I have seen messages questioning the pulling power of the 4-6-0's. I've never had any problems. Here's a "quick and dirty" video showing what they can do. One is pulling 9 passenger coaches. The other is pulling 8 coaches, 4 freight cars, and a bobber caboose. The set up is on my living room and dining room floor (very patient wife!) and includes several 180 degree 4' diameter curves and a couple of mixed 4' and 10' curves. All cars have metal wheels, but no modifications.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqMgNmK4qjE
That might work on flat and level track but I wouldn't do that on a 3% grade!
-Brian
so its okay to have more cars on a level grade? People allways tell me dont run more than 5 cars I guess there talking about on grades? Allways thought I would kill my loco's if I ran all my passenger equipment in a single consist! I even installed pilot couplers on all my 4-6-0's so I can doublehead to pull more cars lol :P
My rule of thumb, is, if the wheels on the engine start to slip you are pulling too many cars. The diameter of curves and percent of grade will change what an engine will pull. I know that some people add weight to their engine for better traction, but after replacing the idler gear on several LGB moguls I removed any extra weight that I had added to my engines.
Chuck N
I haven't added any weight, and the engine has not overheated or otherwise given up. As you might see in the video, the layout is not quite level. The trains speed up on the "downhill" toward the dining room table, and they slow appreciably on the "uphill" back to the living room and around the tight radius curves. The point I make is that the Bachmann engines are plenty well made for what they are... and you can have a lot of fun without a gigantic investment. Of course, you can have even more fun with a larger investment... shay, mogul, etc. :)
Mike how long have you had the track set up and trains running on it? I like the Bmann 4-6-0 I have 4 of them. The thing I have found it that they work great for a bit and pull well but don't hold up under that kind of work load for long. So I have BBT drives put in them and then they will pull like that for ever and then some.
Sorry Backmann I don't mean anything bad.
Yeah, Backmann.
Chuck
This layout has only been going since Christmas. But the Southern has run many days for many hours on an overhead track in a train store with 6-8 coaches behind it on tight radius curves. I certainly have no complaints about the robust nature of the equipment!