N&W J Pulling ability.

[jimk]

Some of you may remember my topic about this loco right after Christmas where I didn't remove the foam insert under the trailing truck and it could barely pull three cars.  Once I removed it, it worked fine.

I have track on two pieces of Homasote where I run trains until my room in the basement is finished.  I have 55 cars that normally needs three diesels to pull.   These are not just 40' cars, they're modern, mostly 50' cars, some cars have loads.   I was showing someone the train this weekend.  I took the diesels off and ran the N&W J back and forth a little then decided to try to couple onto the train.  I did not expect it to pull them but it did.   And it didn't even seem to struggle (except for a curve that's a little too sharp.)  I was amazed.  Why can't they make diesels that pull this well?