hey ya’ll… since i joined my model railway club, ive had access to a tonne of cars… being as i only have one gp-38 from atlas… i cant pull that many but i still like to pull long trains… ill pull at most around… 30 cars…
im just curious how many cars you people pull with your trains, and if you have any pics of the longest or REALLY long trains you have seen people pulling !!!
thanks for any replys
I guess it would depend on the scale and type of loco. I’ve got an N scale Life Like 2-8-8-2 Mallet that can pull about 35 or 40 cars on flat ground, but then I have a Model Power 4-6-2 Pacific that can barely pull 9 or 10. My Spectrum 8-40 CWs when ran in pairs can pull about 40 cars on flat ground.
TL
HO- About 35-40 cars on a temp 4’x8’. 2 cheap F units with traction tires for power. I almost had the caboose touching the nose of the first F7.Not very prototypical but still fun…They ran for 2 hours without a derailment.
lots 'o cars for a small layout. i ran 30 NON FREE ROLLING cars w/ plastic trucks and wheels (they pull HARD!) on my 4x12 (HO scale) power was an Atlas U33C and a b-b GP38-2. I want to get a bunch of new free rolling freight cars and then i’ll run 35+ cars.
My longest train ever, if memory serves me, was about 40-cars on a 4x8 layout. I don’t think I ever set up anything much longer on a much larger layout.
It was just for fun… It went caboose to nose for about 2 hours.[:D]
105 Cars, on my 24 by 42 layout. Four kato SD40s pulling hard.
I don’t have many pieces of rolling stock, but the two locos that can pull everything I have are the Lionel diecast Challenger and my BLI Niagara. Had I not taken the guts out of the B-unit of a P2K FA2/FB2 unit to mount speakers and a decoder, it would have pulled as much.
well i once pulled 256 cars with 2 proto 2000 sd50’s on a 80’X10’ layout
I dont remember.
I have seen a very large number at times in shows.
I think I started 60+ cars once and around 34 cars in recent years.
The average train length on my last layout was 20 cars, mostly due to the grades (that, and longer trains swamped my layout).
The longest train I ever pulled on a layout was on the 4x32 I had as a kid; I have video proof of 105 cars, being pulled by a single Mantua 2-8-2. Them older all-metal engines might not have the best detail, but they’ll pull the bumper off an old Chevy!
All cars are not created equal! Even plain-vanilla transition era AAR 40 foot boxcars can have very different rolling characteristics due to axle design, weight and so on.
Throw in the wild mix of cars that are liable to appear in a model freight and things get even more complex. A cast metal ore jimmy could easily have more rolling resistance than a light plastic 89 foot humongubox.
Pretty obviously a train of 25 3-ounce four wheel cars riding on metal wheels with free-running bearings is not equivalent to a 25 car train of US prototype grain hoppers, auto racks and hi-cubes. The rather light 2-8-2 that easily handles the former probably couldn’t even start the latter.
In the real world, my train lengths have always been set by the lengths of staging tracks and sidings. If I had enough level track I might try to load out one or a lashup of my locos, but on my present layout tthat just isn’t going to happen.
147 50’ box cars just for fun with 2 70 macs from omi
jeff
My personal record is 43 Athearn B-B box cars by a single Rivarossi 2-6-6-6 Allegheny which ties with my Rivarossi Big Boy . My brother used his Trix Big Boy for 56 cars of various ages and manufacturers. HO scale for all the above.
Well I have only pulled a handful at a time being the average of 30 cars. Now I think I have a record with a consist though. I have had 13 engines on a consist and that was pretty cool. They were only pulling about 20 cars
98 cars behind one GG1 on a 14’ x 20’ railroad. I destroyed one shell of a GG1 in painting so I cut the Rivarossi drives in half and connected the two drive sections into one engine. It walked away at 3.5 volts with the 98 cars. I suspect it could have pulled about 200 if I had the space. I will find out when the new 20’ x 40’ double stack layout is finished enough to run the test.
45 Cars (MT & Atlas 40’boxes) behind a single N Scale TM (DCC). 35 cars behind either a Kato SD40 DCC or Atlas C630 DCC. Level Unitrack 15foot by 10 foot circle, three turnout (not diverging) and 1 crossover.
I probably shouldn’t be respondig as I think this is an overly childish question. Personally on most HO layouts more than 20-25 cars looks rediculous to me with the locomotive chasing the caboose or FRED. At the club I belong to there are members who try this exercise with 100 or more cars only to have a massive derailment in a tunnel or other inaccessable place. Two of my P2K SD45s would probably pull every car in the house assuming it didn’t break or pull a coupler pocket off a car.
Then don’t. Or leave smart-assed personal comments out and skip on to the next topic.
Mine was 85 with one of my BLI A’s, but ran out of cars.
wow… sorry for having a little fun with the hobby… there are a few of us that dont take it as seriously as you… i guess we are childish…i dont understand people like you… there was no need to reply to the *** topic unless you were replying to the question… " how many cars have you pulled ? " … not the question " who here is the biggest @$$hole ? "
ANNNNY how … great replys guys keep them coming !!!