Just as the title says I would like to know how many cars the atlas s-1 switcher will pull, or any switcher of this size will pull. Also is athern and proto close in performance.
My ahm ones barely pulll one car and themselves so they are being sold next week.
Thanks
mike
Mike,
I’ve pulled at least 7 or 8 - 40’ boxcars with my Proto 2000 S1 with no problems. I would think the Atlas would be the same and more. Incidentally, the S1s were yard switchers so they didn’t prototypically pull a large cut of cars.
Tom
It sort of depends on the quality of the cars being pulled. Are the cars AHM like the locomotive you mentioned? Are they Athearn blue box with plastic wheels, or some of the new Intermountain with really free rolling trucks? Have the cars been weighted to NMRA standards, because that will make a difference too?
This may not be a very useful answer to you, but I’ll place it here and hopefully it will:
I have the SW8 by Proto 2000 (likely to be highly similar to your Atlas interest) which originally came with traction tires on one axle. I couldn’t get the thing to move more than the distance between any two turnouts. I called Walthers and they sent a replacement axle with metal tires. So, I never was able to test the wee beastie in its original form. However, with all metal tires, it can pull or shove about 5 normally free rolling and weighted boxcars up an almost 1% grade…thereabouts. Any more rise or cars and you are hooped…or rather, it is.
In my level yard, it can move about 10 such cars. I actually got it to shove four Walthers heavyweights just now…it seemed equal to the task, even though two of them were at about 1% grade…not bad for a l’il filly.
-Crandell
The frame, walkways, pilots, tanks, and battery boxes are all one piece of cast metal on Atlas Alco switchers. That makes 'em good and heavy, so they should pull about a dozen cars.
Life-Like Alco switchers are lighter and won’t pull as much as the Atlas units.
As for Athearn switchers, the blue box locos with the metal truck side frames are okay, but the the switchers with the plastic sideframes are too light. A blue box Athearn switcher needs a tune-up and /or a considerable amount of break-in before you can get good switching speed.
Life-Like GM switchers are the smoothest running, but they need more weight at the cab end. I put a few small chunks of lead underneath the cab to bring the weight up just a bit.
[:-^]
I have an Atlas S-2 and an S-4 and coupled together they will pull 10 cars up my helix which is close to 4%. It is a real reason to have a helper station there. All my locos need help on that grade, but with help it works just fine.
Now I don’t normally use the Ss on the hill, they are usually in the yards, but I was interested to see what they could do.
Johnboy out…
I recall being pleasantly surprised at the pulling power of my little Atlas swtcher. It’s a real puller. When I saw this thread, I went to the layout to get an answer. I had a 17 car freight train parked on the mainline where it has a 2% grade. I removed the road lcomotive and couple the Atlas switcher on the train. It pulled the 17 car train up the 2% grade with no wheel slipping.
My Atlas S1 pulls at least a dozen autoracks on the level. It pulls better than it pushes.
The P2K SW1200 pulls slightly less than the Atlas switcher.
One or two less than it won’t.[:D] (sorry)
For comparison: I have a pair of BLI NW2 switchers that I do yard work with on a large Free-mo modular yard 28 feet long. The drill tracks add another 6 feet or so to each end! They have each pulled strings of 18 - 20 cars, properly NMRA weighted and metal wheels. If the cars are extra heavy it might go down to 16 - 18 cars. But classifying, making up trains is fun! I will occasionally give one of them a break and move a work train from one location onthe setup to another. Sweet running and sounding switchers! jc5729 John Colley, Port Townsend, WA
I have pulled 22 free rolling stock weight cars(non RP20.1) with my Atlas C&O S2 up a slight yard grade at both clubs…These cars had a mixture of plastic and metal wheels.
The Athearn switchers are light weight but should be able to pull 16-17 free rolling cars.
Thanks for all the responses guys. I have been out of town for a couple weeks and have not been able to check. The most cars I will pull on my eventual layout is probably around 10-15 cars all with metal wheels and all are pretty close to nmra standards.(This winters project.)
I think I will save up for an atlas s-1 or maybe a fb switcher.
I have counted 45 cars behind an SP SW1500. A real one, not a model. And yes, it was moving along at a decent speed.
Someday when my Hobbytown/Cary SW1500 is done, I wonder how close to that I can come.
Ed