Hi everyone - can anyone tell me approximately how many of the old time passenger cars these engines should pull? I currently have 4 passenger cars and was thinking of expanding to 6, but not sure if this is too many cars.....thanks!
Are you talking about the old time one?
I did 5 with no problem.
https://youtu.be/WtWTloCVgiI (https://youtu.be/WtWTloCVgiI)
In this one, I had added some weight in the cab and in the stack but it is still quite a bit of weight that it's pulling.
https://youtu.be/n9K6XOcslSc (https://youtu.be/n9K6XOcslSc)
Pulling power varies deoending on grades. Are you running yours on the level? If not, how steep is your steepest grade?
Thank you Terry, and Jeff - layout is completely flat so no grades to contend with
Terry runs his in the level, so his experience is accurate. I stay away from them, as they wouldn't do well on my 4% grades. Even the B&O learned quickly (pre civil war) that they needed something much stronger for the mountains, thus the various early incarnations of 0-8-0 like Winans Camels that were unique to the b&o. I do have a few Bachmann 0-6-0s that are good for about 3 cars each on the grades, and an Alco 2-6-0 that does a little, but not much, better.
I have the Alco. I was disappointed in it out of the box so I added weight to it also to get it pull better.
I just got my train board cleared to start setting up for Christmas. I have the track in place. I have two 4-4-0's - One with extra weight and one without. I'll experiment with some passenger cars in the next few days to see the difference in what they will pull and how many cars.
I did my 4-4-0 experiment today. I have the video saving now and then I have to load it to Youtube so that will take a while. I have one curved spot on my layout that gives me trouble because everything slows down there. The trains will go through the rest of it ok. I say this because, if it wasn't for the one spot, I could have pulled more passenger cars. Because of that spot, I was only able to do 8 passenger cars with the stock 4-4-0. With my weighted 4-4-0, I was only able to do 13 passenger cars because it stalled on that one spot.
I'll have the video link when it's loaded. I have two other track running under the tunnel there so I might see if they do the same thing with so many cars.
Here's the video that shows the two 4-4-0's and the difference in pulling power.
https://youtu.be/YyMLg0w4Z7Y (https://youtu.be/YyMLg0w4Z7Y)