I would guess one of the new Legacy-Equipped, huge, multi-motored behemoths like the PRR Centipede would out-pull anything you would find in the Pre or Post War Era.
Jon [8D]
Guys,
Thanks for the clarification on the 2026. I know because of the Korean War there was no magnatraction in 1952. I was not aware that Lionel did not add that in 1951 or 1953 to the 2026.
I had a chance and I continued the test with the 6250, Seaboard NW-2 Diesel Switcher with 1 motor. It pullewd 18 cars and to make it fair to the steamers I added the same tender that the rest of them pulled. It pulled all 19 cars including the tender with no problems, and then it pushed them in reverse. Just for the fun of it, I took a modern engine a 0-8-0, from my "Christmas Story Set. just like the picture of the one to be tested by CTT as on the home page. It pulled all of the same cars as the others.
Conclusion: The best and the most powerful engines are the ones that are the ones, along with all associated equipment, maintained well.
I would have tried to pull more, but I ran out of track. It would be interesting like Kooljock suggested by running the multi-motored Legacy Equipped behemouths.
I enjoyed the challenge in trying the engines out.
Enjoy the Hobby,
John
I’ve been away for a while, but what a thread!
This is what makes the forum so enjoyable.
Just a reminder, as stated earlier, curve radius is a big factor in the number of cars pulled category.
On my 031 radius based roughly 13 x 15 loop I tried to find my max cars pulled limit a few years ago.
I think I got close to 20, with various engines (F3s, 736, 636, maybe the 2056 - not sure of that one). The limit, for me, was the couplings. At the limit they began to disconnect by over or under riding. Now I will concede that not all wheels and axles were perfectly clean. Also these were all relatively heavy postwar cars.
Great to see the forum is still going strong.
runtime
My very first loco was a 2026 from I believe 1951.
It did not come with Magna traction but I switched the chassis in the past to one with Magna traction so all of my post wars have that feature.
I would think my dual motored Santa Fe with magna traction would be the best of the post war pullers but I can’t see it out pulling the big boy with 16 drivers and traction tires. I will put this to a test and let all know the results.
Revived this old post to show this picture. 
The newer SP 4036 pulled the older 746 like it was not there. Even at slow speeds it just dragged it along.
I’ve kind of cheated and made a ‘frankenloco’. I hacked together an A-B-A 200 series Alco. The A units each have one motor and a power pick up truck, while the B unit has two motors. All are wired to operate off of one e-unit. All of the motors are two axle magna traction. I guess it could be called post war, because everything except the shell on the B unit was post war equipment. It still needs a trip through the paint shop. My plan is to paint it in Mo Pac colors.
Earlier this year I had 22 cars behind it - a mix of new and post war rolling stock that included three of the die cast 4 truck drop center flat cars. I had to shuffle the order of the cars around to get a combination of couplers that would stay closed. I think I was using a ZW for power. It lifted the train and motored off without any problem. I think I had posted pictures on one of the Sunday Photo Fun posts, maybe back in May. I suspect that it could pull a few more cars.
I don’t have room at home to run trains this long. It is only on the large temporary layouts I set up occasionally at the KATY Depot Museum that I can make these long trains.
I’ll point out that a modern two motor SD70ACE Legacy locomotive had no trouble at all with this same train.
Ok here is my newbie question. I have just cleaned my 736. What do I use as gear grease. I have the “official” Lionel oil but it is tiny and expensive. I looked at a tube of the grease. I have several engines that need grease. So my question is what is a cheap alternitive to the Lionel grease? Thank You!
I use a commercial “white grease” you can get in any hardware store, usually in the automotive section or the lubricants section.
One of our frequent posters swears all you really need is motor oil, on the bearings AND on the gears. He might just be right, I don’t know, I haven’t tried it yet, my gears are still nice and greasy.
The variables make a definitive answer impossible. Narrowing the scope to known postwar examples of a singular configuration, I’d say the GG1 with it’s dual motors, magne-traction and heavy die cast body has to win the tug-o-war against other postwar engines. Those three pulling power attributes are not totally present elsewhere.
Some of the articulated steam models of recent must be real brutes although it’d be fun to put them up against one of the scale GG1’s from Lionel or MTH.
Bruce Webster
CTT ran an article years ago in which they reported their tractive-effort measurements on a number of iconic locomotives, including a postwar GG1, using a new-fangled electronic instrument. They said that the GG1 was not a good puller. I tested mine with a simple spring balance and got much higher numbers.
By the way, the title if this thread is inappropriate. Power is the product of force and speed. But what everyone is talking about here is tractive-effort (force), not power. Most toy and model locomotives, and prototype locomotives for that matter, have more power available than they can use at low speed, before the wheels begin to slip.