After fooling around today.. I figured out.. I can run really long trains!!!! :tb-biggrin: What are your longest?
I'll be running about 20 to 25 car trains.(Combo of 40 and 50 ft cars). Not to bad.So-how many cars is a really long train? Have a good one, Wolf
long trains before i started rebuilding my layout from west coast mountains to the mountains of southcentral pennsylvania iwas running stack trains of 20-30 well cars sets my coal trains were at 100-125 cars my pig flats and rack trains were on average 65-80 cars and all that will change with the rebuilding of the layout to to model the CSX of 1986-1987 i need to run trains but'll have to wait until the track crew has rebuilt the mains and other yards it sucks seeing my trains sit:tb-err:
On our club NTRAK layout I like to run my 50 car PFE Reefer train. I have a 2-10-2 that gets down and hauls.
The longest that I’ve run lately, was a 24 car mixed freight with one loco (Kato GP50). I could possible double or triple that by using a mid train helper. The mid train helper is needed because the track plan has a tight 180 degree curve. Gary
Being an Ntrakker I get the opportunity to run long trains. My longest was a 143 car train at the Ohio Nscale Weekend in 2009. It was close to tear down time on Sunday afternoon so we got all the cars that were on the layout into one train and hitched up an ABBA set of LifeLike FA/B 1's [all powered] and they just walked away with the whole thing. The layout was in the form of a "J" with eight three foot corners. The train occupied 6-7 corners at any one time and made several laps before we had to stop and tear down the layout. That was an unusual event. Most of the time I run about 35-40 cars which is about what our longest yard track can store.
Nowadays, I generally run 5-15 car consists on my home layout which is on the smaller side, 4x8, and anything longer just doesn't look right. On my older larger layout, I ran 30 cars for a few laps before the cave in, but that was my limit on that track. The club I used to belong to had a 45' x 6' layout and although I never participated or contributed, it became pretty routine to run 80-100 cars, a feat I cannot figure out today, powered by multiples of Kato 6 axle diesels, depending upon the type of cars. It was only the experienced N scalers who knew how to stage such a long consist, and they placed the heavier cars closer to the front, then lighter as it progressed. They started slowly, and at one show, ran a consist of 57 cars pulled by 3 Kato SD40-2's for several hours and took it apart without it caving in or uncoupling. The other thing I noticed on these large consists were FACTORY applied MT couplers in lieu of aftermarket installed, and again I don't know why. Back in the early eighties in my apartment after divorcing my first wife, I set up a huge floor Unitrak layout and a lot of my MT coupled cars were new, and I used two Kato JNR Pacifics to pull 40 cars, and two Kato Hudsons to pull 50 both for a few laps, and that is my personal record. Although I rarely run what is considered a long consist, I do enjoy watching N Trak layouts at shows running long trains....a lot. But to me it is like watching Roger Federer, nice to be as good, but realistically out of my realm now. Ken "FloridaBoy" Willaman
The longest train I've attempted on my layout was a fifty car freight. Five four axle locomotives on the front end made the climb without slipping a wheel. The whole of the train performed flawlessly... it climbed my 2% grades without streamlining, breaking up, derailing and or snarling up the other traffic. Never mind my blue face from holding my breath. I could breath again... once we got it back into the hidden staging yard. Most of my freight trains are 30 cars long with three locomotives on the point. My passenger trains are 10 to 15 cars long with one ABB set of F7's on the point. Load's of fun.
Two Kato Ac4400s leading 15 FVM 50' boxcars > 1 Atlas GP30 DPU with 10+ Atlas beer can / shorty tank cars. This is on a flat oval with 15" curves.
bigboy with 49 cars http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL67K4_80UQ eighty car freight http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5WVUP-1fLA
I did about 100 pulled by an SD80MAc and SD70MAc on my small layout but it was going in an oval only and the locos where about two cars away from the end of the train. If I would have let the train loose all over my layout I could not make any loops since the train would have been way too long.
longest trains? We ran 200 Kato Bethgons on our modular layout. 4-4-4-4 Kato AC's. We usually run 70-80 car trains but will throw in 110 car unit trains for fun.
I've been running a 42 car train, pulled by a DD40x and two SD40-2's. They could probably pull a lot more, but I ran short of cars to add.
