I would like pull a 22 car HO coal train up a 2.25 percent grade with a 30 inch radius curve with one steam engine.
Which currently available locomotives do you feel are capable of the job?
I don’t know about the model,but in the real life the 2-8-8-2 Mallet was excellent at this specific use.Although not a fast loco by any standard,the Mallet with it’s sixteen smaller drivers could pull very heavy coal trains up long and irregular climbs.
I have a P2K 0-6-0. It’s a great little engine for detail and sound, but it doesn’t pull well at all. It did come with a set of traction tires in the box, and I think I’ll have to install those. It will pull a half-dozen good rollers around a flat layout, but the slightest incline, more cars, or a couple of old sticky trucks just leave its wheels spinning.
There are probably a lot of engines that will do what you require, but I can absolutely, positively guarantee you that a BLI N&W Class A 2-6-6-4 will do it without breathing hard.
Rivarossi Big Boy (4-8-8-4), Cab Forward (4-8-8-2),Challenger (4-6-6-4), Allegheny (2-6-6-6),Trix/Marklin Big Boy, Athearn & Lionel Challengers, BLI Class A (2-6-6-4), Cab Forward, Bowser Challenger, PRR N1 (2-10-2) the Rivarossi locomotives are traction tire equipped, the rest are heavy enough on their own to do the job (actually they will all pull 30 or more cars nicely). These are the more affordable ones (compared to brass that is).
Mantua (now Model Power) 2-8-2. It’ll haul any of the aforementioned engines AND the 22 cars uphill!
Hello I have a spectrum 2-6-6-2 and it will pull about 30 cars.But may layout is flat and some cars have wight and some don’t.It’s one of the newist loco i have.Most of my stuff is 20 years or older.frank
I agree. The same goes for any of the larger Bowser steam loco models (2-8-0 and larger). Hard to beat those die cast boilers for putting weight on the rails.
my thoughts, your choices
Fred W
The new Big Boys from Athearn, Precision Scale and Trix are all up to this task but are very costly. But why not double-head? Or even triple-head? Three of the Spectrum 2-8-0s will pull this for sure, are much cheaper in total than most quality articulateds, and will look awesome. Visitors in particular are always very impressed with double-heading.
Looking further afield - and perhaps stretching your definition of “currently available” - an Oriental Limited 2-8-8-2 from its Powerhouse series will do this task nicely and these can be found fairly easily in the used market. For a bit less money, a Rivarrossi 2-8-8-2 in good condition will do this also but only if you add weight - easy to do, there is plenty of room and in fact you need to take care not to load the engine beyond the slipping point. I have a 2% grade and 26" radius, and whatever the reason, the BLI Class A cannot manage a 30-car coal train with loads, unlike the experience reported by another.
Pretty much any articulated should be able to handle that, as long as it’s heavy. A first production P2K Heritage 2-8-8-2 probably couldn’t make it, based on what I’ve heard of P2K steam engine pulling power without tires.
You can probably also do it with most larger rigid frame engines, like a heavy 2-8-2, 2-10-2, 4-8-2, 4-8-4, or 4-4-4-4. If it’s a Bowser steam engine, anything from the K-11 4-6-2 and up should do it.[:D]
The DCC ready run of the Rivarossi UP FEF-3 4-8-4s would probably do it. I hauled 6 passenger cars up a 3% grade with mine.
I have had great success with the locomotives from Outlet Direct at Broadway Limited Imports site. They are returns and factory seconds. Of the two locos I have bought there, neither is a second, and both run well. You can get them for about two thirds the cost of the MSRP and for a full warranty period. You will find that the C&O T1 or the PRR J1, both essentially the same 2-10-4 engines, will do a superb job of hauling freight drags up your 2-3% grades…without the traction tires. Add the traction tires, and you can nearly double the load.
In my bygone HO days my stable of mainline smokers were all white metal Cary/Mantuas, straight Mantuas, or Bowsers. I didn’t have any 2.25% grades to contend with (except for a short industrial spur which was 2.78% and with a curvature which limited me to a six-coupled switcher) but with the way my beasts pulled on my relatively level mainline I can say that anything with a cast metal boiler will handle 22 cars without breaking a sweat!! “PIECE OF CAKE!!!”
I guess (based upon information in a previous post) that Model Power is marketing the old Mantuas in RTR configuration only so I am guessing that they sell for somewhere in the $150.00 bracket. (I am an N-Scaler and subject to pipedreams so be kind if my price estimate has really lost touch of reality). This is too bad because the old Mantua Mike kits could be had at a street price less than $20.00 and add a $20.00 Cary USRA shell(now sold by Bowser), and $30.00 worth of lost wax castings and I had some impressive locomotives. Try a Bowser kit; as another poster here on the forum will testify you get a real sense of accomplishment when you build one of these loco kits.
Any articulated with freight sizes wheels (such as 53") or *Cab Forwards (SP) or *2-10-2’s (ATSF), From there it’s a matter of weight vs. what is being pulled.
Improvements such as adding weight and a bigger motor, Engines with rubber tires also increase traction - while they last.
I prefer to start with better rolling trucks; and since I Model ATSF & SP, prefer to do what they did over Tehachapi*.
On the cheap; (or just playing trains) ANY engine with tires, will do it.Caveat: Over the years, rubber tires deteriorate, and replacements that fit may be impossible to get.
Exception: (BLI’s current ATSF 2-10-2 comes with both rubber wheeled tires + non rubber ones. Install the rubber ones and keep the other as backup).
I have a AHM 0-4-0 Dockside that will handle 55 coal hoppers up a 3% grade without breaking a sweat. My Riverossi Big Boy with traction tires will handle 3 times that amount (66+) up the same grade without loosing a single chuff.
I was joking about the Dockside, the Big Boy I wasn’t. [:D]
Riverrossi Y-6,and an mantua 2-6-6-2 W/tender, the mantua will out pull the Y6 all day long,had it at the local train club we had 40 cars on it on the flat and 20 on the grades(2.5%) and probley could handle more. This engine is under $100.00 Has room for sound and DCC,A vary good HO loco. It will have sound in it soon.(sound traxx taussimi)probley spelled wrong.,
JIM
I presume you’re not talking brass.
Most of the newer BLI heavy steamers (ten-coupled or Articulated) will do the job without any problem. I have a stretch of 2.25 grade on my layout and 34"-36" radius, and I have very little problem hoisting 22-30 cars up it with a single locomotive.
One articulated that has really surprising pulling power is the Spectrum USRA 2-6-6-2. And it looks VERY natural on a coal train, since that is what it was pretty much designed for. In fact, my little Spectrum will outpull my Proto 2000 2-8-8-2 by about twice. And it’s not that expensive. You might want to think about it. The prototype was used extensively by the Chesapeake and Ohio, a major coal hauler. It’s a handsome little articulated, too.
Tom