.

How about doing the same thing except with a longer chassis and 2 paddles? It might be better or worse I’m not sure if it’s even possible. also maybe you could use 2 motors on the original to make it stronger. Another thing is maybe make the notches on the paddle a little longer and another thing is the back ratchet might be making it fail you could remove it and keep the front one. just some ideas I had!

Very amusing and very silly video Sam! Lol. Almost as funny as the video you made a few years back, getting a loco to pull the skin off a rice pudding! Remember that? How could one forget! Best, Pete.

Very interesting video sam 👍 great fun 😀

You actualy made it i was asking for this for like a year🥳

ROFL! The other day I was wondering if mad experiments would continue appearing, and there we are hahah. Cracking crazy and I would not recommend sipping your thee or coffee whilst watching, lol. Sam, I think this one should be patented and to be build full size 🤣🤣🤣 I suppose 45 degrees is the tipping point in physics for doing inclines. Just make sure the prototype comes with a disclaimer 🤣🤣🤣

Speedy Pete vibes, miss the old experiments

I was waiting for your review and the number of coaches it could pull on straight and level track... Next up, a representation of Pearson's 8ft single 4-2-4T for the Bristol and Exeter Railway, with two 'paddle wheels' engaging the outer ends of the sleepers.

Have you experimented with different shape “paddles”? I’m was wondering if a different shape might stop the skipping.

the issue on the incline is that the center of gravity is too high. and if you give enough weight to hold the top bit down it's unbeatable

Could you make a improved version of the paddle steamer (more wheels 4-2-6) (bigger paddle wheel) larger smokebox & funnel for extra weight)

Pilatus Kulm The steepest cogwheel railway in the world, with a gradient of 48% and a length of 4'618 metres, links Alpnachstad with Pilatus Kulm at an altitude of 2'132 m.... Be interesting to see a version of that made.

I've seen something similar before. Not sure if the Nazis or the Soviets but one of them had a device to rip up the center of the track by destroying the sleepers !

I am really impress with your design... apart from the gear teeth profile which looks as if its causing issues. However i cant think of a simple solution off of the top of my head other thsn make the "paddles" feathered as on a paddle steamer but that would introduce unnecessary complication. Changing the gear profile to an involute or cycloidal may help a bit but then again it could make matters worse so all in sll you probably have reached optimization. Having seen your machine i think that the only improvement would be to use a ratchet drive rather than a wheel. A crank driving ratchets wouldn't look anywhere near as cool. Well done. Excellent machine.

What a wacky idea . I love it though😂

I feel like if you want to conquer the mighty 45 you'll need to take a page out of real world railways and 3D print a funicular car. Fun video nonetheless!

Loved that. Very interesting.

Awesome video Sam's trains

great video tks sam

The question is now, how does the "paddel steamer" couple if the hand of god is not available? :) Maybe it needs a bit of weight directly on the wheels rather than on the upper part of the chasis? Loved this video. It was fun to watch. Thanks for the smiles.

I would love to have one Will you ever consider selling some of your models on shapeways?

7:15 Yay, the Super Schools class finally makes an appearance after a very long time. Cheers Jasper & Willow

I’m kind of curious as to how the paddle steamer would fare if it went up against some of the large & heavy locomotives I own

One improvement that could be made is having the ratchets offset so that one is always engaged when the other is lifted

Your paddle wheel reminds me of the driving wheels of the Salamanca, a 2-2-2 with 2 cylinders, built in 1812 by Mattew Murray (1765-1826) the first ever steam locomotive to really do the job, even if on rack rails apt to fit its paddle transmission system.

Add a long ratchet in the middle for hill climbing. Like triple the length, basically as long as you can get away with while still getting a good angle on the sleeper. It should be able to drop in at much less of an angle, I think... 😅

I wonder what would happen on the incline if you added a part that is sticky, like waxed wheel or so that would stick to the sleepers. The stickiness might just be enough to go up a 45° angle.

The gear isn't this enormous, but cog locomotives are very much a real thing that work kinda like this.

I wonder if angling the teeth would keep it from jumping as easily? With the tips slightly ahead of the base of the teeth, like a saw blade.

Try all three engines vs the paddle steamer in a tug-of-war.

Honestly just needed to upload the first 30 seconds 😂😂 sweet video Sam

In all fairness, because the paddle steam has the ratchets and the rest of the locomotives don't Its an unfair advantage which could be considered cheating

That was fun to watch!!!

The bad thing about model trains is that they have a price barrier for entry, and being a kid I don't have the money to buy any.

EXCELLENT WORK WITH THIS OFFICIAL VIDEO DESPITE SOME ERRORS IN THE LOCOMOTIVE!

Awsome reminds me of speedy pete. You should try it vs 119

Ah yes another experiment how nice! And the paddle steamer is a really good looking engine!!!

Maybe you could make a loco that is a combination of Speedy Pete and the paddle wheeler all in one and with the combination of the two combined into one loco it might be able to climb up a 45 degree angle

1:41 That's the problem class smokebox Sam, lol Cheers Jasper & Willow

Idea: Use all three of the locos you used in a tug of war

I was thinking about this project a couple days ago. I came to a setup for a bit larger models. for sure too big for OO or HO and more aimed at G scale. Because it uses standard size motors so it won't fit in anything smaller. In short: AC servo motor intended for hobby cnc projects. The iHSV57-30-10-36-21-38 to be exact. nema23 size motor with integraded driver. with a 1:10 speed reduction it should give you just above 2 Nm of torque. and with the precision of a cnc machine so theoretically in the microns. (in this case the torque and rpm are it's most interesting features of course) anyway: I don't have that specific motor (only bigger) and no G scale stuff so this is where it ends for me. Either way: enjoyable video! Thanks for posting

if you make your front ratchet shorter, you'll find it does the incline better as it allows for the approach angle and helps keep the front axle grounded, you could also try thickening the paddles to reduce the amount of give (tolerence) between the paddles and the sleepers... hmmm.... challenge, accepted.... design mode on I guess...

I like this, I don't like the locking ratchet though, it's kind of cheating? The mighty Deltic looked like it might have had a chance if it wasn't for that device. Is your track magnetic? Would some little magnets close to the track be a better solution than wheel weights? My mate used to be a train driver out of Waverly and he hated the job, he always talked about his dream of becoming the worlds first stunt train driver, jumping buses like Evel Knievel in his DMU lol. Can trains jump? Have you ever tried? Paul

Yeah ! The return of the nutty experiments ! This one is both creative and imaginative, and the engine you made is fun to see. Thanks for the crazy job done here ! Uh oh, I've seen you bought a Rivarossi model. A surprise test for us in sight ?

The paddle is great for tug of war and flat ground but it’ll always fail at those higher gradients is what I’m seeing, to retro fit it for hills you’ll need to scrap the suspension as it’s giving the wheel to much leeway to slip, you’d also need some weight above the paddle to press it down onto the rails. And perhaps using axels to fit the ratchets rather than clips could call for less breaking off.

It’s going to be very interesting for me to build a train going up a hill in Minecraft.

How 'bout a speed contest with a Lionel flat car equipped with a "D" model rocket engine on 100 feet of Lionel straight track? I did that as a teenager.

In all fairness I don't feel like normal engines would be a stalemate, a mini big boy with a good motor and some weight would be a beast.

Ah yes there is the tug of war we all wanted! (apparently * wild Bowman appears and moos* ) Excellent dessign on the new locomotive engine, overengineer by all means! i am fan of Voisin Laboratoire, Bristol Brabazon, Yamato... Tupolev ANT-20 (inspie of its name it was no ant, pretty big for its time plane). Ravel in engineering long enough and you get to make your marble machine or useless box. its fun and i appretiate the maddness of it all. Ah yes its raining trains hallelujah. 45° is quite steep conssidering real life railway tends to not do well anywhere near much less above 20 (without special track for some form of added traction). apparently light railways (trams) can go up to 14° in Lisbon but thats rather unique, most seem to not even reach 10°)

Can you and Chloe have a Tug of War? I'd love to see that. I wager Chloe might win, lol.

What if you lengthen the body, get rid of the paddle, and replace it with a screw running perpendicular with the track and using the track as a long gear, the track connection wouldnt be an issue and theres much more contactsurface...?

By the way Sam, what’s the latest with your Problem class loco?

If you ever wanna make a more powerful loco, Just use A ratchet from a old projector

An interesting designed Loco Sam - a boat meets a Loco!!! 🤔😉🚂🚂🚂