I just tried with my Walthers Dash-8 and could pull 21 grain/box cars HO scale (each car 50-60 footers) and she just barely made it. Just wondering how many youve all done. That engine seems to me my best puller.
These cars were all Athearn factory weighted.
my proto 2000 SD45 will pull 30 some MDC and Accurail Cars up a 4% grade
Hello, lads, I’ve pulled 60-65 cars up a 2% grade helix in HO at run 8 dead slow without slipping or leaving puddles of solder in the track. I had a 4 unit Stewart FT ABBA on the point and another Stewart FT AB pair about 40 cars back. And that was before I switched to DCC! Now I don’t know what they would do, because I switched out one of the ‘B’s in the front lashup and replaced it with a dummy loaded with sound when I changed over to DCC. Alas, the club where I ran it had to vacate the premises and we salvaged what we could and demo’d the rest. All cars are 40’ or less, mid-late 1940’s properly weighted and with KD’s and metal wheels. graphite lubed and free-rolling. The Stewarts never even groaned.
A friend of mine has a 3% grade with a 24" curve at the bottom and again at the top about 10 feet away.
My BLI M1a 4-8-2 (PRR) will handle about 18 cars (4 ounces each) and still be able to start and stop while on the grade, the BLI heavy Mike will behave very close to the M1a.
The mighty J1 just laughs at everything and walks it up that grade with 24 on. (This was without the traction tire, I dont believe in them)
I once assembled a 30+ cars on that railroad double headed and made it over that grade. Probably because the entire train was not on the actual grade.
I also have a proto 2000 A-B-B-A set. All powered in the finest analog glory. I can probably lug everything I own up that 3% I think it’s safe to say there aint no grade long enough to stop this ABBA lashup.
25 cars pulled by 1 Athearn BB SD40-2, this was up a 3% grade with a 22" radius curve thrown in for good measure.
12 Walthers Budd cars pulled by 1 Proto 2000 PA up the very same grade.
Gordon
I try and average 25-30 car freights, and my grades average 2% with one stretch of 2.2% and a very short segment of 2.4%. My Yellowstones will handle the cars with no helpers, I usually doublehead my 4-8-2’s just for show, though I know at least one of them (my 3-cylinder job) can handle the train alone. I haven’t tried my J-1 with anymore than 30 cars, but I know I could probably double that, but even with a 34" minimum radius, I’d be worried about that long a train derailing on a curve. And if you’ve seen my website, you’d know how FAR those cars would be falling!
Tom
20 cars is a train in anyone’s book. I have started and moved 60 cars on 40 feet of straight and level track with a AHM Mallet and a Bigboy. The slack run on that train has to be seen and believed.
I’ve got almost a 2% grade on my layout. Once I ran a Lionel Challenger on the point of 49 freight cars in that direction. And my BLI A class with 55 cars up grade.
Curious, Aggo–I know the BLI A could do it without half-trying. How’d the Lionel Challenger do? I’ve read so many threads on how it has trouble pulling its tender–
Tom
Ive got an athearn GP38-2 that i stuffed full of lead. It pulls 68 cars up a 4% grade.
the lionel challenger does a lot better once you wear the factory coating off the drivers.
I have a Bachman 4-8-4 that pulled 8 cars up a 3.2 grade, but it was slipping and sliding the whole way. It didn’t actually melt the solder, but I swear I smelled plastic.
My ruling grade is about 2.25%, with plenty of curves. One of my old Mantua 2-8-2s (remotored with a can & flywheel) will lug 55 cars upgrade. The same engine can pull 105 cars on the flat.
I sure wish new steam would pull like that…or that the old Mantua stuff looked as good as new plastic steam!
Have you guys read the reviews in the new MR. That new BLI with traction tires pulls over 300 cars!!![:O]
O_O THREE HUNDRED?! [:0]
My B-40-8W (N) pulled 20 cars. Then I ran out of cars [;)]
Two LL P2K SD-9s pulled 55 40 & 50 foot cars weighted to NMRA standards up a 2.5% grade with a 28" radius curve at the top. Only about half the train was on the grade at any one time. This was using a Digitrax DCC system. I could pull the same load with three GPs LL P2K.
Unfortunately, that figure is in theoretical cars. I’d like to see them hook 300 cars to the K4 and pull them around the MR&T to prove their findings!
The Pennsy was famous for theoretical performance standards on their experimental steam too. Too bad their engines didn’t perform nearly as well in real world conditions…
My longest train was a 35 car up a 2 % grade…I use three HO Athearn locomotives…a AC4400, an SD 50 and a U-33C using a MRC tech4 260 power pack…it strains at 35 cars but makes it … I usually run 28 cars for smooth performance…Chuck
I’ve adjusted the pony and trailing trucks for optimum weight on the drivers. And removed the extra tender weight. I lubed every possible moving part on this locomotive and put 4 hours of run time on it. The plating on the drivers wore down too. Now, it can probably pull a few more, I just haven’t exceeded 49 yet.
My Rivarossi FEF-3 can pull 30 some athearn blue boxes (NMRA weighted) up a 3.1% grade. I swear, with the traction tires installed, that thing could rip your arm off! [:p]
My Athearn FP45 could pull almost 50 weighted cars up that same grade.