Slugs?!

Hi,

What is the purpose of a slug?

Thanks
Ish

i'm pretty sure a slug is like a helper engine for the switching
this is off wika-pidia
"A railroad slug is an accessory to a diesle-electric locomotive. It has trucks with traction motors but is unable to move about under its own power, as it does not contain a prime mover to produce electricity. Instead, it is connected to a locomotive, called the mother, which provides current to operate the traction motors.
The slug concept is similar to switching from two wheel drive to four wheel drive in an automobile."

for example, there are cabless slugs, or a yard slug, there are also road slugs here is off wika-pidia agian --->

"Slugs are used in situations where tractive effort is more important than extra power, such as switching operations in yerds. At low speeds, a diesle-electric locomotive's prime mover can produce more electric power than its traction motors can use. Extra power would simply cause the wheels to slip and/or overheat the traction motors. A slug effectively adds axles to the locomotive, increasing both the pulling and braking power. Slugs carry ballast to increase their weight and improve traction. Large blocks of conctere are frequently used for this purpose, substituting for the weight of the now-absent diesel engine(s).
Slugs can be built new or converted from existing locomotives. Conversion has enjoyed popularity as a way to reuse otherwise obsolete engines."

here are pictures

first: a low slug, or cabless, or yard slug


second: a road slug, or railroad, or cabbed slug.

hope thats what you wanted to know

mike

To pour salt on.

Seriously to add weight without adding horspower. They are used when there is enough power but more weight is need to move something.
Kenny
SFRR beat me to it.

Or alternatively,they are slimy little pests that eat all your flowers and, as such,are absolutely no use whatsoever

cheers
Roy




lets bring some humour back to the forum.

smash said:

SFRR beat me to it.

Click to expand...

lol Smash...

sfrr said:

i'm pretty sure a slug is like a helper engine for the switching
this is off wika-pidia
"A railroad slug is an accessory to a diesle-electric locomotive. It has trucks with traction motors but is unable to move about under its own power, as it does not contain a prime mover to produce electricity. Instead, it is connected to a locomotive, called the mother, which provides current to operate the traction motors.
The slug concept is similar to switching from two wheel drive to four wheel drive in an automobile."

for example, there are cabless slugs, or a yard slug, there are also road slugs here is off wika-pidia agian --->

"Slugs are used in situations where tractive effort is more important than extra power, such as switching operations in yerds. At low speeds, a diesle-electric locomotive's prime mover can produce more electric power than its traction motors can use. Extra power would simply cause the wheels to slip and/or overheat the traction motors. A slug effectively adds axles to the locomotive, increasing both the pulling and braking power. Slugs carry ballast to increase their weight and improve traction. Large blocks of conctere are frequently used for this purpose, substituting for the weight of the now-absent diesel engine(s).
Slugs can be built new or converted from existing locomotives. Conversion has enjoyed popularity as a way to reuse otherwise obsolete engines."

Click to expand...

Yes, good description Sfrr,

I once saw two slugs placed in between two locomotives in our local CN switching yard. Slugs are most common in yards used to give that extra power, you will see them used with remote controlled switchers to shunt or just move fraight short distances at low speed.

You guys in the States live in Train Heaven.The only thing we ever had over here which resembled that was the Class 13 , which was two Class 08 350 Horsepower shunters permanently coupled and with the driving cab on one of them removed.They were known as Master and Slave units.

Nah, we wouldn't want slugs blubbering over our beloved rail network

tommylommykins said:

Nah, we wouldn't want slugs blubbering over our beloved rail network

Click to expand...

Gets rather slick and makes it hard to stop

tonyvdb said:

Yes, good description Sfrr.

Click to expand...

thanks tonyvdb

P.S. lol tommylommykins

Slugs are also known as "Helpers"

Thanks to all who replied!!!

Ish

i wonder if someone could make one it would be useful for a yard in routes.

There are some on the dls. Search for slug should give a couple results. One by sureshot, the others by cloakedghost275.
Kenny
http://www.auran.com/trainz/downloads/locomotives/kuid_76096_5734.jpg

do they actually have an affect?

john

not that im aware of but it will add a nice afect if you put it on a siding or you just want to waste space in the yard.

could you give a kuid please? i get anyware between 3 and 400+ results.

thank you,
john

About a year back I went through a phase of downloading all the glamorous looking slugs I could. Boy did they look neat in Railyard!

When I tried using them in Driver I had a top speed of about 8 mph. Seeing as locos are free in TRS I gave up using slugs and simply reverted to conventional locos in multiple. At least I was able to get my shunting done much more quickly that way.

Slugs? Look good but are a real pain to use. Bung 'em in sidings or yards where they can act as decoration but if you want your yards to get sorted efficiently stick to conventional locos.

As for the stylommatophore variety they are incredibly useful (and delicious) if you happen to be an ericaneus europaeus (hedgehog).



Cheers

Nix

i ment a yard that has a local yard off to the side of the main yard.

Or you could slice them up and fry them.
Taste like chicken.

I think only the engine being operated does any real work. The rest are for show. I'm not sure, though, since I've never tested matching engines side by side.

Claude