Be careful how many cars you pull behind on the sharp curves. You can end up “clotheslining” the whole string. That is, the cars will come off on the inside of the curve as they want to take the shortest route thru the curve.
Rick
Rick ,thats happened to me a few times when i pulled 25+ cars if you are careful about which cars are near the engine it works better- shortest cars (40’ or less) near the back of the train- long cars (more than 55’) near the middle and it helps if the first car has more than the recommended weight so it stays on the track better-- w/ a 12’ x4’ layout a 25 car train is as long as it gets- if all the cars had free rolling wheels the train could be longer - what causes the cars to tip to the inside is when there is a heavy load behing them- aka. lots of cars
Unless you are pulling cars up a hill, it’s not the weight of a long train that causes the problem, it’s the drag. You can reduce that by replacing plastic wheels with metal ones, and by lubricating the bearings of any car that doesn’t roll easily. Heavier cars will generally have more drag, because the added weight on the bearings causes more friction. Heavier cars will also cause more problems if you are accelerating on the curve. In that case, weight (or more properly mass) is the issue.
My experience is the car length should be 70 or under, and an Athearn SD40-2 is pushing it, but a Kato has not problem whatsoever. An Atlas RS-2 does just fine too. I also run a P2K E6 with no problem, and a BLI Hudson 4-6-4 that is pushing it, but does fine if there are no major track laying imperfections. My 85’ cars will run the curves, but I have a double track, so they can bump long things on the next line. The higher quality stuff will run tighter curves and complain less about everything.
Greg