Hey folks. Because of the size of my N scale layout which is only about six and a half feet long and three feet wide, I've gotten into a habit over the years of pulling no more than up to ten cars per loco - maybe twelve at the most if the loco is powerful enough to handle it. In doing research I've found that there were actually a lot of short trains back during the steam era, especially on branch lines. I have however seen twenty five cars or more pulled on larger layouts by both double heading or having a pusher loco on the rear.
Anyone else out there have a car limit ?.
Tracklayer
I would think that most of us do. In comparision to prototype trains most model railroad trains haul a lot less rail cars.
My passenger trains are usually about 5 or 6 cars and most of my freight trains are about a dozen cars in total.
As you indicate it would look strange to be running trains that are about 3/4 the length of your total mainline trackage. In many places there would be only a foot or two between the end of the train and the locomotive pulling the train.
On my ISLs I limit the cars on the interchange-some days 8 cars arrived other days one while some days the only switch moves is to pick up cars at one or two industry and take 'em to the interchange.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
TracklayerAnyone else out there have a car limit ?.
I have a long 40' 2% grade. My BLI 2-10-4 can pull 11 Rapido coaches up it without breaking a sweat. My BS 4-4-0 can handle 5 cars and I have two Atlas Trainmasters that still have not found their threshhold. I think I have had close to 60 cars behind them and they had little problem.
You can see them here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7Tn4PrzlFI&list=PL5E7C9C3E53977DF4
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
TracklayerAnyone else out there have a car limit ?
Not exactly a car-count limit, but a total train length limit of 13ft - governed by length of the shortest siding (as TZ alluded to above)
-Ken in Maryland (B&O modeler, former CSX modeler)
Depending on my mix of cars the limit is about 45. That is due to the track length at the only area where two trains can pass. I've gone as large as 107 cars as a demonstration to a friend, that was with 4 six axle Athearns in the lead and a pair of mid trains. Got that monstrosity around the layout once till the mid trains stalled breifly and caused about 20 cars to stringline and hit the floor. No more.
Mark H
Modeling in HO...Reading and Conrail together in an alternate history.
I have a fairly large HO layout. 35 x 13. Still, I limit trains to about 5 feet long. Usually about 7 modern grain hoppers or 10, 40 foot aggregate cars. I think the trains just look better at that length.
That visual appeal is why I chose a shortline as the theme of my layout. The train lengths that look good to me suit a shortline better than a class 1 railroad.
- Douglas
I model N-Scale as well, but only about 1/4 of the way laying track. With operations in mind, I'll hold to a typical 10-12 car limit due to the sidings I have planned on the various switching locations on the layout.
There are several limits on my layout. I have the standard gauge limits marked in staging. It's a length limit, not a car number limit. I have a maximum length, which applies to passenger trains and through freights. They usually don't get in tight situation because they're moving own the line. Some but not all sidings fit.
Then I have a shorter length limit for the locals. It's short of the siding limit, to allow for pickups and doing work at each stop.
Then there's the narrowgauge lines. The ruling grade is more of a weight than length issue. I sometimes run two units in DPU and have 20+ car trains. It have to spread out the power to avoid stringlining on the 4%, 24" r curves with trains that long and everyone else takes the sidings, but makes it easy to catch up when traffic is heavy.
Otherwise, I have kept trains to about 12 cars total on the main line. My K-27 are only rated for about 6 cars. On the branches off it, the limit is around 6 cars and weight is the issue there, depending on the loco. The limits are reflected in the siding length pretty accurately, but I try not to crowd ever train to the limit, whatever it is. That really slows everything down.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Like Brent (Batman) I have a very long 2% grade. Mine curves back on itself about twice (36" radius), but I also have some large, heavy articulated steamers that can pull paint off of walls. But even with that, I usually limit my freights to about 15-20 cars. However, because of my mountain scenery with its 'disguising' cuts and tunnels, at no time can an entire train be viewed, so the impression is usually that of a much longer train. Passenger trains are usually about 8 cars. Occasionally I'll run a 30 or 40 car train just for the fun of it, but not often.
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
Yes I have on for my N scale layout that is upcoming
6 freight cars per loco( 12 for 2 loco's, etc...)
5 passenger cars per loco( 10 for 2 etc....)
once I can build a bigger layout that will increase but currenlty "K.I.S.S." and doesn't take a massive toll on my small fleet.
SP&S modeler, 1960's give or take a decade or two for some equipment.
http://www.youtube.com/user/SGTDUPREY?feature=guide
Gary DuPrey
N scale model railroader
I have an HO Scale 4x8 layout and my limit is 6 cars at the most, to try to keep it realistic because it is on a branchline in the early 1950s.
My Layout Photos- http://s1293.photobucket.com/user/ajwarshal/library/
My layout is small I try to limit consists to 40 inches Inc loco
Joe Staten Island West
Train lenghts are limited by the railroad (physical plant) not the power of the locomotives. Most trains out here are a mile long, because that is what they can put into the sidings. They have run 3 mile long trains with no problems, except of course they could not stop on the sidings. In the world of the Kangaroo they typically (or so I am told) run trains 3 miles in length.
In New York City, subway trains are limited to 10 cars (600 feet) because that is how long the platforms are.
On model railroad of LION this limit is 300' (six 50' cars) which calls for 4' long platforms. This is long enough for people to get the idea that I am running a subway layout. Any longer, and I would just be wasting space. At 4' I can get two platoforms on the 24' wall, where as at six or seven feet, I could only place one and still have it look right.
One trick that you can do, is to use only brown colored box cars. That will make your trains look longer than they actually are. If you stick a bright yellow car in there, then the eye focusses on that as a point of reference. Without that the eye travels up and down the train looking for a place of rest.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
On my home layout, passenger trains are limited to ~9 feet long, so roughly 8 cars and an engine. That's the length of my passenger terminal tracks for the most part (some longer, some shorter). But I still model my trains prototypically. Instead of running the 14-car "Merchants Limited" or the 12-car "Yankee Clipper", I run the 5-car "Commander" or the 8-car "Quaker". There's plenty of shorter passenger trains to pick from for a NH fan and still be 100% prototypical.On freights, my trains are limited to ~12 feet long, which roughly translates to twenty 40' cars w/ 2 engines. This is the length of my staging yard, and I really can't exceed that or it messes up all other incoming/outgoing trains.
Now, over on my club layout during an operation session, the length is set by the terminal/yard track it's going to or from. These can be anywhere from 16.5' (2 engines, ~25 cars) to 26' (3 engines, ~40 cars) for freights, and passenger trains can be 14 to 20 cars or more.During an open house or train show, some trains never go into the terminal (they just park in a long siding). We have a fully loaded circus train that one member has (that is very popular with the public), and that train barely fits into our longest siding. That siding is 45 feet long. He runs during the show/open house with 6 Athearn Genesis SD70ACe's, all on the head end. And his train is heavy due to all the metal circus wagons (the entire Walthers collection, AFAIK). For all that, it rarely derails. In fact, at the last show it ran for a total of 4 hours without any derailments.
Now, the longest train we've ever run for fun, however, has been 110 cars which we've done twice. One member has 110 matching Athearn RTR 50' Bethgon coalporters in BN/BNSF, which translates to around 63' long in HO scale...plus engines. We've run it with 6 engines, 4 on the nose and 2 on the rear. The train does all right on our flatter, 1% grades of our "Boston Div.", but it was much more difficult to run up our "Mountain Div." due to it's 3% grades. All our curves are 40" radius, but trying to pull the whole thing from the front resulted in string lining at times...which may be due in part to our superelevated curves. Pushers on the rear help, but the slightest miscalculation in speed (or dirty wheels or track) can cause a derailment. With almost 70 feet of train to watch, it's hard to see if one wheelset pops off...until it really causes a problem. We could never run this train during an operation session or open house. It's way too dangerous for that.
Paul A. Cutler III
As some have mentioned, the prototype usually has two governing factors:
On my layout, my sidings will hold 2 road engines, a caboose, and 12-13 40' freight cars. The 'big' through freights are longer and any other train on the line has to be able to 'fit' in those sidings.
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
Well I designed my layout to run long trains, typically 30-35 forty or fifty foot freight cars and 9-12 passenger cars.
The two yards will be over 20' long when complete and the double track mainline alows for long trains.
Sheldon
The operational limit on my layout is 4-5 cars (depending on the mix of 40 or 50 footers) because that is the size of the run around in my switching area. Now it just so happens that also matches my desire for shortline/branchline operations with small switchers and short traings. Those are the ones whose pictures I most gravitate toward in my RR coffee table books.
Now once for kicks back when i was in N scale, I did a "hook up everything and see if it'll move" train. If I recall it was 4 SD40-2s on the front, with a GP50 and SD40-2 3/4 of the way back. About 80 cars I think. I was a beast getting one successful lap around the layout getting the helper set in the right location to not shove the cars ahead off the track faster than the lead units could pull.
Even if I had more space I'd probably stay in the 10 car range as a design criteria because of my preference for short line ops.
train length fluctuates on the short line i work for. today, we took only five cars to customers, and brought back 28 outbounds. every run is different, although it is rare to leave town with only five cars.
My prototype was running 20 4-wheeled wagons behind a 2-8-2, and needed a pusher up the 2.5% grade. By no coincidence whatsoever, I designed my railroad so the sidings would clear a train with 20 wagons and two locomotives. My passenger trains are all shorter, the longest being equivalent to 17 wagons pulled by one diesel-hydraulic loco.
On the freelanced mountain goat trail to the collieries train length is held down by the grade and hairpin curve radii, and the rather abbreviated passing sidings reflect that fact. The coal units (about equivalent to 10 JNR wagons) usually get a twelve-drivered articulated, and can't fit in any sidings between the line's termini.
So on the JNR side I run what my prototype ran, while on the freelance side I run what the rather small TTT locomotives can move.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)