Good afternoon, I have been running my trains some this afternoon and man will those P2K locos pull. I hooked up every car I own (except the ones with horn couplers) And am pulling 26 cars around the track up hill and down using both locos. Just for laughs I pulled one loco off and tried to pull the same load up the 2.5% grade, and guess what, She pulled it almost as good as the two of them together. That makes for one long train. On the oval there is only about 3’ between the loco and the caboose, I wish I had a few more cars. Man I love them babies. Mike
Mike,
Which Proto 2000s do you have?
Tom
BN GP38-2. I just installed kadee long shank couplers in them yesterday.
I even cut the truck mounted couplers off of a Tyco 50’ boxcar and installed the kadee body mount gear boxes and couplers on it. It works OK but is noisy in the curves, not to bad for my first time at changing coupler pockets. Might try some of the other Tycos I have. Any Idea on what wheel sets would work on them? Mike
Ain’t that a hoot. I have not got all three articulateds hooked together yet, coupler and motor problems, but pulling the whole set is a blast, How about a pic of the whole thing.
Here is my first time I pulled the whole coal train.
Okay Art here is the best I could.
I told you all wrong, there are only 25 cars, there would be 30 if I had them. Still proud of them girls. Mike
Not to steal the thread, but when I install the snowplows on my P2K GP38-2, do I need to change out the Kadee #5’s i’ve installed for long-shank couplers or some other type? The couplers lose their ability to snap back into center when I install the plows, which is why I’m thinking this might be the solution.
I had to replace the couplers. I first replaced the factory couplers due to uncoupling problems with kadee #5 and they would not uncoulpe but they would hit on the plows and derail the locos. I even went as far as to trim off some of the plows but they still derailed. After I installed the long shank Kadee couplers I haven’t had any problems at all with derailing or uncoupling. I had a turnout that I thought I was going to have to replace because the P2K’s were derailing on the turnout but only when I had a string of cars behind them, but since I installed the long shank couplers, it takes the turnout very good. If I were you, save yourself some time and headaches and install the long shank couplers from the start.
I did move the light weight Tyco boxcar to the rear ov the train as opposed to right behind the locos and it is running Great!!! I think it was trying to do the string thing Mike
That is impressive. First time I have seen the layout as a whole. I really like the ideas and the artistry. Thanks.
Well Thank You Art. That makes me feel good. I spent a good part of the day today putting in 21 more street lights, and still want another 25 or so. Mike
Try #26s. I had to use them on my Athearn Dash 9 because it had a snow plow on it. As for pulling power, try a couple of P2K SD60s. Those things have some serious weight.
When you install plows of any kind, it’s a good idea to keep the bottom of the plow high enough to clear the opposing Kadee “glad hand”. This allows you to gain a closer coupling and use the #5s.
The only time this doesn’t work is with my Chessie rock pilots. The convex curvature of the plow interferes w/ the coupler. The long centerset is used.
To locate the plow position, I use the Kadee height gauge and add a plastic shim to simulate the glad hand size. This will allow for a measurement to mark for the plow position.
I realize that this height is not prototypical, but the slightly raised position is not that noticable considering the added benefits of troublre free operation of the couplers.
I just finished applying the plows to my last P2K SD50 and set them this way. They look fine and work perfectly.
Thanks for your help. I’ll also compliment Mike and Art on their work. This is the first time I’ve seen wide shots of either of your layouts, and they are really inspiring. Thanks for the wonderful images.
I like the plane above the layout. Nice touch. And looks like you have definately made the MOST of your space. I am about to build a layout in a fairly limited space, and seeing things like this makes me confident that I will be able to do a lot with not much space.
2 years ago I got a trio of Proto 2000 GP-60s in Santa Fe colors. Together they could haul more cars than most layouts could handle; 112 cars around a test double loop was easy for them but the first ones were always derailing inside the 18 inch curves ! I didn’t think of checking the pulling power of a single unit but I’m sure it would be over 50 cars !
Martin
Québec City
My buddy Patrick has an older A-B-B-A set of P2K F7s in CB&Q paint. He brought them over to my house and ran them on my 6’ x 24’ HO layout (just one big oval as of now). Man, those things can pull anything, even a 60 car train consisting of newer free-rolling Athearns and Walthers cars and older, non-free-rolling plastic-truck-and-wheel equipped Life Like rolling stock. They are heavy, powerful pullers to say the least. We only needed two of them to pull the entire thing, which took up the entire length of the layout (plus a little more). We even had a few of those truck-mounted horn-hook couplers break.
That made me want a Life Like P2K, and I am hoping to get an F7 A-B set with sound and DCC. I hope they are as good as the A-B-B-A set I was lucky enough to operate…
-Brandon
Mike, got to love the PK’s for pulling. I have a 2% grade and it takes two Atherans Super weight F-7’s to pull the 40 car drag. B unit blew a drive shaft so I hooked up the Erie Bulit PK 1000 A (B unit is is tripled headed on the B line). It is pulling the drag with only 45% thottle (MRC 2500) where the Super weights took 79%.
I would like to try Kato, Stewart, Inner Moutain but the PK’s are tuff to beat!
Cuda Ken