# passenger cars and



## caferacer (Jul 22, 2010)

H i I am currently planning out my railroad and are at the stage of the stations, side of things,my question is how many is correct for the bigboy to haul in passenger cars 7-8-9- etc heavyweight/streamlines etc have three stations planned one large main station were steam and diesel locos leave from,a second station and a smaller 4 car length station atop of the railroad.
Would like to have the passenger cars to be correct looking at the stations.caferacer


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## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

Caferacer, 

Welcome to MLS. 


how many is correct for the bigboy to haul 
We don't usually have the luxury of building our garden railway large enough to take a prototypical Bigboy and train! That loco could probably handle a passenger ttrain of 30+ cars - I've seen C&O 614 pulling 22 without sweat. 

Two problems: the Bigboy was a freight engine and seldom pulled passengers (as far as I know) and by the time it was introduced, passenger travel was in decline so that long trains would be unlikely. 

A 20 car passenger train would be around 70' long. Even a 7 coach train would be about 20'. Hope your yard is big enough!


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## Dan Pierce (Jan 2, 2008)

The USA big boy takes a very big radius track. 

Plus it is very heavy and with 2 big motors it could easily pull over 50 freight cars. Guaranteed coupler breaker!!!!


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

What Pete said. The BigBoy probably never hauled a passenger, it was all freight. Typically, passenger locos were designed for speed before power. Obviously you wanted both, but you can't always have both. Usually passenger locos have bigger driving wheels, built for speed. The typical high capacity passenger loco of the late steam era (the era of the Big Boy) was a 4-8-4 "northern" type, like the SP daylight or the NY Central Hudson. Of course, it's your pike and you can do whatever you like. USA Trains makes a fantastic Hudson, MTH makes a great Hudson as well, slightly smaller.

A long passenger train would be into the teens--I think, and I may be wrong, that it would be extremely rare to see a passenger train with twenty cars.


The limit was/is typically the length of the platform--you need to let those people on and off. This hit me when I first got a set of heavyweight passenger cars--even a 4 car train requires a passenger platform 10 feet long, 8 car 20, a 12 car train requires a platform/station 30 feet long in 1:29 scale. That's a lot of real estate in any garden.


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## Chucks_Trains (Jan 2, 2008)

That's not true as it takes power to maintain speed...lot's of power. It takes more power to haul a fast train than a slow one of the same tonnage. A NYC Niagra type developed over 6,000 hp. and was used to pull The Century. That being said the Big Boys were called upon to haul passenger trains usually when a train died on the road and a Big Boy was nearby..It would couple on and haul the passenger train into the next division point. Big Boys could and did run at 85 mph. The U.P.'s FEF Northern type was a super power high speed steamer that did haul both freaight & passenger trains along with the Challenger type. 
In the late 90's U.P.'s Challenger #3985 knuckled onto a 143 intermodaal train and hauled that tonnage over Archer Hill like it was running light. If a Challenger can haul double satcks then a Big Boy can haul passengers


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## markoles (Jan 2, 2008)

It is your railroad, if you want to haul passenger cars with a big boy, do it! You can mix heavyweight and streamliner equipment if you want, too. We do it here. You just need to standardize on a coupler, since the stock USA and Aristo couplers don't really work that well together. 

And we'll want to see pictures, too.


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## cabforward (Feb 18, 2008)

I've pulled 114 USA 3 bay hopper cars up a 2 percent grade with my USA big boy. And it could have done more! 
Matt


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## Richard Smith (Jan 2, 2008)

UP Challengers hauled passenger trains but not Big Boys. A number of Challengers were dedicated exclusively to passenger service although most of the type were hauling freight. Some were painted two-tone grey to match the grey on some passenger cars as were a number of Northerns. 

Obviously there were times of motive power shortages at certain locations that resulted in locomotives doing other service than that normally assigned so I can't say that a Big Boy never worked a passenger train. However I've never heard of it or seen a photo of it. I'd love to see such a photo if such exists. It'd be truly historic.

As to passenger train length as already mentioned 14 to 16 cars was a typical length for important trains although many lesser trains could be considerably shorter with appropriate motive power assigned. Usually an older type that was bumped from name trains by newer, larger engines. Most model railroads however abbreviate train size, etc., to keep things manageable. A real railroad yard for example may have say 40 tracks and capacity for hundreds of cars while a model railroad will be lucky to have a 5 or 5 track yard that holds holds maybe 30 or so cars. It is reasonable to shorten trains accordingly also unless you have unlimited space, time and money. A very nice train consisting of baggage, mail, a couple coaches, diner, sleeper and observation already equals seven cars and takes considerable length.


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## Jerry Barnes (Jan 2, 2008)

I side with Mark, do what the heck you want, that's the way it is on my railroad anyway.


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

I think anyone should run whatever they like, whenever they like. 

The original poster was asking what was "correct" though. Nobody would dispute that the Big Boy was a freight loco, designed for freight, used for freight. A big boy might have pulled a coach at some point, but they were specifically designed as freight engines. It takes power to pull a long passenger train but a 1000 foot freight train is going to be heavier than a 1000 foot passenger train, unless the freight is all empties. The BigBoy would be crazy overkill in passenger service, and not as fast as a crack passenger loco. The original poster, I thought, was asking what would be correct in real life. 

But of course, anyone should feel free to run whatever they like


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## caferacer (Jul 22, 2010)

Thanks fellows will go with my Bigboys on freight duties slip in a passenger for what the heck thanks jerry,who makes a challenger ?will get a couple of 4-8-4 for passenger duties as well, I can run a ten car passenger on my railroad and this should look good at the station thanks for the input caferacer


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## caferacer (Jul 22, 2010)

lownote hi and thank you for the info my indoor railroad is going to be 98.4 feet wide x 229.6 feet long and 13 feet floor to celing (30 x 70 metre) building and trying to design it to be ground level plus 5 other levels above, have planned the station out ,one will be a nice sweeping curve and the other just a long passenger station again thanks for the help. 
Richard Smith thank you for your help as well will look up the other locos. 
cabforward thank you will run a cabforward if I can find one they look great. 
To all the other guys that responsed many many thanks from a first timer getting into this hobby really do appreach the help if only the shed builder could get a wriggle on and pull his finger out a bit we could be starting sooner rather than later caferacer.


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## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

The limit was/is typically the length of the platform 
And how. That C&O 614 excursion came from Hoboken, and didn't quite fit the platforms. We had to board at car 9 and walk forward. Not bad on the way out, but the wait on the return was a bummer. 

design it to be ground level plus 5 other levels above 
You might regret the ground level choice. Quite apart from your aching back, it's tough to get a good viewpoint to watch the trains go by. Most folk prefer to look at them from the side, not from above.


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## caferacer (Jul 22, 2010)

Pete my ground level is 2 inches above the deck wiring etc and serves as the return line from around the track also works as the lower level supply line to and from the two switch yards.Rest of the rail road is access ramped all over the place for viewing etc even have a lft for my wheelie mates to get them up to the third level viewing area as I am new at this any and all help is a help caferacer


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## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

return line from around the track also works as the lower level supply line to and from the two switch yards. 
Sounds pretty awesome. Is it planned or built? Any pics yet?


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## caferacer (Jul 22, 2010)

Pete the planning is well into place both the railroad and the car bike museum next door along with the diner and the retailshop. 
Good thing is the g scale railroad has one door in and out ,his and hers toilets heating and climate control,a kitchen oohh yer some trains running around. 
Hope to get a website going for the business soon and post it here. 
both buildings are huge when you see them on the ground mapped out. 
Will host a huge golden spike meeting caferacer


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