O scale consists

[bubblejomay]

I am curious to know what is the longet O scale consist to be pulled by one engine completely around a layout without separation of cars or derailment.

[Seayakbill]

That depends on a lot of factors such as the radius of the curves, number of motors in the loco, amount of juice delivered to the tracks, and the type of rolling stock just to name a few of the factors.

I have pulled between 30 to 40 modern freight cars with a dual motored MTH loco on my layout which has 072 curves. 

[phillyreading]

bubblejomay,

My layout is 8 ft. by 11 ft., so I have few open straight areas.

The longest consist that I pulled, with one engine, was with a Williams S-2 Pennsy steam loco, it had 28 freight cars, most of wich were Lehigh Valley quad hoppers from the post war era on 042 curves. It could have pulled more but the track kept it from doing successfully, in other words having a derailment happen.

The next longest consist of freight cars was with two Williams SD-45 diesel engines(dual motored), about 37 cars. One powered SD-45 at each end of the train, the one SD-45 at the rear for keeping the cars from derailing because of excess tension on the couplers and cars going around a curve.

Lee F.

 

[laz 57]

The most cars I ever pulled around my 0-72 tracks were 31 cars mostly 2-3 bay hoppers with a few reefers thrown in.  No problems or PILE UPs.  Now the longest I pull is so the consist does not exceed my longest straight, which is 16 feet.

laz57

[Big_Boy_4005]

Back in the mid 80's I was in a group that had a modular layout that they set up at train shows. One time we tried to see how long of a train we could pull.

Using a post war 2046 and modern cars, I want to say we got to 63. It wasn't easy. We had to start with the bulk of the train on the straightaway, and gain enough momentum to make it around the 0-72 curves.

When you get a train that long, Newton's laws become very obvious. I think we made it around a couple of times before disaster struck. The wreck was pretty cool. The cars accordioned just the way real trains do when they derail at speed.

[Taranwanderer]

One of the guys in our model club just bought a scale sized MTH Reading T1 with PS2.  We decided to see what it could do on the club layout, and we pulled 72 scale hopper cars before The Great Stringline Incident.  But it was cool to see.  The front trucks of the lead cars were coming off the tracks around the curves at the top of the one grade!  Good times, good times...