# Longest model train with one loco?



## bobgrosh (Jan 2, 2008)

Specifically, I have an unmodified LGB F3a/b. 
Two motors, four powered axles. 
The "b" unit is not powered, just sound. 

All my cars are the standard 2 axle types, box, gon, reefers, tanks, ore, flats and a caboose. 
All the cars are LGB 
All the cars have stock LGB PLASTIC wheels, no ball bearings, except a couple passenger cars and a stock cars with cow sounds. 
I have no intentional grades on the ALLY. 
Eight foot diamater curves. 

SO... 
HOW MANY CARS CAN I PULL? 

What do you think the most cars would be? 

I see that in the record attempt, they are using about 9 cars per loco. I think I can pull more than that with one loco.


----------



## altterrain (Jan 2, 2008)

Heck, I pulled 20 cars (all equipped with metal, non BB, wheels) up a 2.5% grade with my little Dunkirk - 










I think Dave Goodson can pull something like 40 cars up a grade with his Shay. 

-Brian


----------



## Mike Reilley (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By bobgrosh on 05/07/2008 6:56 PM
Specifically, I have an unmodified LGB F3a/b. 

I see that in the record attempt, they are using about 9 cars per loco. I think I can pull more than that with one loco. 





That's 9 five car container unit train "cars".....45 cars per engine pair I think. I watched it today...and each train "units" was long.


----------



## bobgrosh (Jan 2, 2008)

Mike 
they have "75 sets of five car articulateds". 
That makes a grand total of 375 cars . 
Divide the 375 cars by 44 locos and you get 8.52272 CARS PER LOCO. 

As I said, less than 9 cars per loco. 

Their video is a little blury, but it looks like they put two locos up front then 15 cars, then two locos and another 15 cars to assign to one engineer. Thats 30 cars divided by 4 locos or 7.5 cars per loco. for the one unit I saw. I could be wrong. 

Looks like 19 of Brians Dunkirks could do 375 cars. (375 / 20 = 18.75)


----------



## Mike Reilley (Jan 2, 2008)

Whatever Bob...it was more like 45 cars per loco pair...and I watched the first two trains pull out before it all stopped. It was definitely more than 17 cars per engine pair...way more.

The longest single engine train I've ever seen a video of was pulled by a Bachmann Big Hauler....over 40 cars as I recall...but, the Big Hauler had one of Barry's Big Trains drive systems in it. There's a link to the video at http://www.barrysbigtrains.com/gallery/


----------



## bobgrosh (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks Mike. 
Maybe they will run it tomorrow and I'll get to see what you saw, I was just going by the numbers they posted. 
Lets assume they are pulling 45 cars per two loco pair. 
I would think that the LGB F unit could pull that many, by it's self. 
* What do you think? Can the LGB F3 pull 45 cars?*


----------



## NTCGRR (Jan 2, 2008)

I used to have an LGB F pair A/B/ they were not good pullers. check how much the A unit weighs? Its been over 10 years ago but back then I was pulling 20 to 25 with 10' dia with a U 25B Aristo. I sold the A/B/ locos because of lack of power.


----------



## Dennis Paulson (Jan 2, 2008)

Marty was it really lack of power , or lack of enough battery ? Just wondering because they can handle 24 volts , and the factory sound equipped locos ofter do not move till they have maybe 6 volts . And NO .....I am not suggusting they are the most powerful ! 
But here on on almost flat track the LGB F7's , have pulled 37 cars , track powered , with a REALLY BIG power supply . Just wondering out loud


----------



## bobgrosh (Jan 2, 2008)

Well. 
This is all I can pull. 
CAUSE I RAN OUT OF CARS! 



I filled the three tank cars with water. 
I filled the gondola and hoppers with ballast, but ran out of ballast to fill the ore cars. 

*It still pulls all of them. * 

Now, I have plenty more cars, but, they are on my trouble list, scattered between the shop, garden shed and garage. All for minor things, like a stuck, broken or bent coupler, or maybe a wheel set out of gauge. So, for the last year or so I was too busy, (or lazy) to keep up the maintenance, 


Today, I'll go through them and see how many more cars I can come up with. A good reason to catch up on maintenance. 

There must be a limit to how many the LGB F unit will pull. 
Later 
B0B


----------



## Dave F (Jan 2, 2008)

Marty, how many cars did Bryans Virginian pull last year?


----------



## Dennis Paulson (Jan 2, 2008)

WOW Bob , thats a impressive train load with cars of water and ballast also . So let me guess , your useing double AA cells or C cell batterys ? /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/wow.gif


----------



## bobgrosh (Jan 2, 2008)

I'm using one 8.2 volt rechargable transistor battery... In my handheld remote.


----------



## markoles (Jan 2, 2008)

Mike, 

I saw the same numbers that Bob saw, reread the longest train thread, and see for yourself. I was asking the same question. It seemed like WAY too much power for the load per locomotive. Granted, the post itself was quite confusing, which prompted the questions. 45 cars for a pair of USA 4 axle locos seems better. Which leads me to the question of 'where did 44 locos' come from? There is also a report that one of the Big Boy's dropped its rods. Yikes! There was also the reported 300+ amp power draw... 

Bob - it is fun finding out how much a given loco can pull on a given railroad, isn't it? I always liked looking at George Schreyer's tractive effort tests. For myself, I ran a Bachmann 4-4-0 with 5 LGB passenger cars with metal wheels yesterday with no problems, and I have nasty grades and bad trackwork! 

Mark


----------



## NTCGRR (Jan 2, 2008)

Dennis 
Lack of tractive effort. when an engine stops and can't get the train to move and just spins. 

I remember also the B unit was so light that if you tried to back up a longer train it would derail untill I went to body mounts. 

The U 25s used to be my work horses untill the SD45s came out. 
Plus I've never been an F fan. They were new on the market when I bought them out of lust. 

I have been tring to load up couple of videos on Youtube but right about the time its almost finished it kicks out and wants me to relog in. 
I have resized them way under and still can't get it to work.


----------



## Dennis Paulson (Jan 2, 2008)

Marty , does the videos that you are going to load on youtube show the traction tired wheels spinning ? Are there closeups showing this ? 
Thanks


----------



## NTCGRR (Jan 2, 2008)

now now Dennis, I said it was years ago. His video made me say that. I can't seem to find a place to e-mail youtube. keeps sending me to trouble shooting pages. 
Back in the F unit days I did not even have a digitial camera let alone know what a computer does.


----------



## bobgrosh (Jan 2, 2008)

PROBLEMS



I have a low tolerance for derailments or coupler failures.



When a car malfunctions once, I look for a pine needle or debris on the track.

When it does it again, it gets shelved for repair.



Well, I started digging out more cars, I'm way behind on maintenance.



This was a good excuse to get some rolling stock back on line.



Some cars were obvious, Kadee mounted too high or low, or missing spring. Etc.



Some I just cleaned up and checked. I overlooked the fact that 4 of them were probably shelved because the had truck mounted couplers.



After an hour of frustration, I suddenly realized that the train was coming apart everywhere I had a truck mounted Kadee. Converted three of them to body mounts and ran out of the style I needed.



Then I hit the Marty Wall.



Posted By NTCGRR  on  05/08/2008 12:38 PM
...

... 

I remember also the B unit was so light that if you tried to back up a longer train it would derail  untill I went to body mounts.  

... 

...






Yep, Could go forward, but not back up. I had just bolted on a set of extra LGB knuckle couplers between the "A" and "B" units. With enough cars, the force on the "B" unit pushes the truck together, lifting the center two axles off the track.



So, How do you body mount Kadees of the "F" units? I suppose I should.



Was It Fun? 

Well, It is certainly educational. I'll never run half that many cars in normal operation, but doing it got me off my lazy butt, and made me fix a few things that MIGHT show up in normal operation.



How many cars did I end up pulling?



Here is the video.


----------



## cabforward (Feb 18, 2008)

I have yanked more then 100 yes 100 with my bigboy 
And 75ish with my accucraft cab forward 
Matt


----------



## bnsfconductor (Jan 3, 2008)

34 cars up 4% grade (150') with one Usa GP9 is my record. I'm sure it could have been more on level ground. Could the issue over the 'total number of cars' in the longest train be more about the total number of wells. 
Remember that a 5 pack of intermodal cars may only have 3 air brake valves in real life. That is what is used to determine the 'total car length.' Most 5 packs are considered 3 cars, and 3 packs may be counted as 3 'cars' or 1 car depending on the number of brake valves. 
I believe that the 5 packs that USA has are really counted as 3 cars on the prototype. Maybe a better measure would be to use the total number of wells instead of the 'car count' 
Still the low number of wells per locomotive seems pretty low. But are they using ball bearing wheels?


----------

