I use 2 locomotive and have a nice grade like 3
and I have to have over 10 somtimes 15
what do you do ???
Budliner
I seen a train once-- i use 1 engine to pull 10-13 NON-FREE ROLLING cars, but will use 2-5 engines to pull 30-50 cars whne i get more cars and expand my layout.
I pull 34 coal cars with a Mountain assisted by my Sierra. My BLI Mike can pull it alone, but it does not look as good. My 18" curves and 4% grades limit what I can do. I never expected to bringing a coal drag across a lumber road.
I normally run my road freight in the 12-15 car range. The limit is the staging tracks and sidings. They are set for 2 GP9’s/12 cars/caboose. That size train seems to look right…now the engines can pull more than that!
Jim
On my mainline I run 25 to 30 freight cars, with three locos pulling them. On my siding to the main line I have a twin engine waiting with 15 cars.
I don’t have the room, nor do I have much rolling stock. So, when I run two trains simultaneously, each pulls between 6-10 cars. When pulling a passenger train, 3-5.
My friend who is a Canadian Pacific Rail nut, has a complete [:0]110[:0] car grain train setup for N scale,no thats not a typing error 110 cars. Looks nice, lots of custom detailed/ weathered cars, microtrains wheels throughout, mid train distributed power. His next project in the works is a CP Coal unit train.
DC[8D]
oh he got me on that one
110
yowey
I run trolleys and trolley freight. never more than 6 and mostly powered. I imagine that they might be able to pull up a 90% grade 
if wheelslip were not a factor.
My real limiting factor is the radius of the curves, 8" radius curves tend to be a little tight for those 85 foot streamliners.
Oh yes I model mostly in N scale.
Doug, in Utah
We had a club member run an HO train with five diesels pulling over 80 coal two bay coal hoppers. Took up most of the main line down the length of the club room, about 45 feet. He made it up the first helix, but could not make it around again. Couplers started failing on the 2.2% grade of the helixes.
my firs few months I only ran the loco
wood was on the desk
lol
my passenger trains are all between 13 to 17 cars long. and my freight trains can reach 27 cars.
I’ve done 70+ at times x 4
Fergie
looks like my proto 2000’s are the cats ***
its all I use
Trains longer that 30 cars overwhelmed my old layout, so I restricted mainline freights to 20-25 cars, and locals to 0-15 cars.
On the HO modular club I’m a member of, I regularly run coal drags of 70 cars…behind one steamer.
70 thats my new target
b
Manifest freights on the Yuba River Sub usually run 20-35 cars, limited only by my 2.4% grades and the general size of the layout. They’re generally pulled by either one articulated, or double-headed non-articulated steam. Local and way freights run considerably under, usually 5-10 cars and are pulled by my smaller power (2-8-0/2-8-2). Passenger trains average between 7-10 cars, depending on whether or not it’s a local or a limited.
Tom
I pull 634 cars on my mainline…
That number is no more ridiculous than most of these polls!
I usually run 8-10 cars in two trains, filling up the sidings, but sometimes (Like now) I have a erally long train, the current one is over 40 cars…it is 5 times as long as the sidings…
about five I like a shorter train for my logging operation and steep grades