power to pull a long line of die cast hoppers

[thatboy37]

do you guys think that two SD80Macs will pull a line of 88 die cast 2 bay hoppers or do i need to beef up my pulling power by adding one or maybe even two more SD80Mac's. if i do add two more engines will that put to much of a strain on my transformer. if im not mistaking that is a total of 8 motors needing power to run from a mth z4000 transformer. this is all being ran with tmcc and is on a layout running around my living room and kitchen floor. right now i have 25 hoppers and two SD80Mac's on the track but want to make it even a longer train by adding the other 53 hoppers i have in the boxes still to the 25 already on the track. what do you guys think??????

[Anonymous]

One throttle of the Z-4k will supply 10 amps which will handle 8 modern motors based on the amperage load of two Atlas SD-35s that combined barely draw 2 amps[on my meter] when running at moderate speed with 30 plastic hoppers--first 12 cars loaded with pennies, progressively less coins front to rear--- [weighted headend cars prevents "stringlining " in curves or upon start up].

If you need more Macs, consider the following:
I saw a 12 Diesel lash-up in a taped demonstration that was powered by two 135 watt PowerHouse transformers linked to a TPC 300. I have been powering two long lighted passenger trains, running in the same power district, with paralleled 135 PoHos for a couple of years[270 watts or 15 amps capacity]. The two trains draw 11 amps+. The transformers are protected by fast-blow fuses and the engine circuits by a PowerGard spike arrestor. [TMCC system].

[winrose46]

I have 10 can motors on one loop (two ABA sets and an S2) with 5 Kline streamliners, 4 post war 25XX and one caboose. All trains on that loop pull only 5.2 amps. I have another loop with NYC 999, B&O Mikado, Rdg GP9, and a lashup (Rdg H9 and USRA 0-8-0) and 6 Kline streamliners which pulls 7.2 amps. These newer motors pull very few amps when compared with the earlier ones. Amps should not be an issue for your configuration. I can pull my 17 DC hoppers with a single GP9. A larger issue for you will be if the couplers can pull the weight. I have not had a failure with my DC hoppers (kline); however, I had one reefer repaired and two are on the tail end of my 15 car reefer consist (kline, Atlas and Lionel) because they open under load. You may have to use plastic wire ties to boost your coupler capacity.

[Birds]

If you are worried about a strain, you could put some engines on the rear of the train as well. So the train would have a push as well as a pull.

See the comments from KentJJ in this thread:
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=61388

[jefelectric]

Will the couplers take the strain? Maybe you would have to go to distributed power like the real railroads use. Nothing says the engines in a lashup need to be coupled together.

[Roger Bielen]

Another concern would be stringlining around a curve.

[Roger Bielen]

By the way, how long is your layout that you can fit a train of 88 cars plus motive power?

[thatboy37]

its about two hundred feet of track that is layed out in my living room and kitchen combined with different elevations of gong up and under itself

[mickey4479]

QUOTE: Originally posted by thatboy37

its about two hundred feet of track that is layed out in my living room and kitchen combined with different elevations of gong up and under itself

I researched your biographical data on this forum, and I was right on, you are single. [:)][:)] I wonder how long it would take a wife to dismantle that?!! [}:)] What does each hopper weigh? At 2 lbs. each, that is 176 lbs!!! [:0] At 1.5 lbs per car thats 132 lbs, of course, at a pound each, that is still 88 lbs. That is quite a pull and if you have any grade at all, I seriously doubt whether it can be done with 4 locos. Are you going to try it?

[thatboy37]

yes i am single and very happily involved by the way she lives with me i guess she will put up with it as long as we are not married. right now it doesn't bother her at all. but i do see where you are coming from. the thing is im having a problem with the locos. the problem is i run them around the layout a couple of times and after the 4th or 5th time my locomotives over heat and i can smell the them heating up also. once i figure out how to solve that problem i will do so. i hate it when they do that i have tried putting more terminals on the layout to distribute the power evenly. if you have any solutions please help all i would like for my trains to do is run properly. my locomotive line up consist of 1 csx sd80mac, 1 c n dash 9 44 cw, and 4 n s sd80macs. i also have the c p dash 9 that came with the grain set. all of these engines are equipped with the tmcc. is the reason they are acting up this tmcc system. i dont want to be discouraged from buying them.

[Anonymous]

I have run 75 cars on one consist. They included, (atlas tank cars, cylindrical hoppers), MTH cylindrical Hoppers, gondolas, box cars, coal hoppers) Kline aluminum Cylindrical hoppers, aluminum tank cars, die cast Dttx intermodal, die cast Ttx, one 5 unit spine car set, lionel box cars, tank cars, gondolas, hoppers. The heaviest items were the kline aluminum hoppers, intermodal and tank cars. I pulled all these cars with two engines. I used two LIONEL dash 9#8217;s UP, BNSF and SP lashed together and I also used two SD 70 macs BNSF, SP. I also lashed up two Lionel Sd 40-T2 UP,SP RIO grande and they pulled with no problem. I don#8217;t think my consist weighs as much as yours does but it was quite a load. I did notice the engines warming up but they did not smell as if they were burning. I used a lionel powerhouse 180 watt transformer, Atlas track and TMCC. The track plan(20x40 feet) was a long large horseshoe with sidings and a small yard. One thing did happen though my atlas terminal track melted because I only used one connection to the track, I used a small wire gauge18 and the connection was loose. I made 4 connections to 4 terminal tracks with # 8 gauge wire to balance out the power. I ran the long train as many as 20 times around a large oval loop without any problems. The couplers on Kline cars did not fail once and atlas couplers were good also. MTh had a few couplers that came open and lionel had the most. Tie wraps are a must for lionel couplers. One thing you will notice is you truly have to build momentum with a long train. If two trains are over heating then add a unit to the lash up. It sounds as if the load is to heavy for two engines to pull alone. You might want to check how much current you are pulling through the transformer leads. Make sure the track connections are tight and use multiple connections to the track. If you add an engine and use larger gauge wire 10 or 8 it might help.

[Anonymous]

Does the term heck yeah mean anything about.

[Anonymous]

One more thing if you run a long string of cars set the momentum of the engines to heavy using the cab 1. This way the locomotives and the trailing cars will slow down slowly.