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<p>[quote user="fredswain"]The fact that the steamer in that chart has more horsepower doesn't mean it can pull as much. It's got the HORSEPOWER to pull more. However if the steam engine runs out of adhesion (traction) and spins it's wheels before the diesel runs out of power and adhesion, that extra steam engine power didn't do anything useful. You have to know TE, ADHESION, and HORSEPOWER to same a comparison as to which will physically pull more down the rails in the real world. If the steam engine with it's higher horsepower can maintain adhesion past where the diesel runs out of power and/or adhesion, then in fact it can do more work. Work over time and distance is what we want done.[/quote]</p><p>I understand exactly what you are saying about adhesion being a necessary factor to consider in order to determine what a locomotive will do in the real world.  But we can still compare locomotives on the basis of horsepower and tractive effort alone just in the interest of discovering how much horsepower and TE they each produce at various speeds.  Then if we want to go further, we can factor in adhesion for both locomotives to refine the comparison.  </p>
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