Well, I’m getting ready to work on the layout again, listening to some gospel music on NPR and thought I’d toss out the question. The Schnabel of course is a mighty big load, but railroads have been known to carry some might big or mighty heavy loads, from power plant components, to giant culverts, planes, boats and rocket ships. Perhaps the biggest items carried by rail were ships that were launched sideways on rails (today they use drydocks). Or giant gantry cranes on rails.
I don’t have too many records on my model rr.
Heaviest loads being granite blocks (I’m eventually going to scratchbuild a granit block unit train with quarry)
Biggest in terms of size are my TOFCs and center beam car with plywood bundles and a bulkhead log car.
Nothing recent to brag about. However, when I was a kid, a friend and I wanted to see how many bricks my Marx steamer could pull. We stacked them on a gondola and flat car. Managed to get 6 total bricks moving before the old locomotive just sat and shook.
That old Marx engine was tough!
My one-motor MPC-era FA can pull (barely, with lotsa dramatic wheel slip) two gons full of real (tiny but heavy) ballast. Generally the couplers between gons open. We have also stacked a Lego ‘tower’ and later one made up of Jenga blocks (from the game) on one of the flats (with die-cast wheels) - it made it down the mainline and round a curve before succumbing to a higher speed.
Dr John,
I once brought my RK 2-8–0 to work at Christmas and set it up on a long table. I was using the cheapy MTH handheld (not DCS) and it went out of range and couldn’t stop the runaway locomotvie. It plowed into a size pak of soda at the end of the table I used as a bumper, knocking it to the floor. I ran and caught the flying locomotive just in time.