HOW MANNY CARS?

[train guy]

How many cars can the Bachmann new Yellowstone Em-1 pull?

[blwfish]

They haven't arrived yet, so I doubt anyone knows.

[Jim Banner]

I don't know the answer except to say it depends on a number of factors, including:
- weight of the cars
- how free rolling the cars are
- grade of the track
- curvature of the track
- how clean the track is
- how clean the wheels are

For example, one of my locomotives will pull only nine free rolling, NMRA weighted cars up an 18" radius helix with an almost 4% grade but will pull between 50 and 60 similar cars on clean, flat, straight track.

Jim

[Doneldon]

Jim-

Your relative performance on straight, level track
versus a steep, sharp helix mirrors what the 12":1'
roads experience.
                            -- D

[jward]

jim's example is in line with numbers published in one of atlas's layout plan books which state that a locomotive will only pull 16% of what it will pull on the level when ascending a 4% grade. 16% is approximately 1/6.

[Jim Banner]

Do you think maybe my locomotive has been reading the book?  Or has it been out train watching without me?

I wasn't aware that was so close to prototypical performance.  I like to run trains about 12 to 15 cars long because they look good on my H0 layout, and because I like having to either double head or use a pusher over the worst grades.

On the 0n30 layout I am building, I included a pusher pocket at the bottom of steep helix.  But for continuous running, as at train shows, I often cheat.  I usually run a passenger train or a mixed train at shows and I include a powered baggage car right behind the locomotive.

Jim   

[on30gn15]

Do you think maybe my locomotive has been reading the book?  Or has it been out train watching without me?

You never know with them steamers, they seem to have sometimes had minds of their own no matter who told them to do what, from some accounts from past train crews.