Drawbar Pull

[Anonymous]

I have been a Classic Toy Train subscriber for several years. One of my favorite sections is the locomotive reviews. My question is does anyone know how the number of rail cars a locomotive can pull is figured out?

[Big_Boy_4005]

I would think that it would have to be based on the tractive effort of the engine on level track. Not with actual cars, but with some sort of weight, or resistance system connected to the coupler.

Different cars have different drag characteristics, and some kind of average value must be used. The same engine could never pull as many cars with postwar trucks, as it could pull cars with plastic trucks and fast angle wheels.

[Roger Bielen]

A scale device similar to a fish, or bow pull, scale is used. Nowdays I would guess it would be electronic. The reading is taken at the point the engine's wheels loose traction. As to the number of cars, I'd guess that through experience the testers can equate a certain number of cars to the value.

[lionelsoni]

Whatever they use, they don't always get the right number. Back in March of 1998, they published a number for, they said, a two-motor postwar GG1. I don't know whether they used a 2332 by mistake, used a locomotive with bad magnetraction, used non-ferrous track, misread the scale, or just had a faulty instrument; but their number, 1.2 pounds, is much less than the 2.1 pounds that I get with my 2360 and a simple spring balance like Roger describes.