What's the most cars you pull?

[trainsfan]

How long are your trains that you usually run on your layout?  Any really long trains?

[Jumijo]

We have a small layout, so a 14 car train looks long enough. But right now we have two 9 car freight trains running. Sometimes we run a 9 car passenger train through town on the Jumijo. That's long!

Jim 

[ben10ben]

I love running long trains, but my current layout(roughly 4x10) limits me pretty well in this regard. Right now, I'm running a 12 car postwar train, pulled by a Postwar 675 with a tender and a 2032 with its dummy. This train is about half the total length of track on that loop, so it really is bordering on too big. 8-10 seems to be about right, and I've run as many as 16 without getting too much of the "chasing the caboose" look.

As I said, though, this is with traditionally sized cars. 5-7 seems to be about right for scale cars. Of course, that's about how many scale cars I have, so I wouldn't know if anything longer would look out of place 

I long for the days when I'll have a layout large enough for 30, 40, or 50 car trains. 

[raymans]

I like running anywhere from 12-25 cars and up to 4 trains at a time (2 on each main) 

this video shows some

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1p0vnH1ZjVw

[sir james I]

I have one train with all scale cars that is about 25 cars long. the rest I like about 10/12.

The longest one I ran was 58 6464 type boxcars I had a Lionel trainmaster on the lead and another in the middle of the train. It ran without any derailments.

[traindaddy1]

Oh, about 80 to a 100................BUT, only in my dreams.    I have a small layout with only three main tracks.   I usually run a 3 car passenger commuter line and two 8 car Postwar freight lines. 

PS In my HO days, the most I can remember pulling was @ 30.  (I had a lot more room then but my engines could not handle the upgrades)    

[jmkk]

Longest - 65 cars. 40 postwar LV hoppers, 10 Mpc Highcubes, 6 Mpc tank cars, 2 postwar gons,6 empty flats and a caboose. Main line loops are approx. 90 ft.

Averaage -  20-25

 Jason

[Anonymous]

Not really sure, I have and MTH F3 A-B-A pulling 4 flats, 1 auto carrier, 2 gons, 3 tankers, 3 boxcars, and a caboose. That makes for 14 cars + 3 engines. In all that is about 1/3 the length of the outter lower mainline and I prefer to keep my trains to about 1/3 the length of the track they are running on. I could probably get 40+ cars on one main, but I don't think I have that many cars.

[Wes Whitmore]

I really don't have too many cars, since most of them are made up of RTR sets.  The MTH 2-8-0 and tender will pull the 18 cars that I do have up my inclines.  Many of them are the heavy metal cars from the K-line B&O set.  Thank goodness for speed control! 

Wes

[johnandjulie13]

My layout is only 6' x 9'.  I usually pull only three to four cars.  Occasionally I will put on my E8 ABA set and five passenger cars but that is as long as I will go.

John

[LL675]

I usualy pull 20-25 Postwar,MPC,LTI mixed with my RK M1a.thats pretty much all my O27 curves wil handle.

[rogruth]

I have run a train with 42 mixed cars but usually 6 to 10.

[mersenne6]

 

  Good old #16 - my largest AF C.W. will pull 4 passengers on the level - only 3 up an incline and as for #4 the minature "yard goat" one 4 wheel passenger car is the limit.

[ChiefEagles]

Can pull 25 to 39 scale cars + engines [usually three MU'd] without the train chasing its tail.  Can pull more but then caboose is right in front of engines.

[RockIsland52]

Can pull 25 to 39 scale cars + engines [usually three MU'd] without the train chasing its tail.  Can pull more but then caboose is right in front of engines.

Hey Chief,

Some of the photos you posted in the forum of your layout show it going through openings in the wall to another room.  Ever consider opening up that wall?

Jack

[laz 57]

Depends on the mood I'm in, sometimes 20.  Sometimes 25 and also will depend on the track I'm on.  My outer track is )-72 and mostly run passenger cars, so 8 at the most.  Inner has 0-54 cars.  Around my square freight and run 5-8 cars.  Last loop diagnolly across layout 10 cars max.

laz57

[crip]

Four or five at the most on my 6x10. I feel anything longer would look overcrowded.

Raymans, liked your video, the mixture of colorful box cars and different freight cars with the background

music was awesome!

Mark

[fifedog]

15.  Anything more and the caboose gets knocked off its bolsters.

[phillyreading]

I have run 27 post war Lehigh valley hoppers with one S-2 steam locomotive from Williams, any more and the train derails on the curves on my layout from too much weight on it.

Ran two Williams powered SD-45's together and had about 38 post war and modern frieght cars behind them before the engines tried to catch the caboose. This was on 042 Gargraves curves(43.5 inch radius) and with a post war 275 watt ZW.

Normally I run between 12 and 23 frieght cars on a train or up to six passneger cars with a locomotive.

Lee F.

[Sturgeon-Phish]

Right now I am pulling 14 gondolas on the inner loop and 6 passenger cars on the outer loop.  Could pull more but looks odd.  Year before last at the train show where we had a 8 x 24 we had 25 cars being pulled by a 293.  Earlier locos without rubber tires and the lighter locos ( 283, 303) did not have enough traction and started to slip.

Jim

[ChiefEagles]

Can pull 25 to 39 scale cars + engines [usually three MU'd] without the train chasing its tail.  Can pull more but then caboose is right in front of engines.

Hey Chief,

Some of the photos you posted in the forum of your layout show it going through openings in the wall to another room.  Ever consider opening up that wall?

Jack

The room you see is a walkin attic over the kitchen.  To remove the walls would leave a walkthru closet [used mainly for gun storage] sitting in the middle of the room.  The ceiling in the other room is sloped as it is the roof to the "dormer" kitchen roof.  I like the effect of the trains disappearing into the tunnel and coming out the other side [or can be reversed and come back out the same side].  When running long trains, gives the effect of train ending.  I mainly run trains only long enough to let the caboose disappear before the engines appear on the other side.  Still pretty long trains.

Here is a photo of inside of room during construction.

  

See the round window in the room.  I boxed it off and filled with foam insulation.  Then covered it with clear plexiglass.  Now to run the Big Boy on the outer loop, I can only run it counter clockwise.  The correct this, I can remove a 3 inch section on both sides of the the two mainlines and shift the rest "south".  I now have room to do that as the Soundstop added on top is wider than the board under it.  I just run it on the inner loop which has plenty of clearance.    

[phillyreading]

Hey Chief,

I like the Norfolk Southern engines you have! Have seen the real locomotives on FEC(Florida East Coast) tracks going through Stuart FL on way to Miami FL, sometimes they had two large diesels(SD70's, assume they were that) or four GP-60's lashed together for very long train of almost two and half miles long.

The shortline that you refer to it(CSX) is on the other side of town, sometimes they have five locomotives together, anything from a GP-38 to what looks like an SD-60.

Just for info, Amtrac trains are usually about 12 cars long with two locomotives, sometimes only one locomotive and eight cars, occasionally a car carrier.  One time I tried to keep up with an Amtrac train, road was parallel for almost 60 miles on highway 710, Amtrac was going over 80 MPH!! Stretch of road was from Lake Okeechobee to West Palm Beach FL.

Lee F.

[JimM]

I have a 8X8 layout with 2 trains and a hand car on 3 different tracks. I ran what came with the Pennsylvania set. The PA RR came with 3 cars not counting the tender, however, I have more Lionel cars I could add. Also, I run the Polar Express pulling 4 cars not counting the tender. Looks nice, but I also have 4 more PE cars that I could add to the length. However, I never have run them all the same time because the layout looks too small. Which brings me to a question... Wouldn't the length of the train depend on the engine pulling it??

What would determine the length vs engine power?? Keep adding cars till it won't move? Then, wouldn't that be harmfull to the engine? Expensive engines vs cheap engines? I am not sure.

Jim

[zeames1]

40-50 on the Club Layout, 10 - 12 at home looks reasonable.

http://www.fctt-hirailers.com/

Jim

[palallin]

Seven K-Line Heavyweights or 6+ Standard O behind Standard O Steam Engines on 55 or so feet of Gragraves Phantom mainline with a 3% ruling grade in a folded dogbone (O42 minimum curves) on  5.5 x 17' layout.  The limiting factor is traction:  I have a steamer that will pull all the cars and more on the level but spins on the top of the grade with either complete train.  Traction tires on the other pull either train easily; I've never tried both.

 

I once pulled almost a complete O42, 4' x 8' oval full of cars behind an MPC U-boat paired with a LTI Geep--both single-motored.  I had to weigh down the light, MPC boxcars.

[runtime]

Good Question!

I currently don't run trains longer than I can park on a siding, since I have a single track main line loop.

That works out to 10 prewar tinplates + adopter car behind an early postwar steamer, or 8 or 9 postwar behind a stronger, later steamer. The F3s are just waiting for a chance to play when the layout grows.

In the old days, I remember my dad and I would add cars until the load would start to pull the couplers open on some cars, or some would derail on the O-31 curves. We had lots of room, but I don't remember our max.

runtime

[runtime]

ChiefEagles,

That's very nice stuff! Is that Lionel fastrack, and is it on carpet or plywood, I can't tell. Also, is there a grade between those rooms?

-runtime

[tomtaras]

 

on my elevated loop, i am operating what i call my caterpillar train-two cat sd90 diesels from mth and 20 flat cars plus a cat caboose with cat equipment-from 1 to 3 pieces of die cast equipment on each car-heavy load but with the diesels lashed up, no problem.

 

[spankybird]

AT a recent OTTS meeting, we pulled 37 cars and could have added more.

 

[dsmith]

My Layout is 027 and 5' x 9'

Passenger - 4 cars

Freight - 7 cars