Just curious as to how many freight cars you normally run on point to point trips on your layout?
Train lengths vary at my place, but my usual maximum is two locos plus 18-20 50' cars.
Rob Spangler
My longest coal drags run 24 cars and a caboose, or they did until I'm looking for a new place for a new layout. A single PCM Y6b can handle that easily, even on a 2.4% grade. For passenger trains, two BLI reefers, a baggage car, three coaches, a diner, a couple of sleepers, a lounge car, and an observation car. My BLI Niagara struggles with that load on the same grade, but it makes it. A BLI T1 Duplex roars up that grade with nary a slip.
My HO modern themed layout used to, and will, run passenger trains with 5-superliners or bi-level commuters and typically 10 freight cars with a single engine on the mainline. On the branch, I have a 3-car budd RDC set and typically 4-axle diesels running 5-6 car shorts to the division point yard.
I do run one through freight with 15+ cars that does a drop off or a pickup at the division point yard ... But still only need one SD70ACe (genesis) which is such a fantastic runner I could attach all cars I own (100?) on it and it will still be fine.
NP.
Running a narrow gauge short line, I rarely have trains as long as 9 - 30 foot freight cars and one caboose.
Richard
If I can't fix it, I can fix it so it can't be fixed
Under operations I run 30 cars plus 3 locos, the length of my sidings. When I'm just railfanning I will often double that length with 4 or 5 locos pulling.
Jay
C-415 Build: https://imageshack.com/a/tShC/1
Other builds: https://imageshack.com/my/albums
My Amtrak passenger train can pull 8 Superliners with a baggage car and two diesels like the prototype. 5'9" in length.
UP/BNSF consists of two diesels and 18-20 cars depending on car length. If it falls short I'll add a third locomotive. 7'0"-7'2" in length.
I'm trying to do the same with Conrail when I have enough freight cars to fit the time slot.
Amtrak America, 1971-Present.
I will sometimes have my two Atlas train Masters pull around forty or so cars through my Rocky Mountain pass. I get a great deal of satisfaction watching all those cars go around the layout for an extended length of time without a derailment. Maybe at the same time my BLI C&O 2-10-4 will be pulling a dozen Rapido coaches around.
I usually have my Bachmann Spectrum 4-4-0 pulling 4 or 5 cars around at a scale 25 MPH when I am working on the layout. I just have to remember it comes by the area I am working in every 5 or 6 minutes.
I worked in logistics for 36 years, using every form of transportation one can think of to solve problems. Switching cars just doesn't cut it for me after real life juggling of transportation issues. Watching them run through believable scenery with a glass of wine I find quite relaxing.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
My little switching layout is run via some routing software that I developed. It is set to put a maximum of 3 cars and a caboose on the end of either my SW7 or RS-3!
Needless to say, my locos manage - big grin.
Long Haired DavidA.K.A. David Penningtonmain man on the Sunset and North Eastern R.R.http://www.gmrblog.co.ukfrom the UK
8 to 12 freight cars
4 passenger cars (Athearn)
Roger Hensley= ECI Railroad - http://madisonrails.railfan.net/eci/eci_new.html == Railroads of Madison County - http://madisonrails.railfan.net/ =
8-12 40' freight cars
5-6 passenger & express cars
Is all my sidings can handle, and with 3-1/2% grades, is about all my medium sized steam engines can take also!
Mike
BATMAN I get a great deal of satisfaction watching all those cars go around the layout for an extended length of time without a derailment.
I get a great deal of satisfaction watching all those cars go around the layout for an extended length of time without a derailment.
Alton Junction
richhotrain BATMAN I get a great deal of satisfaction watching all those cars go around the layout for an extended length of time without a derailment. Liar, liar, pants on fire!
Liar, liar, pants on fire!
You make it sound like a bad thing!
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
riogrande5761 richhotrain BATMAN I get a great deal of satisfaction watching all those cars go around the layout for an extended length of time without a derailment. Liar, liar, pants on fire! You make it sound like a bad thing!
Extended length of time without a derailment?
Not in my house.
Rich
LION runs subway trains. NYCT typically operates 10 car trains (600' on B division, 500 feet on A division) Eight foot platforms are out of the question on my layout.
Walthers/LifeLike sells subway cars in packs of 4, which are too short to look realistic.
LION runs SIX car trains (IRT/A Division 50' cars) which require 4' long platforms, over all this arrangement looks quite presentable on the Layout of the LION.
LION uses drawbars between the cars, permanently coupled into these six car trains : 48 wheel pickup plus dedicated lighting circuits are added.
LION is quite satisfied. Him now has 9 full six car trainsets, all of which can operate at once.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
What is important to me is not the length of the train I am running but, how it can run for hours without a derailment or break in two.
During the week of the county fair run a thon my 18 car train ran flawlessly for the total of IIRC around 38 hours for the week.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
The normal run would be a maximum of 8 freight cars. Passenger runs are not more than 3 Osgood Bradley coaches. Not more than 2 C-420's or 2 GP-38's.
All the best.
Reinhard
Joe F
I model a contemporary shortline. 3-4 car trains are pulled by a switcher. 7-9 car trains are pulled by a 4 axle EMD GP. 10-12 car aggregate are trains pulled by a 4 axle U-Boat or ALCO.
- Douglas
On the home layout.
Trolleys run 5 -8 cars if by themselves, if doubling up sometimes 15.
Steam runs 20 to 30 during "fall" season ops
And the two through trains run about 40 cars.
On the club layout I run about 35 cars behind a BLI 2-8-2. When I break out the 2-10-2 it will push 90+
I model in HO in the transition era and I've determined the practical maximum is 25 cars, mostly 40 footers. I designed the classification and staging yards to handle 50 car trains but a train that long dwarfs the layout. It stretches from one town to another. On top of that running a train that long on a curved grade tends to pull the cars off the rail to the inside of a curve even though my curves are superelevated. A 25 car train looks enormous in HO and creates the illusion of a full length freight train even though it is quite short by prototype standards. To me it is just another form of selective compression.
Freight train length varies, 10-15 cars with two locos on the mainline. 4-5 cars with a single loco on the inner (local) line.
Passenger trains vary as well. Paired E8s with 2-3 express cars and 8-10 Athearn Streamlined cars, BLI Hudson or Niagara with a couple of express box cars and 8-10 Athearn heavyweights or sometimes 6-8 Walthers streamlined cars.
I sometimes run an RDC by itself or with a Walthers streamlined coach in tow.
Amtrak trains are generally 7 cars with matched AMD 103s.
My grandson has a mixed passenger and freight train on the mainline right now with 8 Athearn heavyweights and 7 tank cars with a Hudson at the head and a NYC caboose bringing up the rear. No rhyme or reason to his trains, but he loves them.
Remember its your railroad
Allan
Track to the BRVRR Website: http://www.brvrr.com/
Just testing at this point vs "operating", but all my return loops, passing sidings and staging yard tracks are designed to handle two 6-axle or three 4-axle diesels, twenty 100-ton hoppers and a caboose.
I have the right to remain silent. By posting here I have given up that right and accept that anything I say can and will be used as evidence to critique me.
BATMAN I will sometimes have my two Atlas train Masters pull around forty or so cars through my Rocky Mountain pass. I get a great deal of satisfaction watching all those cars go around the layout for an extended length of time without a derailment. Maybe at the same time my BLI C&O 2-10-4 will be pulling a dozen Rapido coaches around. I usually have my Bachmann Spectrum 4-4-0 pulling 4 or 5 cars around at a scale 25 MPH when I am working on the layout. I just have to remember it comes by the area I am working in every 5 or 6 minutes. I worked in logistics for 36 years, using every form of transportation one can think of to solve problems. Switching cars just doesn't cut it for me after real life juggling of transportation issues. Watching them run through believable scenery with a glass of wine I find quite relaxing.
My layout is designed for operation but I agree with you that my greatest satisfaction comes from running trains through believeable scenery. I found I am more a railfan than an operator although I do enjoy doing both. I'll have to try the glass of wine when I am railfanning.
I usually run a couple of freight cars because its all i have! I modeled some of the pere Marquette railroad so the cars are hard to find. Right now I have two pere Marquette cars (refer and box) and a DT&I coal hopper.
My one man "operations" usually involves making up a couple of 40+ car freights,getting them out on the main line in opposite directions,and letting them run around the layout while I continue switching the yard,or run engines through the servicing area.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsB6fBn_lMI
I have run thirty forty foot NYC Pacemaker freight cars using an ABBA set. F3 and F7 setup. A steamer was normally used.
I believe the NYC used around ninety freight cars. The low profile caboose was unusual. They only had five and were built from former boxcars.
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
richhotrainLiar, liar, pants on fire! Laugh
NA NA NA NA NA
Actually Rich this is the first layout that I have had such success in the bullet proof trackwork department.
I put it down to two tings. First as I entered geezerdom, I was a much more patient man when it came to being maticulous. However I think the fact that this was my first layout on foam is the real reason. Eliminating a large part of the expansion/contraction issue has made me notice that I spend very little time fixing the slight movements in the track that you would get when the subroadbed was wood.
If there is a next time for a new layout, it will be foam on steel studs. That would make it only get better as far as "environment proofing" my work.
They vary with car length, but 50-60 cars with 3 engines is pretty typical for my freight trains. On those rare occasions when I show my layout I'll go over 100. The largest train I've run to date was 107 cars and 7 powered locomotives, 5 up front and two mid train. All on DC and a conventional block system.
Mark H
Modeling in HO...Reading and Conrail together in an alternate history.
richhotrainI make it sound like an impossible dream. Extended length of time without a derailment? Not in my house. Rich
Rich,If I may ask.. Why do you accept that as normal?
Maybe I'm the odd man out but,for me its 100% derailment free operation or its no operations until I fix the problem..