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In lugnet.trains, Larry Pieniazek writes:
> John Warren wrote:
> >
> > I was just curious. Has anyone experimented to see how many cars can be • pulled
> > by an engine before the couplers pulled apart from the weight of the cars?
> > Especially when talking about going up inclines. I just wondered if the
> > magnets are strong enough to pull a very large train.
> >
> > John Warren
>
> I've pulled 25 (2 4 wheel truck) on the flat, and 15 with a running
> start up a 2 plate per track grade.
Reconfirming this, we just set up our basement tree and I put a folded dogbone
layout around it. This takes up a bit more floor space but gives a LOT more
running room than a circle. (see Nik's party page for an example folded dogbone
but this one was folded harder, it's almost a U instead of just an L...)
So anyway I decided to make sure I wasn't misremembering. Counting the caboose
as a car, I was able to get 27 cars behind a two motor SW9 (see the dat files
for a picture) . Tried it with a (dual motored) Crocodile and it had a lot of
wheelslip starting but eventually got things rolling. With that many cars, run
8 is not a lot faster than run 4... the extra notches on the speed controller
just don't speed things up much.
A few key points here.
Make sure all your cars have free rolling trucks and wheel bearings. Any
binding will cause friction loss and may even cause a derailment. The most
common kind of derailment is the cars pulling in on a curve. This can cause a
truly spectacular crash as the loco suddenly surges forward then plows into the
rear of its own stalled train.
Sort your cars by weight. Put the lightest at the rear so that the front
couplers have the least strain on them... (after the first few... the coupler
between the engine and the first car carries the same weight no matter the
sorting...) heavy forward cars also tend to prevent pull in.
Make sure you're using a heavy locomotive. The loco from 3225 is NOT going to
move even 10 cars, it just can't get a grip. I recommend dual motors even
though that increases the current draw. Note that my SW9 weighs more than a
croc even though the croc is longer.... it's all solid and the croc is pretty
hollow.
Do not run unattended. If you get a coupler parting you are going to get a
crash. A big one.
Do not run this way for long. you are asking the motors to work very very hard,
and you can burn them out if you run this way for hours.
As to what I ran, it was 9 freshly built black hoppers, two more older ones,
and a mishmash of freight cars including my Santa and Reindeer flats.
I could have gotten my car count to 30 if I used the articulated container car
and counted each unit as a car, but that felt like cheating. That car is very
light per unit.
++Lar
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Magnetic couplers
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| On Wed, 1 Dec 1999 03:44:27 GMT, "Larry Pieniazek" <lar@voyager.net> wrote: <snip> (...) Counting spine cars as multiple cars is indeed a prototypical practice. Train length on the NS computers is calculated by the number of cars you have. Once you (...) (25 years ago, 1-Dec-99, to lugnet.trains)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Magnetic couplers
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| (...) I've pulled 25 (2 4 wheel truck) on the flat, and 15 with a running start up a 2 plate per track grade. What gets you here is jerk. To successfully start a long train, first reverse the engine to bunch the slack. If you try to start quickly (...) (25 years ago, 30-Nov-99, to lugnet.trains)
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