# How many cars to pull behind steam locos?



## ChopperCharles (Jan 3, 2012)

I'm curious as to how many freight cars a steam loco would pull back in the day. I have a 4-6-2 and two 4-4-2 atlantics in a doubleheader configuration. Curious as to how many cars I should be trying to pull with the 4-6-2, one atlantic by itself, and both atlantics together. Thanks!

Charles


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Well, model railroads and the real thing are quite different. I have a picture of a CN locomotive pair pulling at least a hundred cars as one of my desktop backgrounds, I'll bet you'd have a problem getting a train that size on a model RR with a single locomotive. 

Let's see you duplicate this, I'll be impressed!  Note that the train goes all the way around the corner and out of sight, I have no idea how long it actually is.


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## ChopperCharles (Jan 3, 2012)

diesel and steam are different though. Steam couldn't pull nearly as much...

Charles


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

I'm impressed in hilly country that those two loco's are pulling all of those.


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## sstlaure (Oct 12, 2010)

My 2-6-2 prarie looks good with 5-6 cars and a caboose. Some of the big steamers pulled serious loads just like today's diesels (4-8-8-4, 2-6-6-6, etc) 

I've seen plenty of prototype photos showing passenger trains with 4 cars and freight with 6-8. Shorter trains are realistic for the smaller steamers.


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## kursplat (Dec 8, 2010)

gunrunnerjohn said:


> I'm impressed in hilly country that those two loco's are pulling all of those.


bet they're empty


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)




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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Santa Fe -- Those are some impressive haulers in those vids! Neat post!

Thanks,

TJ


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## ChopperCharles (Jan 3, 2012)

Those are all big boys though, I'm only concerned with the locos I own, 4-4-2 doubleheader and 4-6-2. That being said, way cooool.

Right now my dual Atlantics are pulling 11 cars... which is every car I own, save the extra caboose and the hopper with a bad coupler. It pulls them easily, I'm giving it ~60% throttle and it's not struggling at all.

Charles.

Charles.


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## sstlaure (Oct 12, 2010)

I just have my steamer pull my 40' cars (I've got 6 of them - 4 box cars and 2 stock cars.)


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## Kwikster (Feb 22, 2012)

ChopperCharles said:


> diesel and steam are different though. Steam couldn't pull nearly as much...
> 
> Charles


You do realize that one UP Bigboy had more drawbar horsepower than a DDA40X correct? In fact for a while (until they were retired) they were even used as "helpers" for diesel trains in the mountain passes near Ogden, Utah. In fact "It should also be noted that the Alleghenies were some of the most powerful steam locomotives ever built. At 40 MPH they could generate 7,500 HP. This power was only exceeded by the PRR Q-2 Class (7,987HP). By contrast the UP Big Boy could generate a maximum of 6,200 drawbar HP." Compared to the DD's 6600 HP.

Reference:http://www.steamlocomotive.com/allegheny/

Edit: wish I could remember the video name, but was a single Lionel steamer pulling like 50 cars on a long layout.


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## ChopperCharles (Jan 3, 2012)

Again: Not caring about or counting big boys. Only interested in what a 4-4-2 and 4-6-2 could pull, which is going to be less than a diesel I'm wagering.

Charles.


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## Southern (Nov 17, 2008)

ChopperCharles said:


> Those are all big boys though,
> Charles.


 
Grate videos. It looked like the first 2 videos were not Big Boys, but Y6Bs.
Now I am counting rivets.


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## gc53dfgc (Apr 13, 2010)

Well the Atlantic's had a tractive effort of about 25,000-35,000 pounds. So that should be about 20-30 cars i would think. I may be off by a bit though and am trying to find real evidence.

Found one or two pictures and it looks like the 20-30 car estimate is about right.


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## 93firebird (Dec 25, 2011)

gc53dfgc said:


> Well the Atlantic's had a tractive effort of about 25,000-35,000 pounds. So that should be about 20-30 cars i would think. I may be off by a bit though and am trying to find real evidence.
> 
> Found one or two pictures and it looks like the 20-30 car estimate is about right.


I agree, I would think 20-30 also would look good.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Good luck getting a model to pull 30 cars.


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## ChopperCharles (Jan 3, 2012)

Well, my 4-4-2 pulls 11 cars without much trouble. A little hard to get moving, but once under way it has no problems cruising along at around 70% throttle. My 4-6-2 has no problems getting under way, and it pulls it at 40%. 30 cars may be a bit much for my layout, but i could do it. Anyone want to help fund that though? Flyer cars can be pricey 

Charles.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Gee, when you get 40-50 cars, you have a lot of money tied up in track, never mind the cars!


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## ChopperCharles (Jan 3, 2012)

The track I've got, it goes around the entire room 

Charles.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

I had to lay down a carpet RR to give me about 50 feet for my tests.  I will say that Lionel Fastrack makes it really easy to do that, you can plop them down in a flash!


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

ChopperCharles said:


> Those are all big boys though, I'm only concerned with the locos I own, 4-4-2 doubleheader and 4-6-2. That being said, way cooool.
> 
> Right now my dual Atlantics are pulling 11 cars... which is every car I own, save the extra caboose and the hopper with a bad coupler. It pulls them easily, I'm giving it ~60% throttle and it's not struggling at all.
> 
> ...


Actually, none of those are big boys (4-8-8-4's). The UP one is a 4-6-6-4 Challenger and I think the other two were N&W 2-6-6-4 Class A's.

Anyway, keep in mind that the 4-4-2 atlantics and, for the most part, the 4-6-2 pacifics were passenger engines (Big drivers=more speed). They wouldn't really have been pulling too much freight, maybe the pacifics a little bit. They didn't have much power (compared to the bigger freight engines), but they were built for speed.


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## Carl (Feb 19, 2012)

The small wheel set steam engines were good for maybe 6 to 8 cars in the early days of steam. As the wheel set increased in number of wheels, traction improved as did the size of the power plant (boiler capacity), the number of cars increased.


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## ChopperCharles (Jan 3, 2012)

Hrm, just read something about the E6 (4-4-2), that they were designed to haul 8 passenger cars at 60mph, and that K4s were designed to haul 11. So short trains are historically accurate then...

Charles.


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

Sounds about right. I'm sure you can look up the passenger car consists for various PRR trains to see how many cars there would have been.


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## Mr.Buchholz (Dec 30, 2011)

I usually allow 5-9 cars plus caboose on my trains. My brand new GP40 is more powerful it seems, and can pull more, but I don't feel the need to add more. I did however, do a test run with 15 cars, and there didn't seem to be any issues.

-J.


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