Backing Up

[RideOnRoad]

I am pretty sure I already know the answer to this one ("Yes"), but I will ask anyway.  Will properly weighting my rolling stock help prevent derailments when backing up a loooong train?

[PennCentral99]

Yep. Also making sure that the wheels roll freely, are in gauge and trucks swivel (not to tight and not to loose). One other thing that effects - whether the coupler box is mounted to the car or truck makes a difference. Rolling stock with truck mounted couplers can get pushed and/or twisted off the track.

editted @ 1340 hrs PST, 07/13/2013 - added 1 additional item

[maxman]

In my opinion, having the rolling stock weighted to some consistent standard will be helpful.  But I see that you are in N scale.  If you have truck mounted couplers on a lot of your rolling stock it probably would be more beneficial if you replaced the truck mounted couplers with body mounted.

[doctorwayne]

Properly-weighted cars will certainly help, but other factors to consider include making sure that all wheelsets are in-gauge, and that your trackwork is as trouble-free as possible.
Cars with truck-mounted couplers may cause more problems than those with body-mounted couplers, and they'll definitely cause problems if they're mixed in with cars using body-mounted couplers. 
Curves, depending on their severity, may cause trouble, and even moreso where they occur in conjunction with uphill grades.

All that considered, it can't really be that difficult to back-up a long train:  I've backed trains in excess of 70 cars and my layout is mostly grades and curves, both usually occurring in the same places.

Wayne

[cacole]

Something that makes a big difference, too, in HO scale, is having body mounted Kadee couplers instead of truck mounted horn hooks.  The design of horn hooks causes them to exert sideways pressure on the trucks, which usually leads to derailments.

[DSchmitt]

The prototype can have trouble backing loog trains too.  One day I was at Binney Jct (Marysville, CA. )

Because of a problem in the Feather River Canyon the Western Pacific was routing Inside Gateway trains on the Southern Pacific Shasta Route.  The NB trains ran on their own track out of Sactamento to Binney Jct where they backed onto the SP line to continue the trip north. SB trains reversed this movement,. ( EB-WB trains were using the SP Donner Pass route). As the train was slowly  backing through the curved track connecting the two lines it suddenly stopped.  Apparently one or more cars had derailed.  Fortunately all the cars remained upright.

At that time the configuration was different thus the backing move was necessary. Much latter because a bridge fire closed the mainline in Sacramento, the UP reconfigured Binney Jct, so today backing would not be necessary.  Ironically, the bridge replacement was completed a few days before the reconfiguration of Binney Jct was completed.